Hattiesburg native Victoria Gray Adams honored with Mississippi Freedom Trail marker

A Hattiesburg woman who set the stage for integrating the national Democratic Conventions was honored with a Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker earlier this month.

The Mississippi Freedom Trail marker honoring Adams is at 816 Elnora Knight Road, a location that served as an essential hub of the 1964 Freedom Summer Movement.

"Her tireless leadership and display of courage along the difficult and tumultuous journey toward equal rights is forever engrained in Hattiesburg’s story," VisitHattiesburg CEO Marlo Dorsey said. "This visible reminder will continue to be shared as a critical part of our city’s history and the heroic role she played in its progress.”

Victoria Jackson Gray Adams grew up in Palmers Crossing, where she became an advocate for voting rights and better education opportunities for disenfranchised communities at an early age.

Adams helped establish the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964 and was honored in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention in Boston for her efforts to integrate Mississippi's delegation to the Democratic conventions.

Video: Victoria Jackson Gray Adams talks about the civil rights struggle in Mississippi

Adams, who died in 2006, was a founding member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party along with noted activists Fannie Lou Hamer and Annie Devine. She became a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee field secretary in 1962 and ran for U.S. Senate in 1964 on the Freedom Party ticket. She was chosen as one of her party's delegates to the Democratic Presidential Nominating Convention in August 1964 in Atlantic City.

Denied seats at the 1964 Democratic Convention, Adams and others were seated in 1968 in Chicago, replacing the regular Democratic Party members after the national party learned of the 1964 rejection. It was Adams' tenacity that made her a pioneer and a hero for civil rights in Mississippi.

"We are honored to celebrate the legacy of Victoria Jackson Gray Adams as the newest addition to our Mississippi Freedom Trail,” VisitMississippi Director Rochelle Hicks said in a news release. “We encourage our residents and visitors to explore the many sites that convey Mississippi’s leading role in the Civil Rights Movement throughout the state’s distinct cities and towns.”

Adams was an associate of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when she was one of only a handful of women who served on the national board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference while King was president.

She also was founder of the Council of Federated Organizations, which brought together the many civil rights groups in Mississippi to form a consolidated effort in their quest for equality.

Years before the Freedom Trail marker, a monument dedicated to Adams was installed at St. John United Methodist Church in Palmers Crossing, one of the first churches in Hattiesburg to allow a Freedom School to operate there.

For her civil rights efforts through the years, Adams was presented with many awards, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award and the Fannie Lou Hamer Humanitarian Award. The new Freedom Trail marker will serve as a constant reminder of her decades of work in civil rights.

"Victoria Gray Adams was a relentless trailblazer for civil rights, who chose to never accept status quo as the final word,” Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker said. “This marker will share her story with future generations, and we hope it will help raise up citizens with the same fighting spirit to call out injustice and advance the cause of good."

Part of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, the Mississippi Freedom Trail is comprised of more than 40 sites that offer visitors the opportunities to learn more about the civil rights movement, honor important figures of the era and sightsee across the state.

For more information on Hattiesburg’s civil rights attractions, like its 1964 Freedom Summer Trail and audio tour, go to visithburg.org. For more on the Mississippi Freedom Trail, go to visitmississippi.org.

Lici Beveridge is a reporter for the Hattiesburg American and Clarion Ledger. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on X @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Victoria Jackson Gray Adams honored with MS Freedom Trail marker