Jim Kates, civil rights veteran of the 1960s
NATCHEZ, Miss. — Jim Kates, who served as a civil rights worker in Natchez in 1965, will return to the city on Monday, July 22, to talk about his experience in the Natchez movement. The film, “Black Natchez” (1967), will be shown during his visit.
Kates’ event, “An Evening with Jim Kates: Reflections from a Veteran of the Civil Rights Movement in Natchez,” will be held at NAPAC Museum at 301 Main Street. It is free and open to the public.
The program will begin with a 5:30 p.m. public showing of “Black Natchez,” which documents the civil rights movement in Natchez. At 6:30 p.m., Kates will participate in a round table discussion with veterans of the movement. Other participants will include Mayor Dan Gibson, NAPAC Museum Director Bobby Dennis, Dr. Roscoe Barnes III of Visit Natchez, and others.
The event is hosted by the City of Natchez and NAPAC Museum with assistance from Visit Natchez.
“We are so grateful that Mr. Kates is coming to Natchez,” said Gibson. “As a young man, he encountered the worst of Mississippi, sadly while attempting to do so much good. What a blessing to have him return to celebrate the progress we have made while discussing ways we can all work together to make more even more progress going forward.”
Kates, now a noted author and popular speaker, said he is looking forward to the visit. He hopes to meet old friends and acquaintances from the movement. Kates worked with a number of prominent workers in the movement, including the late James “Big Jack” Jackson, founding president of the Natchez Deacons for Defense and Justice.
“For a long time, I’ve been wanting to return to Natchez, but not just as a tourist,” Kates said. “Being able to connect with the past, and to measure the distance, is a wonderful opportunity. I am sorry not to be able to connect with more people from 1965, but look forward to picking up what we can.
“Among other vaguer objects of my visit, I’m trying to crystallize some essays I’ve been working about my own involvement in the Movement, and this upcoming visit has already helped with that, and should do more.”
Kates said it is important for people to know about the history of the civil rights movement and its impact on Mississippi and the entire United States. He noted: “Most important, I want to remind myself and others that the work of the 1960s Freedom Movement goes on — nationwide now — and we’re all part of it. I hope I can serve as a small reminder of that.”
In 1964, Kates left his home in Connecticut and came to Mississippi to make a difference. He came with a mission to help people in the Black community who were disenfranchised and violently oppressed by white racists.
Kates was like thousands of other young people from northern states who came to Mississippi in 1964 for the Freedom Summer project. Freedom Summer was an initiative that sought to increase Black voter registrations in Mississippi. To do this, more than 700 volunteers, most of whom were White, fanned out through the state and worked with Black communities to help them overcome voter intimidation and discrimination at the polls.
While living in Como, in Panola County, Mississippi, Kates worked as a volunteer on the Freedom Summer initiative — a voter registration project — sponsored by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO).
Kates recounted his work in a personal essay: “Day after day I talked with local black citizens in their houses, tried to arrange for the use of a church for organizational meetings, or plotted with high school students to pressure their elders to apply to register to vote and to support Mississippi’s own Freedom Democratic Party. It was work that often didn’t feel like work, and one of its principal objects was simply my presence in the community.”
In August 1965, Kates found himself in Natchez, where he and a colleague went to work “organizing black steam-laundry workers as part of [their] civil-rights work with the Student Nonviolent Co-ordinating Committee” (SNCC). However, he and his colleague were both arrested after complaints from two 11-year-old white boys. The boys, whose fathers were “notable figures in the local White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan,” accused them of chasing them with knives.
At trial, Kates recalled, the judge dismissed the charges against them, “saying that the prosecution had failed to make a case.” Two days later, Kates and his colleague left Natchez and returned to their homes “before the Klan could act out frustration or revenge.”
Monday’s visit will be Kates’ second visit to Natchez since that arrest. His last visit was in 1984.
For more information, call the museum at 601-445-0728.
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