Joseph S. Clark's and Robert F. Kennedy's tour of the Mississippi Delta
United States Senators
Background
In 1967, the majority of legislative programs supporting the United States government's "
Chairman Joseph S. Clark suggested that the subcommittee travel to Mississippi to verify Wright's testimony. Of the subcommittee's nine members, Senators Robert F. Kennedy, Jacob Javits, George Murphy agreed to the idea and accompanied him. Kennedy dispatched his aide, Peter Edelman, to get an advanced view on the situation. Edelman spoke extensively with Wright, whom he would marry 15 months later.[3]
Trip to the Delta
The subcommittee members flew into Jackson on April 9. That evening the senators dined with prominent Mississippians, including Oscar Carr and Charles Evers. Carr later described Kennedy as "a very shy man" who "continuously asked questions." Evers said "We talked and talked and he listened."[3] Local civil rights activist Amzie Moore acted as Kennedy's host.[5]
Hearing in Jackson
A field hearing was scheduled for April 10. Mississippi Senator
The subcommittee hearing took place in the Olympic Ballroom of the
Clark then allowed members of the subcommittee to question Stennis. Kennedy presented a private report conducted by a New York-based firm at the behest of the college that hosted CDGM. According to the new audit, the amount of wasted funds was deemed to be "relatively minor" and no evidence was found to substantiate the government's allegation. Stennis was flustered and declared that the
Civil rights activist Unita Blackwell defended the Head Start program, saying it was the only anti-poverty initiative that addressed the locals' problems. When questioned by Kennedy about hunger, she stated that there was a problem with hunger in her county and that the shift from surplus food aid to the stamp program had worsened the situation.[12] Wright spoke once more, asserting, "After two civil rights bills and the third year of the poverty bill, the...Negro in Mississippi is poorer than he was, he has less housing, he is badly educated; he is almost in despair."[1] Kennedy took his greatest interest in the locals' statements. Afterwards, he told Evers, "I want to see it."[3]
Kennedy's and Clark's tour
The following day Kennedy and Clark drove into the Delta area, while the other senators flew back to
Their first stop was a dilapidated shotgun house in Cleveland, in which 15 people resided. Holes were present in the flooring and roofing, and the only food in the refrigerator was a jar of peanut butter. One boy told Kennedy that all he had for breakfast and dinner was molasses, and that he didn't eat any lunch. Walking to the next house, Kennedy whispered to Edelman, "I've been to third-world countries and I've never seen anything like this."[16]
The following home belonged to a mother of seven. There were no tables or cutlery in the house, and the toilet operated without plumbing. Roaches and rats ran across the floor. Kennedy's attention was drawn to a 20-month-old boy who was playing with rice grains on the floor. The child was covered in sores and bloated from hunger.[17] Kennedy knelt down and stroked his cheek. He said, "My God, I didn't know this kind of thing existed. How can a country like this allow it? Maybe they just don't know."[14] Clark labeled what lay before them a "national disgrace." Kennedy caressed the child and talked to him, but elicited no response. The senator began to cry.[16] Kennedy stepped outside and quietly remarked, "We spend $75 billion a year on armaments and $3 billion a year on dogs. We have to do more for these children that didn't ask to be born into this." Local newspaper editor Cliff Langford, who strongly disliked Kennedy, shouted back that the two senators were being brainwashed. Clark retorted, "Don't worry. We've been brainwashed from the other side."[15] Langford added, "I don't know of anybody starving down here." Kennedy responded, "Step over here and I'll introduce you to some."[13] Clark reassured the reporters that he and Kennedy were not observing conditions in the Delta to "find fault," but rather "just to see if we can do anything about it."[15]
The senators' motorcade continued on towards Clarksdale, but Kennedy asked that they stop in the small town of Mound Bayou. With no advance notice, Kennedy, his aides, and half a dozen reporters walked into the home of a 39-year-old man named Andrew Jackson, his wife, and their six kids.[5][15] There was no electricity, running water, or toilet. There were two pictures in the house; one of the Glorybound Singers (a Clarksdale-based Gospel group) and another of John F. Kennedy.[13] Jackson was incredulous that he was meeting the brother of the late president and asked, "Is you really Mr. Bobby Kennedy?" Kennedy smiled and shook his hand, replying, "Yes. And are you really Mr. Andrew Jackson?"[15]
A thousand people—mostly black school children—awaited the senators outside the Clarksdale Neighborhood Center. The two stayed in the city for only 20 minutes; Clark climbed on top of a car to announce that their planned press conference was canceled, as their flight in Memphis was due to take off in two hours for the capital and he was "going to catch that plane." Meanwhile, Kennedy had mounted another vehicle and gave a short speech to the crowd. He said he was glad to have made the trip, and told them, "The problems of poverty are problems of all United States citizens." He was shortly thereafter engulfed by people wanting handshakes and autographs, though police soon cleared the way and the motorcade continued onto the highway.[15]
Aftermath
Government response
Kennedy returned to Washington, D.C., on the evening of April 10. He walked in on his family having dinner at Hickory Hill, highly agitated and, in the words of his daughter Kathleen, "ashen faced." He announced to his children, "In Mississippi a whole family lives in a shack the size of this room. The children are covered with sores and their tummies stick out because they have no food. Do you know how lucky you are? Do you know how lucky you are? Do something for your country."[17]
The following morning Kennedy and Edelman met with
Several
On July 11 and July 12, Clark held another set of congressional hearings on hunger in the Delta to pressure Freeman, attracting widespread media coverage.
