Title: Ferriday Freedom Movement Records
Inclusive Dates: 1964-1966

Creator:

• Ferriday Freedom Movement (Ferriday, La.)

Call Number: Mss 376

Quantity: 0.4 cubic feet (1 archives box)
Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of a Ferriday, Louisiana, civil rights organization closely tied to the Congress of Racial Equality. The collection consists of general correspondence; an administrative file of minutes, field reports, articles and project proposals, press releases, and clippings; and a subject file of correspondence, reports, petitions, and lists collected by the FFM on such movement activities as voter registration and integration of public facilities.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00376

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The Ferriday Freedom Movement (FFM) was founded on July 27, 1965 as a local affiliate of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). A group of Ferriday, Louisiana, residents and CORE workers organized the FFM as a response to attempts by the white community, and especially by the Ku Klux Klan, to interfere with a voter registration drive among the black population.

The FFM was closely tied with the Southern Regional Office of CORE, and, with CORE's assistance, extended the scope of its activities beyond the original voter registration drive. Under the leadership of Ronnie Moore, field secretary for CORE in Louisiana, the group picketed and boycotted merchants who refused to hire blacks, tested restaurants and a drugstore lunch counter, integrated the town library, demonstrated at a segregated movie theater, and held a march to the city hall to protest police brutality.

Attempts at intimidation, including the bombing of the home of FFM president Robert Lewis, failed to stop the Movement. Members also participated in civil rights activities in Shreveport (Caddo Parish) and Tallulah (Madison Parish), Louisiana. On November 30, 1965, the FFM initiated a successful suit for integration of the local schools, despite abuse suffered by black students attending the integrated school.

The records have been arranged in three groups, a chronological file of general correspondence and related material, administrative files, and a subject file. The administrative files include minutes of meetings, which provide detailed information on the organization of the FFM, CORE press releases, and newsclippings documenting FFM activities and community reprisals. Field reports, written by David Whatley and sent to the CORE Southern Regional Office in New Orleans, report the current situation in Concordia Parish. The subject file, arranged alphabetically, contains material created and collected by the FFM on various relevant topics, including boycotts and picketing, discrimination, harassment and intimidation, school desegregation and voter registration. General information regarding the towns of Shreveport and Tallulah, for use in voter registration drives, is also included in this section. The types of records in the subject file consist of correspondence, reports, petitions and lists, and printed material.

Acquisition Information

Presented by David L. Whatley, Ferriday, Louisiana, 1966; and by Ahmed Abbound Najha, Ferriday, Louisiana, 1966. Accession Number: M66-302, M66-303

Processing Information

Processed by Menzi Behrnd Klodt and Susan Davis Sharlin, September 1979.

Congress of Racial EqualityAfrican Americans -- Civil rights -- LouisianaDiscrimination in public accommodations -- LouisianaVoter registration -- LouisianaFerriday (La.)Manuscript collectionMinutes

Box   1   Folder   1	Correspondence and related material, 1965 March-1966 August
	Administrative files
Box   1   Folder   2-3	Minute books, 1965 July 25-1966 May 12
Box   1   Folder   4	Workshop and committee minutes and reports, 1965-1966, undated
Box   1   Folder   5	Field reports and notes, 1965 November-1966 May, undated
Box   1   Folder   6	Press releases and news clippings, 1965 March-December, undated
Box   1   Folder   7	Miscellaneous CORE papers, 1965-1966
	Subject file
Box   1   Folder   8	Boycotts and picketing, 1966 July, undated
Box   1   Folder   9	Citizens groups, 1966 March, undated
Box   1   Folder   10	Demonstrations and marches, 1965 July-December, 1966 July
Box   1   Folder   11	Discrimination in medical facilities, 1966 March-July
Box   1   Folder   12	Discrimination in public facilities, 1965 June-1966 December
Box   1   Folder   13	Freedom Schools, undated
Box   1   Folder   14	Harassment and intimidation reports, 1965 October-1966 May
Box   1   Folder   15	Ku Klux Klan, 1965 November, 1966 March
Box   1   Folder   16	Miscellaneous
Box   1   Folder   17	School desegregation, 1965 August-1966 April, undated
Box   1   Folder   21	School integration, 1965-1966 Scope and Content Note: Papers of Ahmed Abboud Najha, a CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) worker in Ferriday, including personal accounts of African American schoolchildren's experiences at a recently integrated school as well as notes on police encounters and school meetings.
Box   1   Folder   18	Shreveport (Caddo Parish), Louisiana, general information 1964-1965
Box   1   Folder   19	Tallulah (Madison Parish), Louisiana, general information 1965 April-November
Box   1   Folder   20	Voter registration drive, 1965