Zoharah Simmons in Mississippi Freedom Summer

In her interview with the Veterans of Hope Project, Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, describes her experience as a member of SNCC and a local leader in the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project of 1964. Her testimony illustrates the core elements of this model. When Zoharah arrived in Laurel, Mississippi -- at great risk and against her family's wishes -- she was greeted with open arms by individuals and families in the town's black community who had been struggling for years to make incremental improvements in their lives. She describes knocking at the door of Mrs. Euberta Sphinks, a local organizer, introducing herself as a freedom worker, and hearing Mrs. Sphinks say to her : "Girl, I been waiting for you all my life. Come on in."

Zoharah and other young activists lived and worked with local black families and together with them developed an organizing style that was centered around a profound and inclusive meaning of family and community. The young organizers, who often considered themselves "grown", were still, in many senses, children to the older local women and men with whom they lived -- and because courtesy and respect for elders were important values in the rural, black South, when their local hosts told them they had to go to church on Sunday, the young organizers went to church. Zoharah recalls that when the young folks went out at night they were expected to tell the elders where they were going and what time they were coming back. They helped with chores and obeyed the rules of the houses in which they lived. While some of the adjustments were not easy, as the generations worked closely together in Freedom Schools, voter registration drives, desegregation campaigns and other movement efforts, there often developed a strong, mutual appreciation among the visiting organizers and local community members. The supportive embrace of local families who opened their homes, shared their meals, and extended their kindness, gave the workers from SNCC and other movement organizations a firm grounding for their work.