Bob Mants

SNCC, SEMO NHT Friends Group, Loundes County Friends Group

BLOODY SUNDAY STORY

Bob Mants: Our intelligence, they come back and told us that the state troopers and the posse was poised, so we knew that when we left the church it was very likely that we would be beaten and arrested. I remember us lining up and right before leaving the church in the playground in the area right behind the church where Carver homes, I remember Hosea Williams saying, we were talking the bridge, Hosea said, “When I was in service I would know how to top this bridge.” He said, “There’s a tension reliever, releaser.” We saw what is called a sea of blue of these Alabama State Troopers and cars lined up, and people lined up behind them, and the posse as far as you could see. I remember hearing this “Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack,” simultaneously. What was happening was they was unbuttoning their tear gas canisters, and they released the tear gas, and I remember there was a group of us who was separated from the rest of the crowd that went behind this store, Hastings Farm Implement Store, down this steep ravine. During that time I was weighing about 125 pounds soaking wet, and I remember this lady who I carried down this ravine on my back, lady had her sleeping bag and quilt and stuff that was tangling my feet, but we kept, then this posse came in on horseback, said, “God damn it, you all wanted to march, now march.” And they came with the canes and the cattle prods and stuff and rounded us up back into, back across the bridge. And there was these guys with, on horseback with these canes swinging and hitting people. It was really a melee that day. Sirens from the ambulances and people laying around overcome by the tear gas and being beaten and everything else.

THE MARCH STORY

Bob Mants: When the march came through Lowndes County, people from all over the county, black people, came out to greet the marchers. They were jubilant, they were clapping. There’s classic photographs of folks just, greeting the marchers. And one lady described her feeling towards seeing all these people coming from the west headed east. And she talks about the old Negro spiritual “I John saw that number, no man could number, coming up, coming up from Zion.” And there was a great jubilation. We decided if Lowndes County was ever to be organized, this is the time to do it. Of the 54-mile trek from Selma to Montgomery, 43 of those miles came through Lowndes County. So we wanted to be able to capitalize off the motion of the march to be able to organize Lowndes County, and that’s exactly what we did.

TENT CITY STORY

Bob Mants: Here is a person, a family, whose livelihood is dependent upon their being able to make a crop, and they, living on a white man’s plantation. And he gets involved because a civil rights worker came to him and talked to him, and he’s, for the first time in his life, he wants to take a stand. He went to try to raise the vote, and a man told him that, the landowner told him to give him the keys to his truck. There were other instances of black who had, who had almost reared white plantation’s only kids, owner’s kids. And they were told to leave. As a result of that, we formed Tent City for people to stay temporarily. There were a number of people who left the county, who moved to other areas to live with relatives. Some left the state, some never to return. There were some people who had no option but to live in Tent City, and we provided for those people as best we can. The community was always supportive, to bring them food, clothing and anything else, and we had to provide security for those people ‘cause people come by shooting the tents. And fortunately everybody who stayed in Tent City was eventually able, with community help, and our help, SNCC’s help, to acquire their own homes.

REFLECTIONS STORY

Bob Mants: Basically the Civil Rights Movement and the voting rights movement was an act of a disfranchised people. The Civil Rights Movement was not Martin Luther King. The Bloody Sunday thing was not John Lewis. It was all those people who came from all over everywhere. But we project these people as these icons. And what happens in the process when you, you project these individuals, you lose the history. Many of these people that we view as quote “leaders” would never cross the plantations, never had to drive up and down those long rows at night, never had to sit in a, had to sleep in a cold house or stood up all night peeping out the window or under bushes or up behind trees with shotguns. Who don’t, never understood the full impact of what they did, how it affected those people. That’s, this is their story.