Unita Blackwell (1933-2019) was a key figure in the Civil Rights movement, who became the first Black woman to serve as a mayor in Mississippi.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. And this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today we’re talking about a key figure in the Civil Rights movement, who risked her life to lift her voice and the voices of other Black Americans. Through violence and abuse, she campaigned for equality and became the first Black woman to serve as a mayor in Mississippi. This is the story of Unita Blackwell.
Unita Zelma Blackwell was born U. Z. Brown on March 18, 1933 in Lula, Mississippi. Her father was a sharecropper.
Unita picked cotton in the field alongside her mother, until her mother sent her to live with relatives in Arkansas to receive a better education. At that time in Mississippi, Black children could only attend school for two years before they were forced to return to the fields. Though Unita’s mother couldn’t read or write, she was determined to give her daughter a better life.
Unita chose her own full name, after her teacher told her she couldn’t just go by the initials U.Z. She decided to go with Unita Zelma.
At the age of 12, Unita left school. She returned to picking cotton until she was 31 years old. She got married three times, but kept the last name of her first husband, Jeremiah Blackwell. It was with him she had her only child, Jeremiah Jr.
The turning point of Unita’s life came in 1964, during the Freedom Summer. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was campaigning to raise awareness about registering Black citizens to vote. Unita signed up right away. During her attempts to help register Black voters across her community, she was arrested more than 70 times. She was targeted by the KKK, whose members burned crosses in her yard.
Unita was also one of only eight Black people in her county who tried to register to vote. Armed white men threatened Unita and the other brave people trying to vote outside the courthouse and nearly prevented them from entering. When they were finally allowed to enter the building, they were forced to undergo an unfair literacy test that all of them failed.
Unita realized that despite the fact voting was a legal right, society still stacked all the odds against the Black community. She was more determined than ever to make her voice heard. She began to participate in one movement after another to fight this unjust system.
In 1965, she sued her county’s board of education for suspending 300 students, including her own son, for wearing freedom pins. She also sued to desegregate the school district. These cases traveled all the way up to federal courts. Though the pins remained banned, the district was ordered to desegregate.
In 1976, Unita was elected mayor of Mayersville, which reportedly made her the first Black woman to serve as a mayor in Mississippi. When she took office, the 500-person town had unpaved streets and no sewer system. Many residents lived in small tin-roof shacks with no running water. She immediately set to work on improving conditions, serving the town for two decades from a one-room city hall.
She led the way for the town to pave and name its roads, install streetlights, build sewers, improve its housing, and even get its first fire truck.
In 1983, Unita earned a Master’s degree in regional planning from UMass Amherst, having never previously attended college. In 1992, she brought national attention to Mayersville and all rural communities when she won a $350,000 MacArthur Genius Grant.
Throughout her career, she traveled internationally. She gave speeches, advised presidents like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and never stopped fighting for civil rights.
She was defeated for reelection to her position in 2001. By then, she had long made a positive mark on the rural communities of Mississippi.
Unita Blackwell passed away on May 13, 2019.
Unita made an enormous difference in Mayersville, Mississippi -- and her influence extends far beyond her hometown. She fought for the rights of all Americans and brought attention to often-forgotten areas of the country.
All month, we’re talking about Politicians. For more on why we’re doing what we’re doing check out our newsletter Womannica Weekly. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @encyclopediawomannica and follow me directly on twitter @jennymkaplan.
Special thanks to my favorite sister and co-creator, Liz Kaplan.
Talk to you tomorrow!