Build bridges of understanding.
Be a ministry of presence.
Open the eyes of northern women to conditions in Mississippi.
Use women as catalysts for change.
These phrases ring out again and again in the literature on Wednesdays in Mississippi. In 1964 the NCNW, working with the National Council of Catholic Women, the National Council of Jewish Women, Church Women United, the YWCA, the League of Women Voters, and the American Association for University Women, brought interracial, interfaith teams of northern women to Mississippi to help the Freedom Schools founded by COFO.
The black women from the North visited with black women from the South, and the white women from the north reached out to white women in the South. The northern women went home with a fresh commitment to social and racial justice. Many of the southern women felt a breath of fresh air and the support of national women’s organizations. In 1965 WIMS returned, this time in a professional exchange, speaking teacher to teacher and social worker to social worker.
In 1966 WIMS became Workshops in Mississippi, an ongoing effort to help poor black and white women and families better themselves economically. The National Council of Negro Women remains an active force for social welfare in Mississippi today.
- October 16,2002: Interview with Dorothy I. Height
Dorothy I. Height talks about the original goals of WIMS in 1964.
- WIMS Annual Report, 1964 (page 29)
How do you build communications on a foundation of fear and mutual suspicion? WIMS tried to reach out to women in both the white and black communities, opening and extending contacts, as they strived to quiet rumors and dampen fears.
- “Wednesdays in Mississippi” by Polly Cowan
When the summer ended, Cowan wrote a report summarizing the goals and accomplishments of that first summer. This is an excerpt from that report.