Unita Blackwell Biography

Brief Biography Unita Blackwell is one of the strongest civil rights activist from Mississippi. Unita Blackwell was born March 18, 1933 to a family of sharecropper in Coahoma County. (Blackpast) Unita Blackwell’s father was made to leave Mississippi because he did not believe his young daughter should be picking cotton instead of getting an education. In Mississippi, the schools shut down for 10 to 9 months out of the year to allow the children to work. Blackwell’s parents valued education and wanted what was best for their children, therefor allowing them to move and go to school in West Helena. She completed school up until the eighth grade at Westside Junior High School. (NAN E.W.) During this time, women were known as property of men.

She originally started as a field worker whose only goal was to encourage her neighbors to register to vote. (Blackpast) The Mississippi Delta, at this time, was two-thirds black and only three percent were registered to vote. (SNCCdigital) She got very involved with the Freedom Summer, a movement to register blacks in Mississippi to vote. According to snccdigital, Unita Blackwell became concerned when she learned that no African Americans were registered to vote. While apart of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Blackwell marched on the state legislature and was arrested and beaten. (Mississippi) Unita Blackwell was raised with education being a priority. She only got an eighth grade education, but that did not stop her from succeeding in life. She went on to get a diploma and degree. Unita Blackwell requested that her sons school get “decent facilities, teachers, and books.” The school board did not want to hear her demands. She felt she had no option but to sue the school for desegregation. She went on to win the case,

Unita Blackwell was an all-around advocate. She advocated for all African Americans throughout her life. She was an advocate for the unregistered voters. She also stood up for anyone who was seeking justice for African Americans , who during this time were facing very harsh treatments. She also advocated for her son. This was not just for her son, but for all children who attended schools where they were not receiving the education they needed. This is similar to what any School Social Worker would do in a school setting. She felt as though all African American children deserved the exact same education as any other white children. Unita Blackwell went on to defend the poor. This is something that a general social worker will need to do in their time. The poor citizens in the Mississippi Delta did not know how to stand up for themselves. This group needed to someone to come and help them advocate, this is exactly what Unita Blackwell did for