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Eugene

(61,593 posts)
Wed Mar 2, 2016, 01:03 PM Mar 2016

Prominent Mississippi civil rights activist James Figgs dies

Source: Associated Press

MARCH 2, 2016 10:57 AM

Prominent Mississippi civil rights activist James Figgs dies

BY NASSIM BENCHAABANE
Associated Press

JACKSON, MISS. - James Figgs, a longtime community organizer in the Mississippi Delta who was known for playing crucial supporting roles in the 1960s civil rights movement and beyond, has died. He was 72.

Figgs died Monday at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford, according to Lafayette County Coroner Rocky Kennedy.

In his youth, Figgs led activist groups in his hometown of Marks and in Quitman County, including the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and the Freedom Riders, who rode interstate buses to protest segregation. He helped register black voters for the 1964 election and he organized local efforts in the "Poor People's Campaign" for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Figgs later became one of the first high-ranking African-American employees in the Mississippi state auditor's office, working under Auditor Pete Johnson in the late 1980s.

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Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/news/state/mississippi/article63561542.html
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Prominent Mississippi civil rights activist James Figgs dies (Original Post) Eugene Mar 2016 OP
NO!!! 2016, I am done with your crap! Recursion Mar 2016 #1
RIP. Starry Messenger Mar 2016 #2
Right? (nt) Recursion Mar 2016 #3

Recursion

(56,582 posts)
1. NO!!! 2016, I am done with your crap!
Wed Mar 2, 2016, 01:07 PM
Mar 2016


I can't claim to have known Mr. Figgs very well personally but he was who inspired me to study engineering. (Mississippi is a small state.)

RIP, Mr. Figgs
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