"Unita Blackwell"(1933)

A civil rights activist and the first black woman mayor in the state of Mississippi,was born the

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daughter of sharecroppers parents Coahoma County,Mississippi.She worked throughout the civil rights era urging and recruiting blacks to register to vote,while holding positions in numerous organizations to fight for blacks civil rights in the United States.Unita began her education by attending a school opportunities for African Americans in Mississippi.She received an eight grade education and then joined her parents as sharecroppers.In the early 1960s,with determination and willfulness,she chopped cotton for $3 dollars a day while she patiently began her work in civil rights.By 1964,Unita was teaching Sunday School at a church.When the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) visited her hometown of Mayersville Mississippi,Unita signed up to be a field worker.Her assignment was to persuade her neighbors to register and vote.That very same year,Unita became a prominent participant in Freedom Summer,the massive efforts by civil rights activists to register black voters across the states She also was selected a Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) delegate and traveled with other delegates to the Democratic National Convention in New Jersey to plead its case to be seated to represent Mississippi.Although the Convention failed to accommodate the MFDP,Unita continued her civil rights work.By 1967 she was a Community Development Specialist in Mississippi for the National Council of Negro Women.In 1976 her decade long activism in voter registration and other rights issues paid off when she ran for and won the position of Mayor in Mayersville,a Mississippi River Town of 1,635 residents.Upon taking office Unita Blackwell became the first black woman to serve as mayor in the entire state.As Mayor,she led the effort to pave streets and install street lights and sewers in the black section of Mayersville.She also spoke out on poor housing conditions which disproportionately affected her constituents.In 1979 Unita was chosen to participate in the National Energy Summit organized by President Jimmy Carter at camp David,Maryland.In 1989 she was elected Chair of the National Conference of Black Mayors in 1989.Despite beginning her adult life with an eight grade education,Unita in 1983 received a master's degree in Regional Planing from the University of Massachusetts -Amherst.She was also a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Fellowship in 1992.