ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an interview of Mrs. Viola Winters, who is a widow and had eight children until one died. She went to school in Gages Spring, but that school went only up to the eighth grade. During the Civil Rights Movement, Mrs. Winters did so much for Durant and Holmes County. After registering to vote, she helped others register at the courthouse in Lexington. Her children had finished school, but she supported the first black children who tried to integrate the schools. She helped integrate the ice cream parlor, the railroad station, and the Durant Hospital. She also helped force the hospital to quit making people pay a fifty-dollar deposit before they could be admitted. Mrs. Winters participated in marches and took freedom riders into her home. She was a strong supporter of the Freedom Democratic Party and still attends its weekly meetings in Durant.
