Come to the McCain Library to see an exhibit of materials from the Victoria Gray Adams Papers in the USM Archives. The exhibit is curated by Archives Specialist Yvonne Arnold.

Victoria Gray Adams, a native of Palmer's Crossing and Hattiesburg, is the most important living black Mississippian in the Civil Rights Movement.

She was a young mother and businesswoman in Hattiesburg in the early sixties when she began her Civil Rights work by teaching voter registration classes. At that time, although 30 per cent of Hattiesburg's citizens were African Americans, only 50 of them had been allowed to register to vote. Today, the state of Mississippi has more black elected officials than any other state, partly because of the efforts of Victoria Gray Adams.

Ms. Adams became a Field Secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); helped to organize the first Freedom Day in the South held in Hattiesburg on January 22, 1964; was a member of the board of Dr. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); and was one of the founders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).

The MFDP was an alternative political party to the regular, mostly white, Democratic Party. The MFDP registered over 80,000 black Mississippians in several Freedom Votes, thus disproving the allegation that blacks were content with their place in the segregated society and would not vote even if they had the opportunity.

Ms. Adams ran for the U.S. Senate on the MFDP ticket and was an MFDP delegate to the Democratic Presidential Nominating Convention in August 1964 in Atlantic City. With Fannie Lou Hamer and legendary SNCC Field Secretary Bob Moses, she led the challenge to the all-white Mississippi delegation at the Convention.

Ms. Adams and Mrs. Hamer also challenged the seating of the white Mississippi Representatives to the U.S. Congress on the grounds that they failed to represent all of the people of Mississippi.

Victoria Gray Adams has devoted her life to the cause of human rights. She recently retired as Campus Minister at Virginia State University in Petersburg, where she lives with her husband Reuben Adams. Last June she was the honored guest of Southern Miss at the 35th anniversary commemoration of Freedom Summer, participated in USM's Freedom Summer symposium, and was honored by the IHL Board with a resolution recognizing her life's work.

She is the recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Services Award and the Fannie Lou Hamer Humanitarian Award and was one of the first three African American women invited to be seated as guests on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. The other two were also Mississippians: Fannie Lou Hamer and Annie Devine.

You must not miss hearing Victoria Gray Adams' Honors Forum lecture on Tuesday, February 29 at 7:00 p.m. in Bennett Auditorium. She is a compelling speaker.