George Raymond Jr. (January 1, 1943 – March 8, 1973) was an African-American civil rights activist, a member of the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), also referred to as the Freedom Democratic Party, was an American political party created in 1964 as a branch of the populist Freedom Democratic organization in the state of Mississippi during the ...
, a
Freedom Rider
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions ''Morgan v. Virginia' ...
, and head of the
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission ...
in Mississippi in the 1960s. Raymond influenced many of Mississippi's most known activists, such as
Anne Moody
Anne Moody (September 15, 1940 – February 5, 2015) was an American author who wrote about her experiences growing up poor and black in rural Mississippi, and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement through the NAACP, CORE and SNCC. Moody ...
,
C. O. Chinn, and
Annie Devine
Annie Bell Robinson Devine (1912–2000) was an American activist in the Civil Rights Movement.
Biography
Born in Mobile, Alabama and raised in Canton, Mississippi, Devine attended Tougaloo College, similar to Anne Moody (also in the Civil Righ ...
to join the movement and was influential in many of Mississippi's most notable Civil Rights activities such as a
Woolworth's lunchcounter sit-in and protests in
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...
,
Meredith Mississippi March, and
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. ...
. Raymond fought for voting rights and equality for African Americans within society amongst other things.
Early life and family
George Raymond Jr. was born on January 1, 1943, in
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. Friends and family describe George as courageous, action-oriented and vocal. He attended Tommy Lafon Elementary and Samuel J. Green Junior Elementary School, and graduated from Cohen High School in 1960. In 1965, George married Myrtis Evans, whose mother, Laura Evans, was influenced by George to become a Freedom Rider. George and Myrtis had two children.
Civil rights movement
Freedom Rides
At the age of eighteen, George Raymond, Jr. was living in
, when he was arrested for his participation in the
Freedom Rides
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions '' Morgan v. Virginia ...
. Raymond, along with Pauline K. Sims, was arrested in the Trailways bus terminal in
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...
, on August 14, 1961.
Activism
![Voting Victories](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Voting_Victories.jpg)
George Raymond Jr. moved to Canton, Mississippi, through the Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) in the early 1960s. CORE, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP), the
Council of Federated Organizations
The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) was a coalition of the major Civil Rights Movement organizations operating in Mississippi. COFO was formed in 1961 to coordinate and unite voter registration and other civil rights activities in the sta ...
(COFO), and other groups sent workers to like George to Canton to focus on voter registration. Of a potential 10,000 voters, in
Madison County, only 121 blacks were registered in 1963. Those who dared try to register or vote were threatened by gun-wielding officials. Another tactic that prevented blacks from voting was the poll tax. George,
Dave Dennis, Robert Chinn,
Anne Moody
Anne Moody (September 15, 1940 – February 5, 2015) was an American author who wrote about her experiences growing up poor and black in rural Mississippi, and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement through the NAACP, CORE and SNCC. Moody ...
, a Tougaloo student, and many others led the voting registration initiative in Canton. George was the project director for the
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. ...
in 1964 and remained in charge in the following years. In 1965 he extended CORE's activities into Rankin and Leake counties, among others.
Woolworth sit-in
On May 28, 1963, in coordination with
Medgar Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers (; July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served i ...
, George Raymond,
Anne Moody
Anne Moody (September 15, 1940 – February 5, 2015) was an American author who wrote about her experiences growing up poor and black in rural Mississippi, and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement through the NAACP, CORE and SNCC. Moody ...
, Pearlina Lewis, Prof. John R. Salter, and Walter Williams sat down at the downtown Jackson's Woolworth "whites only" lunch counter in an attempt to integrate it. For two hours the demonstrators were beaten, sworn at, kicked, splattered with ketchup, and called communists and nigger-lovers. Only when the white mob began to empty shelves and hurl whatever they could touch at the demonstrators did the owner close the store down. Police Deputy Chief J. R. Ray watched and violence erupted. The Jackson sit-in was one in a series of nonviolent protests which led to the Woolworth's department store chain reversing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States. In her autobiography, ''
Coming of Age in Mississippi'', Annie Moody wrote a vivid account of this sit-in.
George appears in the only photograph of the lunch counter scene that day. In it, the camera's flash and his deep black skin provide a double shadow against Pearlena's bright summer suit. He sits stone-faced, staring straight ahead while a pint bottle of silky white cream is poured down the back of his muscular neck and onto his white T-shirt and crisp bib overalls – clothing that would become his trademark in the Mississippi movement.
Mississippi burning trial
The Mississippi burning trial involved the 1964
murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner
The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, also known as the Freedom Summer murders, the Mississippi civil rights workers' murders, or the Mississippi Burning murders, refers to events in which three activists were abducted and murdered in ...
, three political activists during the
American Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the United ...
. The murders of
James Chaney
James Earl Chaney (May 30, 1943 – June 21, 1964) was one of three Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) civil rights workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan on June 21, 1964. The others were Andrew Goodman an ...
, a 21-year-old
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
man from
Meridian
Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to
Science
* Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon
* ...
,
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
;
Andrew Goodman, a 20-year-old
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
student from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
; and
Michael Schwerner, a 24-year-old Jewish
CORE
Core or cores may refer to:
Science and technology
* Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages
* Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding
* Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber
* Core, the centra ...
organizer and former
social worker
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...
also from New York, symbolized the risks of participating in the Civil Rights Movement in the South during what became known as "
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. ...
", dedicated to voter registration.
A widespread belief exists that George Raymond was the target that day. Mississippi burning trial testimonies state that the station wagon that Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney were murdered in belonged to Raymond. It was planned that Raymond drive that day but last minute changes occurred. Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney may have been casualties.
Meredith Mississippi march
George Raymond Jr. participated in the Meredith Mississippi march near the town of Canton in June 1966. The march began with civil rights campaigner James Meredith setting out to walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, in order to encourage African Americans along the way to register and vote. After Meredith was shot and wounded, other civil rights campaigners continued the march in his name.
Mississippi blues
The Club Desire, founded by Clarence Chinn (1906–1995), was one of Mississippi's premier blues and rhythm & blues nightclubs from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. Owner Clarence Chinn presented the top national acts, including
B. B. King,
Bobby Blue Bland,
,
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...
,
Ivory Joe Hunter
Ivory Joe Hunter (October 10, 1914 – November 8, 1974) was an American rhythm-and-blues singer, songwriter, and pianist. After a series of hits on the US R&B chart starting in the mid-1940s, he became more widely known for his hit recording ...
,
Big Joe Turner
Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American singer from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." His greatest fame was due to ...
,
Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, and
the Platters
The Platters was an American vocal group formed in 1952. They are one of the most successful vocal groups of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound bridges the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the new burgeoning genre. The ac ...
. In the 1960s, the club also served as an important meeting place for civil rights workers.
After Chinn decided to focus his energy on real estate and housing, George Raymond was one of New Club Desire operators. Raymond and C. O. Chinn (brother to Clarence Chinn) were Canton's leading civil rights activists in the 1960s. In addition to spreading the popularity of the Blues music, New Club Desire was used for meetings of civic, social, and civil rights organizations. The club closed in the 1970s.
Raymond died in 1973 from a heart attack, at the age of thirty. It is thought that the subject's health was impacted by the dangers and trauma of his earlier activism. He was interred in Resthaven Memorial Park in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raymond, George Jr.
1943 births
1973 deaths
African-American activists
Activists for African-American civil rights
African-American history of Mississippi
Burials in Louisiana
History of racism in Mississippi
History of voting rights in the United States
People from New Orleans