Freedom’s Outpost

Through both quiet and sometimes risky action, citizens of Mound Bayou, Mississippi persisted in good times and bad to chip away at the edifice of Jim Crow. They sustained themselves in an environment that nurtured free speech, entrepreneurship, and constitutional rights. No place in Mississippi became a more secure redoubt of free expression for African Americans, making it possible for them to ultimately succeed in launching one of the most formidable challenges to the racial status quo.