ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an interview of Ms. Murtis Powell, who is a powerful woman in her mid-fifties. During the Civil Rights Movement, she lived on a white man's place. Ms. Murtis was not a big leader in the Movement, but she was on the front lines no matter how dangerous it got. She showed that action speaks louder than words. She was one of the first to send her children to integrate the white public school in Durant in the fall of 1965. Her name was on a list that was printed up and stuck on light poles all over town so whites could retaliate against those trying to integrate the public schools. Ms. Murtis was teargassed when she marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the Meredith march of 1966 from Memphis to Jackson. She was also teargassed when she went to Greenville and occupied the air force base with striking sharecroppers.
