In the middle of the Mississippi Delta lies rural, black-majority Sunflower County. J. Todd Moye examines the social histories of civil rights and white resistance movements in Sunflower, tracing the development of organizing strategies in separate racial communities over four decades. Sunflower County was home to both James Eastland, one of the most powerful reactionaries in the U.S. Senate in the twentieth century, and Fannie Lou Hamer, the freedom-fighting sharecropper who rose to national prominence as head of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Sunflower was the birthplace of the Citizens' Council, the white South’s pre-eminent anti–civil rights organization, but it was also a hotbed of SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) organizing and a fountainhead of freedom culture. Using extensive oral history interviews and archival research, Moye situates the struggle for democracy in Sunflower County within the context of national developments in the civil rights movement. Arguing that the civil rights movement cannot be understood as a national monolith, Moye reframes it as the accumulation of thousands of local movements, each with specific goals and strategies. By continuing the analysis into the 1980s, Let the People Decide pushes the boundaries of conventional periodization, recognizing the full extent of the civil rights movement. “Offers another crucial piece in the puzzle that is the overall history of the Civil Rights Movement. . . . A thorough representation of a community central to the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.” — Journal of African American History “An important book. . . . Puts the civil rights saga in a new perspective.” — American Historical Review “Increases our understanding of the American civil rights movement’s complexity and addresses historiographical issues concerning its origins, aims, longevity, and class composition.” — Journal of American History “A fascinating story that seeks to deepen our understanding by exploring both sides of the [Civil Rights] movement, examining the dynamics of the rural struggle, and extending the time-line of the civil rights era in the 1980s. . . . A vivid portrait of a complicated era.” — North Carolina Historical Review “ Let the People Decide adds to a growing literature that illuminates the daily details of life and struggle of black people in communities throughout the South.” — Journal of Southern History “Moye provides a splendid, original, and balanced account of the form and function of civil rights in one of the most racist [counties] in Mississippi. . . . This gracefully written study covers all aspects of the civil rights movement while shedding valuable lights on the racist mentality that prevailed during the period.” — Journal of Social History “Avaluable history of black activism in Sunflower . . . add[s] new richness and complexity to what otherwise seems like an all-too-familiar story.” — Chicago Tribune "An eminent example of the increased attention now rightly being accorded to the African American experience in this country in the 20th century. — Dunbar on Black Books “Moye’s narrative skills prove equal to the task of capturing the civil rights saga of this archetypically Deep South country. Highly recommended.” — CHOICE “ Let the People Decide is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the civil rights movement. Well written and thoroughly researched, its poignant analysis demonstrates how blacks in Sunflower County, Mississippi, built and sustained a successful challenge to white supremacy and Jim Crow. Moye provides a much-needed perspective on race and politics, not only in the South, but in the nation as a whole.” — Curtis Austin, University of Southern Mississippi Four decades of organizing and resistance in the Mississippi Delta Using extensive oral history interviews and archival research, Moye situates the struggle for democracy in Sunflower County, Mississippi within the context of national developments in the civil rights movement. Moye argues that the civil rights movement must be undertstood as the accumulation of thousands of local movements, each with specific goals and strategies. This is the story of the most important social movement in southern history from the grass roots up. J. Todd Moye is assistant professor of history and director of the oral history program at the University of North Texas. Let the People Decide Black Freedom and White Resistance Movements in Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1945-1986 By J. Todd Moye The University of North Carolina Press Copyright © 2004 The University of North Carolina Press All right reserved. ISBN: 0-8078-5561-8 Contents Prologue. At the Hands of Parties Known: The Social Force of Racialized Justice in the Mississippi Delta1 Introduction2 What It Is to Be without Freedom, 1945-19553 Organized Aggression Must Be Met by Organized Resistance, 1954-19604 Our Power Must Come from Ourselves: Ci