Annual Report 2024

Letter from the Executive Director

True Democracy is new to Mississippi, and America.  Between 1868 and 1875, Mississippi briefly experimented with a biracial democracy. But in 1875, White supremacists carried out a plan of organized terror, mob violence, and election fraud to overthrow Mississippi’s biracial, reconstruction era government. They used coordinated mass murder, assassinations and lynchings to strip Black Mississippians – the majority of the state’s population – of all political power and legal protections. White supremists in other southern states would follow the Mississippi plan of killing democracy in order to usher in a century of Jim Crow.

In 1875, the nation stood by and watched redeemers violently replace democracy with fascism.  150 years later, many of us worry that the nation simply voted to make a similar swap. Prior to November’s election, our office planned to, throughout 2025, uplift and retell the 150-year-old history of the terror campaign, commonly referred to as the Mississippi Plan. Following November 5th, it is even more important that we learn about and from the Mississippi of 1875.

It’s critical that we all come to grips with the reality that a whole lot of people are ok with fascism. That’s what Jim Crow was. It was fascism. It was so fascist that the government we most associate with fascism, Nazi Germany, sent officials to the American South to learn about the innovative ways southern states used their legal systems to subjugate the Black population.

And for decades, most of White America tolerated or embraced Jim Crow.  They were collectively apathetic about fascism dominating the South.

We can dream and continue saying “we are better than this” or face our history and plan our way forward.  That plan must be rooted in truth. Based on our actual record, not myths.

The past also teaches us that we will win.

It’s proof that you don’t have to be a superhero to defend liberty. Regular people took extraordinary actions to fight for Civil Rights, abolition, and reproductive justice. All while choosing to put themselves in harm’s way.

A few weeks ago, Dr. Robby Luckett recounted a remarkable story. Prior to traveling to Mississippi, many of the Freedom Summer student volunteers spent two weeks in Ohio, training on how to survive in Mississippi. After learning of the disappearance of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, the great Bob Moses informed the students that the three were likely deceased and that no one would blame the students if they decided to go home. All but one student went to Mississippi.    

We don’t know how the next few years or decades will play out. But we do know what has come before us. We know that 1964 was not the first time Congress passed a Civil Rights Act. This is an opportunity to fight for a new version. We know people of all races, joined together to resist fascism and defeat Jim Crow. All of us have some agency in America’s future. You can choose “do-nothing” complacency or speak out, because “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

I hope that you also know that the ACLU of Mississippi will remain committed to fighting to protect and expand civil rights and freedoms for all Mississippians. To quote a recent statement by our national office, “We are the American Civil Liberties Union. And we’re not moving to Canada.”

Thank you for standing with us.

Inside:

• In memory of Crystal Welch
• Numbers
• 2024 Legislative Summary
• Protecting Black Voting Power
• Police Accountability
• Impact
• Support