LYON, Danny | Freedom Vote - Give Them a Future in Mississippi

LYON, Danny. Poster. Freedom Vote - Elect Aaron Henry for Governor, Ed King for Lt. Governor [...] Give Them A Future In Mississippi. Jackson, MS: Committee to Elect Aaron Henry, [1963]. 

Original photo-illustrated poster, offset printed on white posterboard (measuring 31.25cm x 47.5cm). Light wear and handling, a few discreet pinholes to corners, with a few faint soiled spots on verso; unbacked.

First edition. 

A striking poster promoting the “Freedom Vote,” organized by Aaron Henry (1922–97) and the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). It was meant to be a mock statewide general election to parallel the Mississippi gubernatorial election of 1963. Henry believed that if African American voters showed their willingness to vote in this mock election, then Mississippians and the nation would realize that Black voters would participate in the electoral process. Henry was on the mock ballot for governor and Edwin King, a White chaplain at Tougaloo College in Jackson, was on the ballot for lieutenant governor. In addition to the freedom candidates, the mock ballot included Democratic candidate Paul B. Johnson, Jr. and Republican candidate Rubel Phillips. Ballot boxes were placed in churches, businesses, and homes across the state, and voting took place over a weekend, from Friday to Monday. Henry and King ‘won’ the mock election in which more than 80,000 Black Mississippians voted. This event showed the country that African Americans would vote if given the chance [Curry, Constance. “Aaron Henry: A Civil Rights Leader of the 20th Century.” Mississippi History Now, February 2011].

This was one of four posters produced to promote the Freedom Vote. The bleak central image features two Black children sitting on the steps of a sharecropper's cabin, above text reading “Give Them A Future In Mississippi.” Uncommon; OCLC notes a single holding (Atlanta University Center), with two others found by us (National Museum of American History and University of Mississippi).