Unita Blackwell
*Unita Blackwell was born on this date in 1933. She was a Black politician and activist.
From Lula, Mississippi, her parents were both sharecroppers in Coahoma County. Because of limited educational opportunities for Blacks in that state, Blackwell had to cross the State line to attend school in West Helena, Arkansas. She became a field worker for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1964, joining their efforts to register black voters in Mississippi. Also that year, she served as a delegate of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which went to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Blackwell served as a community development specialist with the National Council of Negro Women. Since 1977, she has been mayor of the Issaquena County Community of Mayersville. Blackwell has risen as a prominent speaker on rural housing and development.
In 1979, she participated in President Jimmy Carter’s Energy Summit at Camp David. She later received a master’s degree in regional planning from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. In 1992, Blackwell received the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
In January 2008, she disappeared from her hotel in Atlanta while attending commemoration ceremonies for Martin Luther King Jr. Later, she was found at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. She was subsequently reported as having been in the early stages of dementia. In 2014, Blackwell was reported to live in a nursing home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Unita Blackwell died on May 13, 2019
University of Southern Mississippi
Southern Station 5053
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-5053
