A Tremor In the Iceberg: 1959–1963

In the 1960s, a new generation of activists rose to breathe fresh urgency into the Civil Rights Movement. Where World War II veterans had emphasized voter registration and legal challenges in the courts, this younger generation seemed less willing to wait and more determined to confront Mississippi segregationists directly and publicly. From a Pike County jail, Bob Moses described it as the “tremor in the middle of the iceberg from a stone that the builders rejected.” Young activists organized in Mississippi with the aid of people from all over the nation. They provided energy, new methods, and a courage perhaps steeled by their naiveté about the waiting consequences.

From the Gallery

Explore artifacts, photos, and documents featured in the A Tremor in the Iceberg gallery.
 

Blood on the Beach

Dr. Gilbert Mason launched Operation Surf at Biloxi Beach on April 17, 1960. Despite assurances of support from members of his church, he was the only one to wade in. He was arrested immediately. Inspired by his example, about 125 people, many students from Nichols High School, showed up on April 24 to wade in the water. Sovereignty Commission files later revealed that local police were aware of the group’s intentions and purposefully assigned a “skeleton crew,” despite their knowledge that local Whites were planning to “take care of this situation.”

When activists took to the beaches at three locations along the 26-mile stretch, they were immediately attacked. Dr. Mason described “hordes of snarling White folks . . . with bricks, baseball bats, pipes, sticks, and chains.” The White mob attacked the unarmed Black protesters while police watched. Another group met a similar fate farther down the beach, and violence later erupted in the town of Biloxi with eight Blacks and two Whites wounded by gunfire.
 

Timeline: 1959-1963

Aaron Henry Home and Store Fire-Bombed

In April 1962, Aaron Henry hosted Rep. Charles Diggs at his Clarksdale home. The Black Michigan congressman was a longtime ally and a vital link to the Kennedy administration. Diggs spoke at Jerusalem Baptist Church, and the two men toured civil rights work in Mound Bayou and Greenwood. They were in Henry’s home on Good Friday when it was bombed. Miraculously, no one was injured. Henry’s wife and daughter escaped while the two men put out the fire. Police arrested Ted Carr and Luther Audrey Cauthen. Despite testimony from an eyewitness who had seen them making the bombs, both were acquitted. Three weeks later, another bomb exploded in Henry’s 4th Street drugstore.

Video Tour

Medgar and Myrlie Evers: A Legacy of Courage and Activism

Courthouse Attack

A day after police arrested the Tougaloo Nine in 1961, a crowd of local Blacks gathered outside the Jackson courthouse to show support during the trial. They broke into spontaneous applause as the students approached the courthouse. Police responded by attacking the crowd, beating them with nightsticks and pistols. A newspaper photographer snapped a photo of a police German shepherd attacked a local Black leader.

The courage of the students and the police brutality united the Black community. That night, approximately 1,500 Blacks rallied in solidarity. Myrlie Evers later called it “the change of tide in Mississippi.” For the first time, Blacks young and old, poor and middle class were solidly behind the Movement. The event began a cycle in Mississippi—young people engage in public, nonviolent protests; police respond with violence; the community rallies around the Movement. 
 

Points of Light

The Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi is full of ordinary men and women who refused to sit silently while their brothers and sisters were denied their basic freedoms. A number of these heroes are featured throughout the museum as Points of Light, shining exemplars of dignity, strength, and perseverance in the face of oppression.

Eudora Welty - Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ds-07842

Eudora Welty

Immediately upon learning of the assassination of Medgar Evers, Eudora Welty responded with a powerful story—its title asked, “Where Is the Voice Coming From?” The Jackson native had worked as a WPA junior publicity agent during the Depression, and while traveling for the WPA, she photographed people in her home state. Her fiction captured the culture, including the racial climate, of Natchez, the Delta, and other Mississippi locales. In her story, “The Demonstrators,” she described the murders of two Black people in a Delta town, noting what little impact the deaths had on White people. In “Where Is the Voice Coming From,” Welty wrote from the perspective of the killer (then unknown).

Dr. James W. Silver

Dr. James W. Silver

Shocked by the riot at Ole Miss in 1962, which he witnessed, and offended by the state’s attempt to blame federal marshals, history professor James W. Silver set the record straight in Mississippi: A Closed Society. Silver condemned Citizens’ Council tactics and White supremacy. He compared the state to a totalitarian regime, where White supremacists defined the agenda and crushed opposing voices. For this efforts, Silver became, "the most hated White man in Mississippi." The Citizens’ Council campaigned to have him fired. Silver remained until 1965, when he took leave to teach at the University of Notre Dame. He never returned. 

Explore Mississippi

Many of the homes, colleges, and historic sites discussed in this gallery still exist today. Journey beyond the museum walls and explore the places where history happened.

University of Mississippi Civil Rights Monument

University of Mississippi Civil Rights MonumentHonors James Meredith and all those who fought for equal educational opportunities

University Circle
University of Mississippi
University, Mississippi 

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McComb Black History Gallery

Black History GalleryFeatures pictures, books, and other historical materials relating to local African Americans

819 Wall Street
McComb, Mississippi 

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