Victoria Gray Adams
| Victoria Gray Adams | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Victoria Gray Adams November 5, 1926 Hattiesburg, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | August 12, 2006 (aged 79) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Jackson State College |
| Occupation | civil rights activist |
| Organization | Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party |
| Movement | African-American Civil Rights Movement |
Victoria Jackson Gray Adams (November 5, 1926 – August 12, 2006) was an American civil rights activist from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She was one of the founding members of the influential Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
Victoria Almeter Jackson (later known as Victoria Adams Grey) was born on November 5, 1926 in a black community called Palmer’s Crossing, which is now a part of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She was the daughter of Mack and Annie Mae Jackson. Her mother died when she was three years old, and she was then raised by her grandparents. Her grandparents were not reliant upon local white people, and ran their own farm. Thus, Adams grew up with a strong sense of independence. In 1945, she graduated from Depriest Consolidated School. She then attended Wilberforce College in Ohio, (Ladner) but had to quit after one year due to lack of funds for tuition. Her first marriage was with Tony West Gray. They had three children: Georgie Rosewitha Gray, Tony West Gray, Jr., and Cecil Conteen Gray. Gray was stationed in Germany at the time, during the Korean war. They returned to the United States and lived in Maryland, during which time Adams worked as a cosmetics sales representative. The marriage began to decline, and they divorced. She later married Rueben Ernest Adams, Jr. They had one son, Reuben Ernest Adams, III.
Victoria Gray Adams’ involved in the Civil Rights Movement began in the early 1960s when she convinced her pastor to open up their church to workers of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In the 1960 elections, Adams trained individuals from her hometown in voter registration. Many African Americans at the time were illiterate, which prevented them from registering, so she taught literacy classes in which she taught individuals to read, write, and understand the Constitution. In 1962, she became field secretary for the SNCC, and led a boycott against Hattiesburg businesses. In 1964, Adams, a teacher, door-to-door saleswoman of cosmetics, and leader of voter education classes, decided to run against Senator John Stennis, the Mississippi Democrat who at the time had been in the Senate for 16 years. She announced that she and others from the tiny Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, of which she was a founding member, along with Fannie Lou Hamer and Annie Devine, would challenge the power of white segregationist politicians like Stennis. The time had come, she said, to pay attention “to the Negro in Mississippi, who had not even had the leavings from the American political table.” During the Freedom Summer of 1964, Adams helped open the Freedom Schools that pushed for civil rights in Mississippi. She went to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Mississippi Democratic Party had withdrawn support for President Lyndon Johnson because of Johnson's work to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and sent an all-white delegation to the convention. The three women fought to be seated among the delegation, but were unsuccessful. The incident, however, led to racial integration reforms within the party.
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