| By 1965 concerted efforts to break the grip of state | | | | there working for the rest of us. I guess I was born to |
| disfranchisement had been under way for some time, | | | | be involved. She was quite surprised. I don't think |
| but had achieved only modest success overall and in | | | | anyone else had done this for her; it was the beginning |
| some areas had achieved no success at all. | | | | of our long friendship." |
| The murder of voting-rights activists in Philadelphia, | | | | Birdia Keglar first became known by the state's |
| Mississippi, gained national attention, along with | | | | Sovereignty Commission, a state-funded organization |
| numerous other acts of violence and terrorism. | | | | formed in 1955 to fight integration and voting rights for |
| Finally, the unprovoked attack on March 7, 1965, by | | | | blacks, because of her voting records. While the |
| state troopers on peaceful marchers crossing the | | | | Commission maintained a formal headquarters and |
| Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on their way | | | | included various legislators and businessmen as board |
| to Montgomery, persuaded the President and | | | | members, it also maintained a link to the Klan, very |
| Congress to overcome Southern legislators' resistance | | | | likely funding some of the Klan's terrorism against |
| to allowing the African American vote. | | | | Mississippi blacks who spoke or acted out. |
| President Johnson issued a call for a strong voting | | | | Keglar first appeared on the Commission's radar after |
| rights law and hearings began soon thereafter on the | | | | investigator Tom Scarbrough visited Charleston on |
| bill that would become the Voting Rights Act. On the | | | | November 17, 1961 and then filed a report about |
| dawn of its 40th Anniversary, Congress is preparing | | | | "problems" brought on by Keglar, Gray, and S. N. |
| for the reauthorizationof key provisions in the Voting | | | | Drake, all voting rights activists. |
| Rights Act that will expire in 2007. | | | | Sent back to Charleston to gather details, the former |
| Margaret Block remembers going door to door in rural | | | | FBI agent met with Sheriff Dogan, Circuit Clerk Tom |
| Charleston, Mississippi over forty years ago at the age | | | | Harris, and Judge George Payne Cossar who |
| of 17 and "right out of high school" to hand out voting | | | | reported they had been summoned by the Federal |
| rights pamphlets. | | | | Civil Rights "Department" [sic] to appear in Oxford, |
| "People would see me coming and close their doors. | | | | Mississippi's Federal Court on December 13, a month |
| They were really afraid. It was much worse than | | | | away, over voting irregularities in Tallahatchie County. |
| Greenwood," Block said, referring to a town in the | | | | "All three Negroes [Keglar, Gray and Drake] proffered |
| neighboring county where her civil rights activist brother | | | | charges against the two officials alleging they had |
| Sam coordinated voting rights efforts among | | | | refused to sell them a poll tax [stamp] and to register |
| disenfranchised blacks. | | | | them to vote," Scarbrough reported. |
| "We were always competitive. When Sam said he | | | | Keglar had tried to pay the required poll tax for ten |
| was going to Greenwood, I decided I'd do him one | | | | years, but said she was refused each time by the |
| better by going to Charleston, since it had a worse | | | | Sheriff's department, that no one would accept her |
| reputation. Now when I think about it, that was not a | | | | money. Drake, a retired schoolteacher, made the |
| very good idea." | | | | same complaint, adding the excuse used by Clerk |
| Margaret Block had not been working for very long, in | | | | Harris in February 1960 was that all of the registration |
| fact, when a Klansman tried to kill her with a knife in | | | | books were in Jackson, Mississippi. |
| front of the county courthouse. "I was pulled away by | | | | Harris told Drake that he would let him know when the |
| a Justice Department agent. They usually didn't protect | | | | books were returned but Drake said the clerk never |
| us. But he did this time, and I remain grateful." | | | | notified him, Scarbrough continued. At the time Drake |
| Soon afterwards, a tiny Charleston woman saved | | | | tried to register to vote, "Birdie Kilger [sic] was with him |
| Block's life when Klansmen were "on their way into | | | | in the clerk's office." |
| town" looking for her. | | | | Keglar's cousin had also complained about voting rights; |
| This time Block's protection quickly came from Birdia | | | | at one time, Gray brought Floyd Bodain, David Alford, |
| Keglar, Tallahatchie County's first black to vote since | | | | and Robert Keglar into the Charleston Courthouse as |
| the days of the state's second Reconstruction, a short | | | | witnesses, according to Sovereignty Commission files. |
| period of freedom for Mississippi's African Americans | | | | "All three Negroes charged that they were denied their |