In the end, Kennedy managed to amend the renewal of the
Public reaction
The media coverage from the event brought national attention to the food insecurity issues in the Delta. Most Americans were shocked by the conditions described in the area. Almost immediately, the Field Foundation of New York dispatched a team of doctors to Mississippi to examine children and verify the senators' findings.
In conversation with Wright and Edelman, Kennedy remarked, "The only way there's going to be change is if it's more uncomfortable for Congress not to act than it is for them to act...You've got to get a whole lot of poor people who just come to Washington and stay here until[...]Congress gets really embarrassed and they have to act." The following week Wright proposed the idea to
Legacy
The trip to the Mississippi Delta made hunger a public issue of interest in the United States.[28][32] Following the revelations of food insecurity, a powerful anti-hunger movement emerged in the country and worked to reform food assistance programs while proposing new ones. Federal expenditures on food assistance grew by 500 percent over the next decade.[33] Marian Wright would later say that the episode "set in motion a chain of events that culminated in years later in the virtual elimination of hunger in America during the Nixon years."[19]
The Mississippi Delta tour was featured in the 1980s American civil rights documentary series, Eyes on the Prize.[29] In May 1997, Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone, inspired by the original trip, visited the Delta to bring attention to "race and gender and poverty and children in America."[34] From July 11 until July 12, 2017, Wright led local activists and politicians on a bus tour of the region to observe the 50th anniversary of the event. It was followed by a panel discussion on poverty, hunger, and healthcare in the Mississippi.[35]
See also
Citations
- ^ a b c Guthman & Allen 1993, p. 199.
- ^ Shesol 1998, p. 329.
- ^ a b c d Schlesinger 2002, p. 794.
- ^ Tye 2016, pp. 348−349.
- ^ a b Wilkie 2002, p. 169.
- ^ Meacham 2018, pp. 67–68.
- ^ a b Meacham 2018, p. 68.
- ^ Meacham 2018, pp. 70–72.
- ^ Meacham 2018, p. 74.
- ^ Meacham 2018, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Meacham 2018, p. 75.
- ^ Meacham 2018, pp. 78–79.
- ^ a b c Tye 2016, p. 350.
- ^ a b Schlesinger 2002, p. 795.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wilkie 2014, Mississippi—Now. And Then.
- ^ a b Tye 2016, p. 349.
- ^ a b c d Thomas 2013, p. 339.
- ^ a b c Guthman & Allen 1993, p. 201.
- ^ a b c d Tye 2016, p. 351.
- ^ Schmitt 2011, p. 179.
- ^ Eisinger 1998, p. 78.
- ^ a b Shesol 1998, p. 330.
- ^ Meacham, Ellen (10 April 2017). "50 years ago, RFK exposed hunger in Mississippi Delta". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
- ^ Danielson 2011, p. 94.
- ^ Eisinger 1998, p. 77.
- ^ a b c Ferris 2014, p. 294.
- ^ a b Schmitt 2011, p. 182.
- ^ a b c d Maurer & Sobal 1995, p. 19.
- ^ a b Jones 2017, p. 226.
- ^ Schlesinger 2002, p. 873.
- ^ Raphael 2010, p. 40.
- ^ Poppendieck 1999, p. 10.
- ^ Poppendieck 1999, p. 11.
- ProQuest 408733895.
- ProQuest 1928322108.
References
- Danielson, Chris (2011). After Freedom Summer : How Race Realigned Mississippi Politics, 1965–1986. University of Florida Press. ISBN 9780813037387.
- Eisinger, Peter K. (1998). Toward an End to Hunger in America. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 978-0-8157-9124-9.
- Ferris, Marcie Cohen (2014). The Edible South: The Power of Food and the Making of an American Region (illustrated ed.). UNC Press Books. ISBN 978-1-4696-1768-8.
- Guthman, Edwin O.; Allen, C. Richard, eds. (1993). RFK: Collected Speeches. New York City: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-84873-7.
- Jones, David K. (June 2017). "Health Reform in the South: Re‐Tracing Robert Kennedy's Steps in Mississippi and Kentucky". World Medical & Health Policy. 9 (2): 225–238. doi:10.1002/wmh3.224.
- Maurer, Jeffrey; Sobal, Donna (1995). Eating Agendas: Food and Nutrition As Social Problems. Social Problems and Social Issues. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0-202-36576-3.
- Meacham, Ellen B. (2018). Delta Epiphany : Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496817457.
- Poppendieck, Janet (1999). Sweet Charity?: Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement (reprint ed.). Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-024556-1.
- Raphael, Chad (2010). Investigated Reporting: Muckrakers, Regulators, and the Struggle over Television Documentary. History of Communication. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-25209-220-6.
- ISBN 978-0-618-21928-5.
- Schmitt, Edward R. (2011). President of the Other America: Robert Kennedy and the Politics of Poverty (illustrated ed.). Univ of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-904-1.
- Shesol, Jeff (1998). Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy and the Feud That Defined a Decade (illustrated ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-31855-5.
- Thomas, Evan (2013). Robert Kennedy: His Life. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4767-3456-9.
- Tye, Larry (2016). Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-679-64520-7.
- ISBN 978-0-7432-2604-2.
- ISBN 978-1-62674-297-0.