Civil rights activist visiting Columbia recalls other women who 'fought the good fight'

After she helped organize the 1963 March on Washington from an office in Harlem, Joyce Ladner had better than a front-row seat to Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" Speech.

She was onstage with him.

Ladner was the keynote speaker Wednesday to the University of Missouri's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, with the theme "Women and the Civil Rights Movement." The event was in the Reynolds Alumni Building.

Ladner later became a sociology professor, provost and interim president at Howard University.

Ladner, who was a field officer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, said the 1963 march came together quickly.

"We organized that march in three weeks," said Ladner, 80.

A small group of people led by Bayard Rustin worked six days a week, for 12 and sometimes 18 hours a day.

Rustin gave as much importance to her opinions as he did to King's, she said.

"He was an extraordinary leader because he listened," Ladner said.

Her home state of Mississippi was deadly for Black people in the 1960s.

When she tried to register to vote at age 18, she said she failed thee times to pass the so-called "literacy tests."

"I was a lot more literate than the imbecile administering the test," Ladner said.

One question asked the duties of a good citizen.

"A good citizen is one who obeys just laws and disobeys unjust laws," she said she wrote. She left before she could be arrested, she said.

During the 1964 Freedom Summer, white and Jewish students joined Black students in Mississippi to register voters.

James Chaney, Michael Scherner and Andrew Goodman were killed because of it, she said.

"I knew James Chaney," Ladner said. "I knew Andrew."

"That was when a lot of us lost our innocence and a lot of our optimism," Ladner said. "We grew up, in a way.

"Despite these setbacks, our resolve remained very strong."

Her good friend Medgar Evers, an NAACP organizer in the state, was killed the previous year, she recalled.

"They were not fearless," Ladner said of those in the SNCC. "Everybody was scared."

The key was to prevail in spite of their fear.

She profiled three Black women activists in her talk: Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker and Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson.

She knew Hamer, she said. Hamer formed the Freedom Democratic Party to seat delegates at the 1964 Democratic convention.

During Hamer's speech, President Lyndon Johnson had the networks cut to him talking with governors instead.

Johnson was afraid of losing support from segregationist Democratic officials in the South, Ladner said.

There will soon be a Fannie Lou Hamer federal building, she said.

"It might take 55, 60 years, but change does come," Ladner said.

Ladner a couple of times launched barbs at current figures. She compared Donald Trump to segregationists in Mississippi.

"He's so ignorant," she said about Trump.

She also lashed out at Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly Twitter, which she said is "full of racists."

"That Elon Musk is a fascist, a racist," Ladner said.

Baker joined SNCC because she was inspired by the young people in the movement, Ladner said. She was severely beaten after ordering food at a restaurant, she said.

Baker didn't seek attention but was a behind-the-scenes strategist, Ladner said.

"She was resolute, optimistic, a populist and a fighter," Ladner said.

King asked Baker to help him form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Students participating in sit-ins across the South met with King and the SCLC, Ladner said. King wanted them to be a youth group of the SCLC. Instead, they formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Its early leaders included John Lewis and Stokely Carmichael.

Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson was part of a group that participated in a protest in Rock Hill, South Carolina, but refused to accept bail after being arrested, Ladner said.

"They spent 30 days in jail," Ladner said

Smith-Robinson also spent time in a Mississippi jail cell, she said.

"Ruby had what we called movement cred," Ladner said.

She was a true Black Nationalist, said Ladner, and "a tower of strength."

Smith-Robinson died in 1967 at age 26, said Ladner.

"These women were as tough as nails," Ladner said. "These women stood up when others sat down. These women fought the good fight."

Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on X at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Civil rights activist Joyce Ladner speaks at University of Missouri