QUICK EDUCATION iN MIssISstppl
Five days in Mississippi proved to be a . highly educational experience for a 2l-year~old Japanese girl studying at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.
When Bryn Mawr arranged a five-day student exchange with Tougaloo College in Mississippi, Masako Yamanouchi applied "because I wanted to see more of America." She was one of four chosen.
"T had no idea of the danger, " she writes in the January 31. issue of The Asia Magazine.
At Tougaloo, a privately financed school, most of the students are Negro although the president and many of the faculty are white. Located eight miles from Jackson, it has been the target of racists,
"Even while I was there," reports Miss Yamanouchi, “one of the girls! dormitories was threatened.with a bombing. The dorm was evacuated; but some of the girls became hysterical with fear. A month. before, four White men had driven into the campus and sprayed a dormitory with bullets, hitting one student in the leg. The night
before, a barber shop one mile away had been bombed and ‘that day ‘the city arsenal reported four missing dynamite sticks.
Miss Yamanouchi attended three classes but wished to see more of Mississippi than the Tougaloo campus. She joined a group that went to visit the local newspaper and to interview leaders of the White Citizens! Council. They also attended the trial of Byron de la Beckwith, who was charged with the murder of Medgar Evers, the Mississippi leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. There were no Negroes on the jury and Beckwith was turned loose.
"Because we went as an integrated group," says Miss. Yamanqouchi, “even the policemen cursed us and glared with hostility. We had to register. And we were searched before entering the court. They took our pictures too. Though we didn't do anything otherwise abnormal, the next day newspapers reported that a group of ‘outside agitators! were at Tougaloo College and had come to the trial.
"During the following days we learned how subtly the Citizens! Council worked to discourage the civil rights movement, keeping jobs from the families of those involved, for example. We experienced the oppressive atmosphere, the tension, the hatred, the fear, the protests and the distortions of truth which characterize Mississippi
Among the educational experiences that made a strong impression on the young Japanese student was the following:
"While we were there,-a co-ed from all-Negro Jackson State College was accidentally struck by a car. The driver, who was White, got out not to help her, but to wipe the blood from his vehicle. As he started to get back in to drive away, some of her fellow schoolmates stopped him. The police later released the man, The ensuing student demonstration led to a riot.
"We drove around Jackson next.day, Fire engines were circling the block next to the Court House, Mounted police were out and policemen had rifles on their motorcycles, Yet that evening, all the news programs assured us that there were no ‘outward signs of tension.!
Miss Yamanouchi found the civil-rights leaders in the area impressive. She accompanied a group led by Reverend Ed King, a white Mississippian, that sought to attend a-concert at a nearby college to which the public had been invited. The mixed group was turned away by the dean who "pointed to an unmarked police car nearby, If we did not leave, it would 'take care! of us, he warned," The group avoided making an incident of it.
"Those five days altered my life," declares’ Miss Yamanouchi. "as a result, I decided to remain in the United States to complete
my college work. I changed from Far Eastern Studies’ to Political Science because I felt it would better prepare me for taking up my. responsibilities in the world.
"and now I want to go back this spring to work ‘in ‘SNCCts [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] office in Mississippi, doing whatéver I can to help, I am prepared to go to jail, but I. wouldn't:ask for trouble. If a policeman told me to move, my natural inclination would be to obey. Rape? I'm really afraid of: it. I don't know what my thoughts would be after it happened -- if it happened,
"T didn't realize how bad it was until I saw the treatment to my friends. They were treated like dirt. We met many of the Negro leaders in Mississippi. They spoke frankly to us. I felt they were working more out of love for their country than out of bitterness, They wanted not just a better life for Negroes, but a better life for all Americans, It hurt me to think that some of them might be killed this year because of their ideals and all of them are constantly under physical and emotional pressure,"
In Asia, says Miss Yamanouchi, the situation is different, although racist prejudices do exist.
"But there are plenty of other problems at home too and when © I go back, I will feel more responsible about helping to solve them because of the vital spirit of the American civil rights movement,"
CHE GUEVARA ON