From Saturday, December 2, through Monday, December 4, the Jackson Interfaith Civil Rights Committee is hosting a series of free events entitled The Kneel-Ins: The Voices and the Vision Forward to commemorate the church visit campaign of 1963 and 1964. These programs are supported by the Mississippi Humanities Council.
The Jackson Kneel-In movement was an attempt by an interracial group of students, parishioners, and civil rights activists to integrate Protestant and Catholic churches in downtown Jackson. Organizers used direct-action protest to urge the church-goers and ministers at segregated churches to open their sanctuaries to African-American worshipers.
Events begin at 2 p.m. Saturday, December 2 at Woodworth Chapel on the campus of
Tougaloo College, with a panel discussion about the Kneel-In movement moderated by Carter
Dalton Lyon, author of Sanctuaries of Segregation: The Story of the Jackson Church Visit
Campaign. Panelists include civil rights veteran Rims Barber; Kneel-In movement participants
Camille McKey and Ida Hannah Sanders; Joe Reiff, author of Born of Conviction: White
Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society; and Kneel-In movement leader and former
Tougaloo chaplain Rev. Ed King. Parking is available on campus.
