They are strong because they have about the last remaining tap, outside
of Charlie Evers, on foundation and church funds. I mean, they are the
conduits for do-good money in Mississippi still. Not the government's
money, but the old left money that wanted to do good for Mississippi
black people. And I don't see that as drying up tomorrow, because if one
foundation or group gets sort of disillusioned, another one comes along
and sees what looks like an old line group in here. Their greatest
strength is in areas like, for example, up in Madison County, Marshall,
[unclear], and Sunflower County, [unclear] south of here. Madison. All the
eastern half of Barber County. I mean all of Mound Bayou and all of that
is essentially theirs. The black mayor, you know, the supervisor [unclear]. But the main thing they have is
they control resources, and every time a new organization forms to take
advantage of a new federal program or law, you know, they have several
people in it.
But they have two things that's a problem for them in the long term. Most
of the leadership is not native Mississippian. And they have been
extremely ruthless in weeding out people who they couldn't control. So
they have this whole level of enemies moving on over from the left of
the spectrum. Then there are about three or four groups. There's Aaron
and what remains of the Loyalists. And that is the only thing which has
any kind of statewide grouping in the black
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community, which is political. I mean, which in fact can find two or
three counties here, two or three counties there, and five or ten
counties there to send people to a meeting and call themselves. That's
all that the Freedom Democrats wanted to be but gave up trying to be.
But it's only skin deep. And it can say that it puts forward a sure
125-150,000 votes but it's not really putting forward, they're just
there.
Then there's Charles Evers, who is just himself. I mean, got a few little
southwest Mississippi counties and who has his own contacts on money and
who right now is in such desperate trouble that anything you write about
him may be wiped out by some tax court by early '75, who knows. But who,
in any case, has gone about as far as he's going to go. In the state, as
the black leader, because he is perceived by many blacks as totally
selfish and not capable of sustained interest in the general needs of
the people of the state. And then in almost every community there is a
tiny handful of middle class blacks who have emerged over the last ten
to fifteen years. A lot of them came into the old poverty programs and a
lot of them came into the newer ones that were taken over by the [unclear] supervisors and the local political
subdivisions of one kind or another. And who represent, or are
represented by, in their most refined form, the two black lawyers here
who are Republicans. I mean, essentially saying, "Look boys, we got to
play the game the way the game is played and that means dealing with
whoever we have to deal with."