Roscoe Jones

One person involved in the Civil Rights Movement that I didn't know about before this trip is Roscoe Jones a World War 2 veteran. Mr. Jones marched from Selma to Montgomery on "Bloody Sunday". Jones was a resident of the Youth Chapter NAACP during the 1964 Freedom Summer. He worked in the local COFO office on voter registration with activists Michael Schwerner, James E. Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. He served as co-chair of the state-wide Freedom Summer Youth Convention at Meridian in 1964. Mr. Jones is the recipient of numerous awards including the Meridian Star for the 2012 "Unsung Hero”. He has spoken with numerous churches, community groups, and schools, including Stanford University.

The first thing that Mr.Jones said when meeting him for the first time was that he was the fourth Civil Right worker and if he was there that night he would've of been dead at seventeen and it wouldn't have made a difference. Mr. Jones urged the children to make a difference and to take a stand on something that they are passionate about. If the older generation cannot make a difference ask the younger generation for a helping hand.

My favorite quotes from him are

“things didn't get the was they are overnight, they're not going to change overnight”.

“you don't think anymore you react”

“You want to make a difference speak on it”.

“They kept secrets in the books”

“Don't start an organization without a leader"

The quotes I chose were important because the Civil Rights Movement fought for racial equality for years and to this day were still fighting. Books hold the history of the world and its full of the knowledge that isn't discovered yet. We had a lot of leaders in this world and they all fought for the people and wanted to make a difference for the people.