Civil Rights Diary

Civil Rights Diary

History 145

June 18, 2013

Dr. Lisa Antaki

Civil Rights Diary

The 1960’s was a time of great anticipation, struggle and change. I am going to write an account of those times as told to me by my mother, Mazie Brewer Wilmer. The period I will cover in her life happens between 1963-1965. She was fifteen years old, had been born in Camden, Wilcox County, Alabama in January of 1948. In 2010, the population was approximately 2,100 which hasn’t changed much since the ‘60’s. I have fond memories of the annual summer vacation and Christmas holiday trips from Michigan to Alabama, part of the journey along the way brought us across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, located on US-80 and spans over the Alabama River. As I was preparing to write this diary, I discovered the bridge that my brother, sister and I would close our eyes while crossing was the site of major Civil Rights activity. Located in Selma, AL, it was named for a Confederate brigadier general, named Edmund Winston Pettus, he was also a U.S. Senator from Alabama. It is the site of Bloody Sunday which occurred on March 7, 1965. Peaceful, non-violent civil rights advocates were attacked at this site by armed officers. On March 11, 2013, it was recognized as a National Historic Landmark.

My name is Mazie, I am the 8th child born to Rev. and Mrs. Zollie Edward Brewer. I became involved in civil rights events in my small community at a very early age, not even able to imagine at the time the changes that were taking place in America as a whole. I remember being 15 years old when a young, black student named, Phillip Young was hit by a club and badly injured, this caused the entire black community to become enraged and began civil rights demonstrations in Camden. Another student, Ralph Epperson returned from California to Camden to complete high school and learned of Ralph’s injuries and organized meetings at Antioch Baptist Church which lasted for two months. My father, Mr. Gordon, a...