Bill Text: MS SC569 | 2016 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Mourn the passing of Mississippi Civil Rights icon Winifred A. Green of Jackson, Mississippi.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)
Status: (Passed) 2016-02-26 - Enrolled Bill Signed [SC569 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2016-SC569-Enrolled.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2016 Regular Session
To: Rules
By: Senator(s) Horhn, Blount, Jackson (11th), Jackson (32nd), Jordan, Simmons (12th), Simmons (13th), Stone
Senate Concurrent Resolution 569
(As Adopted by Senate and House)
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION MOURNING THE PASSING OF MISSISSIPPI CIVIL RIGHTS ICON WINIFRED A. GREEN OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI.
WHEREAS, Winifred A. Green, a fifth-generation Mississippian from a prominent Jackson family who defied tradition, threats and family disapproval to join the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, died on February 6, 2016, in New Orleans. She was 78 years old and dedicated her life to educational equity for all children and social justice for African-Americans and women; and
WHEREAS, after graduating from Millsaps College in 1963, she and four other white women created Mississippians for Public Education and organized women to prevent the Mississippi Legislature from closing the public schools to avoid integration. The women made the case that uninterrupted education was essential for all children and the violence seen in other southern cities trying to avoid desegregation would harm Jackson economically. The schools stayed open; and
WHEREAS, Winifred worked for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and traveled around Mississippi with another AFSC staffer, Connie Curry, to find black parents willing to send their children to the white schools. Some lost jobs and property and were threatened so AFSC gave them moral support. One family very special to Winifred for her courage were Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter, sharecroppers who enrolled their eight school-age children in a white school in Sunflower County. Bullets were fired into the Carter's house, and they were evicted with no source of income. Most of the Carter children later graduated from college; and
WHEREAS, Winifred moved to Atlanta in 1965 to work on voter registration and school desegregation in rural Georgia. She continued to work in programs of social, political and educational reform and directed the Alabama Community Relations Program of the AFSC. For the next 12 years, as Director of the Southeastern Public Education program, she pioneered reforms in the region's public education system. In 1968, Winifred was asked to purchase the mules for the Mule Train from Marks, Mississippi, to travel to Washington, D.C., to be part of the Poor People's Campaign. She bought them in Alabama because Mississippi no longer had any mules or at least none for sale; and
WHEREAS, she returned to Jackson in 1980 to found the Southern Coalition for Educational Equity, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to equity and excellence in public schools. She once explained that since she and others had devoted so much effort toward school desegregation, she wanted to take the next steps in ensuring that black and poor children got a good education. A summer reading program she and her staff created was an early pilot program for the Children's Defense Fund Freedom SchoolsŪ Program. Since 1992, Winifred had served as Senior Consultant to the Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative (SRBWI) to promote economic and social justice for rural black women in 77 counties in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, with an emphasis on economic development, human rights and youth leadership; and
WHEREAS, for more than 40 years, she served on the Children's Defense Fund Board of Directors and was past-President of New Stage Theater in Jackson. Honors include Women of Achievement from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Florina Lasker Award from the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Fannie Lou Hamer Humanitarian Award from Jackson State University, and a Medal of Excellence from the Mississippi University for Women. She was also selected as one of ten "Women of Vision" honored in 2013 by the Women's Foundation of Mississippi; and
WHEREAS, she is survived by her uncle, Joshua Green, and her cousins, the Reverend Reynolds S. (Stephanie) Cheney II, and W. Garner (Martha) Cheney, Winifred G. (Patric) Barron, Louise Hamilton, Sally Carlyle, and Sam B. Carlyle. She is also survived by many godchildren and a legion of friends; and it is with sadness that we note the passing of an advocate for the less fortunate who was an example to others of how to live your convictions with courage and who will be missed by all who were fortunate enough to have known her special wisdom:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby mourn the passing of Mississippi Civil Rights Icon Winifred A. Green of Jackson, Mississippi, and extend the sympathy of the Legislature to her surviving family.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to the surviving family of Winifred Green and made available to the Capitol Press Corps.