| following the Civil War. | | | | rights as provided for in the Constitution of the United |
| "I was handing out voting pamphlets downtown and a | | | | States. |
| man came running up to me and said I needed to go | | | | "[But] Mr. Tom Harris, the circuit clerk, said no Negroes |
| to Birdia's office right away. She managed a funeral | | | | have been in to try to register since the early part of |
| home and when I got there, Birdia sneaked me away | | | | 1960 and at that time, he said he did not have a |
| in the back of a hearse. Someone had called Birdia | | | | registration blank. He said he was new on his present |
| and warned her that the Klan was on the way to get | | | | job and had not received his blank [form] to take |
| me." | | | | applications to register anyone," Scarbrough's report |
| For several days Margaret Block hid out in a small | | | | stated. |
| cave outside of Charleston until Charlie Cobb and | | | | "Since [Dogan] has been sheriff, no Negro ever |
| Ivanhoe Donaldson - both SNCC workers from | | | | requested to pay his poll tax to him. Therefore, he |
| Howard University - came to pick her up and take her | | | | [Harris] said he could not have refused to sell a Negro |
| to Greenwood and then to the Brewer's farm near | | | | a poll tax." As it was, no Tallahatchie black had ever |
| the tiny cotton hamlet of Glendora, also in Tallahatchie | | | | been allowed to register and vote [since |
| County. | | | | Reconstruction], according to Scarbrough. |
| There, she kept working on voting rights in the rest of | | | | By the time the Sovereignty Commission agent arrived |
| the county until leaving for Jackson and finally California | | | | at the Charleston Courthouse for a second visit over |
| in 1966. | | | | the voter registration issue, those accused had |
| BIRDIA BEATRICE CLARK KEGLAR, a small and | | | | lawyered up. Judge Cossar represented Chief Dogan |
| courageous African American woman with dark | | | | and Dugan Shands, assistant state attorney general, |
| piercing eyes, was well known in the Mississippi Delta | | | | was helping with both cases. |
| [a northwestern region of Mississippi] for speaking out | | | | Cossar had also set up an appointment with State |
| against racism, even when she was very afraid to do | | | | Rep. Walter Sillers (Mississippi's long-time powerful and |
| so. | | | | racist Speaker of the House) and the three men |
| Born June 1, 1908, in the hill country of rural Tallahatchie | | | | asked Scarborough to have "someone present from |
| County, she grew up on land purchased by her | | | | the Sovereignty Commission" at the Oxford hearing on |
| mother's early relatives after the Civil War. The land | | | | December 13. |
| stayed in the family and this was a true source of | | | | In his second report, Scarbrough stated that according |
| pride. Family members picked their own cotton, grew | | | | to the sheriff, Gray and eight African Americans had |
| their own vegetables, and raised their own livestock on | | | | testified before a "make believe" Civil Rights |
| this family plot. | | | | Commission hearing at a Methodist Church in |
| "We never picked cotton for other people - just for | | | | Washington, D.C. Close to 2,000 people, black and |
| our family. We had good food to eat, and we were | | | | white, attended the special hearing that drew attention |
| fortunate," said Robert Keglar, her son. Birdia was | | | | to voting problems faced by African Americans in the |
| married young, and the marriage did not last. Her | | | | South. |
| husband left home when Robert was five, so mom | | | | The event, described by Scarbrough as an |
| and grand-mom raised him, and W.T. Gray, his uncle, | | | | "embarrassment to Mississippi," was sponsored by 16 |
| also played an important role in this family's lives. | | | | civil rights organizations including the Southern |
| They were a family of achievers. Gray, a bright, | | | | Conference Educational Fund of New Orleans (SCEF), |
| self-taught teacher, often discussed civil rights at the | | | | an organization often investigated and labeled |
| dinner table. "And this was back in the 1930s," Robert | | | | "communist" by the state's Sovereignty Commission. |
| Keglar said, "when black children typically attended | | | | In Washington, D.C. Gray testified he "tried in vain three |
| small country schools overseen by poorly educated | | | | times" to pay his poll tax and register, and that he and |
| teachers." | | | | other Negroes were threatened with violence and loss |
| The Gray family had a strong tradition of learning and | | | | of their jobs if they persisted. |
| teaching, a skill that Robert's uncle passed on to him. | | | | "One night my family and I were in the car. We were |
| Birdia Keglar went into business instead of teaching, | | | | intimidated for an hour and a half. After that, I received |
| managing a funeral home in Charleston. | | | | a letter from the county superintendent that my |
