Flonzie Brown-Wright, Mississippi native, Civil Rights activist and former aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., visited Columbus and spoke at a prayer breakfast at Stephens Chapel M.B. Church on Saturday morning.
The prayer breakfast was held in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Weekend put on by Political Action for Mississippi.
Brown-Wright began her speech by singing a verse from “Amazing Grace” which the congregation enthusiastically joined in singing. She then spoke about her background.
“You could have chosen anyone to be your speaker,” she said. “But you chose to invite this little country girl from Farmhaven, Mississippi. You chose to invite the great-granddaughter of a slave to come and share this time with you.”
Brown-Wright said that though the Civil Rights movement began many years ago, she had recently become concerned about the resurgence of racism and referenced the changes to the Civil Rights Bill in 2013 and the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.
Brown-Wright then launched into descriptions of her family during the Jim Crow era. She talked especially about her grandfather, who was barred by law from learning to read and who made money making molasses and digging graves. Her experiences she said, “planted in me seeds of greatness, seeds of foresight, seeds of purpose.”
Brown-Wright spent most of the speech on her experiences in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, as a divorced mother of three, she re-opened and took over the running of the Canton, Mississippi NAACP office, which had been closed for 40 years. She spoke about the threats she received from the KKK during this time.
“I’ve been to jail, had my life threatened, been tear-gassed simply because I was involved in the Civil Rights struggle,” Brown-Wright continued.
“I was involved because it was the right thing to do. It was the right place to be.”
Brown-Wright also spoke about the time she spent with King, who she met for the first time in 1964. Two years later he called the 23-year-old Brown-Wright during his participation in the March Against Fear to ask if she would be able to find food and housing for the 3,000 people who had joined the march. King had heard that if he wanted to get anything done in Canton, Brown-Wright was the person he needed to talk to. Brown-Wright promised him she would be ready for him and the marchers. When the march arrived three days later, there were places to sleep and food for participants.
“Canton smelled like an onion factory,” said Brown-Wright, recalling the amount of cooking the community did for the marchers.
During King’s four-day stay in Canton, he called together 12 Civil Rights activists, including Brown-Wright, to discuss the future of the movement.
“We made him a vow that day that as long as there was breath in our bodies, as long as we saw racism… hurt, alienation, we would do what we could do to continue to make that dream a reality,” said Brown-Wright.
Brown-Wright claimed it was churches that grounded the Civil Rights Movement and added that “music was the glue.” She then began singing again and the congregation joined in. The music moved one audience member to tears.
Brown-Wright concluded the speech by reminding the congregation that the Civil Rights Movement is not over. She charged the congregation to stay involved in their community, to teach the younger generations to be proud of themselves and where they came from and to ensure that the fight against injustice and racism continues.
“I have not lost my belief in this movement,” Brown-Wright said.
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