National Voter Registration Day celebrated
Rust College students and faculty and elected officials celebrated National Voter Registration Day, Sept. 17 with a parade from the college to the Marshall County Courthouse.
Rust College students of the 1960s were part of the celebration of the case Leroy Frazier filed and won against the Marshall County circuit clerk who refused Frazier the right to register to vote because he did not live in Marshall County.
In the case Frazier vs. Callicutt the supreme court ruled the plaintiffs injunctive relief against Edwin Callicutt, as registrar of elections in Marshall County, and defendants in a suit charging violations of Frazier and seven other plaintiffs their 14th and 15th Amendment rights.
William Scott, who was a student at Rust during the period, said things have improved since then.
“The movement was successful and today we have in Mississippi the highest number of African American elected officials in the United States,” he said.
Students led the march with banners and the song, “Let My People Go.” Holly Springs Mayor Sharon Gipson, who took the lead in the walk from the college to the courthouse, expressed amazement.
Gipson is the first African American female mayor of the City of Holly Springs.
She advised students that a felony conviction does not prohibit a person from voting in elections.
“We need you to vote so we can have the first female president. Kamala, Kamala, Kamala,” she said.
Professor A.J. Stovall helped introduce speakers along with Sharon GoodmanHill.
Stovall said at the time when people like Scott and Dr. Leslie McLemore were students at Rust College, there were no African American elected officials in Marshall County.
“Leroy Frazier and students, made it possible for any student in the U.S. To vote,” Stovall said.
Circuit Clerk Monet Autry, is the first black person to hold the office of circuit clerk in Marshall County.
She has been a part of the Rust Family before she was elected to office.
“Your vote matters,” she said. “We actually grew up in the community you grew up in, worked in the community you grew up in.”
Nicole Phelps, first African American to hold the office of Chancery Clerk, also spoke.
“Just believe and you will,” Phelps said. “That’s your right.” McLemore was also a proud graduate of the Rust College Class of 1964. He now is vice-mayor of the Town of Walls.
McLemore said the 1964 Class was the greatest class in the history of Rust College.
“Rust College changed my life,” he said. “In 1960 there were no black folk elected in Marshall County.”
They were among the first to register to vote as students in Marshall County, he said.
“Flick Ash blocked the door to register five students,” he said. “Those students knocked on doors to get people to register to vote in 1964. You can stand on their shoulders.”
Scott said he has retired as professor from Rust College twice.
“I turned 21, January 1964,” he said. “I bought a bus ticket and went to Indianola to vote. I was one of the first students to vote in my home town of Indianola. We could depend on the Supreme Court. The Constitution says you have the right to vote. You have no status if you don’t.”
Barbara Belfoure, Marshall County tax assessor and the second African American woman to be elected to that office, is a graduate of the 1988 Class at Rust and a business major. She was born and raised in Holly Springs.
Larry Ruben, the second director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, arrived at Rust College in the early 60s.
He said the sheriff at the time was also the tax assessor.
He said he went every Friday to the courthouse to try help students to register to vote.
“They didn’t register them to vote, but they published their names and addresses in the newspaper,” he said.
He said Mississippi has no early voting and the state has lost voting precincts.
“It’s much harder to do what you have to do to organize to get people to vote,” he said. “That’s the only way to stop voter suppression.”