Wednesdays in Mississippi 

Polly Cowan worked to bring interracial teams of glove- and hat-wearing middle-class Northern women to Mississippi every Wednesday during Freedom Summer. Polly’s daughter figures out what drove her mother’s work.

The final LILITH SALON of the year will feature an article from the winter edition of Lilith, entitled, WEDNESDAYS IN MISSISSIPPI. In this engrossing article, Holly Sherman, daughter of an unheralded white civil rights pioneer, Polly Spiegel Cowan, investigates the occluded Jewish core that drove her religion hating mother to make her bold and risky treks into Mississippi. Our food for thought questions will reflect on the then and now. Our discussions are always richer when everyone reads the article/s beforehand and thinks about the questions, so do your best. However, don’t stay home if you haven’t done so.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

1.    What is your view of the WIMS project? What was unique about it? What was subversive? How did it fit into the context of the civil rights movement?

2.    The author explains that her mother’s narrative as to why she became involved in the civil rights movement changed over the years. How would you explain that? Has your Jewish narrative changed? 

3.  If you were of age during the civil rights movement, were  you involved? If yes, what did you do? If not, what held you back? Were your parents or other family members sympathetic, fearful? puzzled/?  How did this affect you?

4.    If you were younger or not on this earth yet,, what do you know about this era and has the civil rights movement affected you in any way?

5.    The author says that her mother believed that  “there are moments in history that compel you to act.” Have there been any such moments for you? 

6.    Are there important issues today to which you feel we should put our energy and resources?

7. Have Jewish texts/studies/values, or Jewish organizations/people influenced your activism?