The former civil rights worker, who had once chopped cotton for $3 a day, received a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, bringing national attention to her Delta town of Mayersville and other communities like it.
By Emily Langer Emily Langer Obituary writer Email Bio Follow May 15 at 7:35 PM When Unita Blackwell became mayor of Mayersville, Miss., many of the town’s roughly 500 residents lived in tin-roof shanties with no running water. There was no sewer system, and the streets were unpaved. The year was 1976, but the town carried on much as it had for generations, unnoticed by the world beyond the Mississippi Delta.
Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed discrimination in employment, public accommodations, the voting booth and elsewhere, deep economic inequality persisted, leaving Mayersville and other largely black communities mired in poverty. It was this inequality that Mayor Blackwell sought to rectify, if only incrementally, as she defended her hamlet’s way of life.
Mrs. Blackwell stepped down as mayor to run, unsuccessfully, for the Democratic nomination for a U.S. congressional seat in 1993. She won election to another four-year term as mayor in 1997. By that time, there were “no shacks in Mayersville, only modest ranch homes built with Farmers Home Administration loans and several public housing projects,” the Atlanta newspaper reported.
Unita Zelma Brown was born on March 18, 1933, in the Delta town of Lula, Miss., where she grew up on a plantation. Her father was forced to flee the state to avoid being lynched after he confronted a white man who had ordered Mrs. Blackwell and her mother into the field.
México Últimas Noticias, México Titulares
Similar News:También puedes leer noticias similares a ésta que hemos recopilado de otras fuentes de noticias.
Unita Blackwell, activist elected as first black female mayor in Mississippi, dies at 86An outspoken civil rights activist who was born to sharecroppers in the segregated South and rose to become the first African American woman to win a mayor's race in Mississippi has died.
Leer más »
The sharecropper who became Mississippi's first black female mayor and advised six US presidents, has diedCivil rights activist Unita Blackwell made history in 1976, becoming Mississippi's first black female mayor. She died on Monday at age 86.
Leer más »
Unita Blackwell, activist elected as first black female mayor in Mississippi, dies at 86An outspoken civil rights activist who was born to sharecroppers in the segregated South and rose to become the first African American woman to win a mayor's race in Mississippi has died.
Leer más »
The sharecropper who became Mississippi's first black female mayor and advised six US presidents, has diedCivil rights activist Unita Blackwell made history in 1976, becoming Mississippi's first black female mayor. She died on Monday at age 86.
Leer más »
Venezuelan troops turn blind eye to routes into Brazil - at a priceThe only official border crossing between Venezuela and Brazil has been closed f...
Leer más »
Sri Lankan Muslims face pogroms as the state turns a blind eye to mobs“Close by there were two to three truckloads of army [soldiers] and they didn’t do anything to help.” As mobs wreaked havoc on Muslim-owned businesses in Sri Lanka, security forces reportedly stood idly by, doing nothing to quell the violence
Leer más »
Mississippi assistant high school principal faces statutory rape chargeThe assistant principal had been in trouble with the law before, but the high school declined to talk about its process for hiring and screening job candidates.
Leer más »
Alabama lawmakers, with eyes on overturning Roe v. Wade, pass nation's strictest abortion banAlabama lawmakers on Tuesday passed the strictest abortion ban in the country. The move is expected to test whether the Supreme Court's longstanding prohibition on such measures can withstand the addition of President Donald Trump's two nominees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Leer más »
Don't forget these tax breaks if you're renting out your home this summerMemorial Day weekend is around the corner, and that means it's time to book a vacation. Homeowners living near tourist destinations can rake in the cash for short-term rentals, but they should know what they're getting into.
Leer más »