| Following another family tradition, she was an early civil | | | | services [as a teacher] would not be required in the |
| rights advocate, not easy for any black person of | | | | coming year." |
| those times, particularly in Tallahatchie County, one of | | | | AT THE TRIAL IN OXFORD on December 14, 1961, |
| the Delta's strongholds for the White Knights of the Ku | | | | Birdia Keglar and John Doar of the U. S. Justice |
| Klux Klan, the most violent of the Klan organizations. | | | | Department were surprised to learn that she was |
| While most of Mississippi's Klan activity took place in | | | | "already listed" on the Tallahatchie County voters list, |
| Southern counties, this part of the hill country at the | | | | according to the county's witnesses. The Associated |
| edge of the Delta boasted Klan members as well as | | | | Press (AP) reported: |
| neighboring Leflore, Sunflower, Quitman and other | | | | Shands surprised Mrs. Birdia Keglar during |
| Delta counties. [A Klansman from Leflore County in | | | | cross-examination of the federal suit which charges |
| 1963 killed Mississippi civil rights leader, Medgar Evers.] | | | | that county officials discriminated against Negroes who |
| Birdia Keglar's fighting spirit frequently roused the | | | | wanted to vote by refusing to let them pay poll taxes. |
| attention of Sheriff Ellett R. Dogan, "notorious for his | | | | State attorneys on December 13 received a list from |
| violence to Negroes." One Charleston native, a close | | | | the federal government of prospective witnesses, |
| friend of Keglar's and later the county's NAACP | | | | including Mrs. Keglar. |
| president, described the late sheriff as a "paternalistic | | | | John Doar, attorney for the Justice Department, said |
| man, who sometimes acted like he cared" about | | | | he was "sure Mrs. Keglar would pay her poll tax" |
| Keglar and other black citizens. | | | | because "she's been trying for ten years." |
| "Dogan might put his arm around you and tell you not | | | | Government attorneys were expected to prove there |
| to worry, because there would always be a meal for | | | | had been a systematic exclusion of Negroes as |
| you and a place to live. But you had to be a good | | | | voters since Sheriff Dogan took office, and at a |
| Negro to get this kind of treatment from him," Lucy | | | | preliminary hearing the week before, Judge Claude |
| Boyd said. | | | | Clayton of Tupelo ordered the county's officials to turn |
| "When he was bad, he was very bad. And that was | | | | over all poll tax and voter registration records to |
| how it was most of the time in Charleston. I remember | | | | government attorneys for inspection, the AP further |
| a time when I was younger and a black man | | | | reported. |
| accidentally bumped a white woman's arm - just | | | | It was not until three and-a-half years later, on June 23, |
| bumped her. This was on the sidewalk, and the | | | | 1964, when Victoria Gray, a Mississippi Freedom |
| woman's husband beat the hell out of the black man. | | | | Democratic Party (MFDP) member, sued to abolish the |
| This was not unusual and Dogan wouldn't have | | | | certificate of nonpayment of poll tax in order to vote in |
| stopped it." | | | | Mississippi and on October 20, 1964, the District Court |
| Boyd, born Lucy Garvin on November 3, 1930, also in | | | | granted a permanent injunction. |
| Tallahatchie County, became one of Keglar's close | | | | * * * * |
| friends, despite their age differences. | | | | "Two Killed In Highway Accident" |
| "Birdia would say that she was 'supposed to do | | | | A two-car crash on U. S. 40 about five miles south of |
| important things' in her life - and she always was going | | | | town accounted for the death of two Negro women |
| out somewhere to do them. | | | | Tuesday night. The Mississippi Highway Patrol said |
| "One day I heard her tell several others she was going | | | | Birda [sic] Clark Kegler [sic], 57, of Charleston and |
| 'into the Delta' to do something for civil rights - I don't | | | | Adlema Amlett [sic] of Scobey, were killed in the |
| remember exactly what it was, except that she often | | | | accident. |
| went places with Amzie Moore over in Cleveland, a | | | | Admitted to the Greenwood Leflore Hospital for |
| Mississippi Delta civil rights icon who was organizing | | | | treatment of injuries were Brown Lee Bruce, Jr., of |
| blacks well before World War II. | | | | Sidon, who was alone in one of the automobiles, and |
| "I had two dollars in my purse, and that was a lot of | | | | Jesse J. Brewer and Grafton Gray, Negroes, and |
| money. I handed it to Birdia and said 'you are probably | | | | Richard L. Simpson 27, white, of Mass., occupants of |
| going to need this.' I thought that I could at least give | | | | the other car. No other details of the accident are |
| her something to get some food while she was out | | | | available at this time, authorities said. |