Will the Real Mary King Please Stand Up!!!

I like to consider my self a peaceful person. I don't like violence and I believe that things shouldn't be resolved through fighting. Because of this, I chose to joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), non-violent sit-in protest where a group of whites and blacks and I traveled to the south to try to gain equality for African Americans. This process was not easy, and many of us will have scars to help us remember how difficult and painful gaining equality actually was. We were beat, disrespected by racial slurs, burned, etc. What angered me during this whole process was that the  people who were abusing us were not being punished for their actions. These men in the south were putting our lives in danger and were not experiencing any consequences for this. To make the world aware of how frequently African Americans were being beat by whites, I was able to become a communications officer for the SNCC in 1963 and became close with many news reporters. These reporters were able to help me send my stories out about the abuse of African Americans, making the country aware of the fears that we had to face everyday.

Casey Hayden... My "Partner in Crime"!

Like myself, Casey was a very big supporter of nonviolence (unlike the other Casey). Together, we were able to spread the word about African American inequality by handing out pamphlets and educating those who were willing to listen. Casey helped me and my journalism career by backing up whatever I wrote with support.


Casey was also famous for traveling with the Freedom Riders on a train from Atlanta, Georgia to Albany, New York. She was also a member of the National YWCA Organization. 

"Hayden, Casey." Welcome to the Civil Rights Digital Library. http://crdl.usg.edu/people/h/hayden_casey/?Welcome (accessed May 31, 2012).

"The Story of Mary King and Casey Hayden: The Contribution of Two Forgotten Feminist Leaders | Suite101.com." Suite101.com: Online Magazine and Writers' Network. http://suite101.com/article/the-story-of-mary-king-and-casey-hayden-a71469 (accessed May 31, 2012). 

This came out of my newspaper that I wrote with my buddy, Casey Hayden.

"The average white person doesn't realize that he assumes he is superior. So too the average SNCC worker finds it difficult to discuss the woman problem because of the assumption of male superiority. Assumptions of male superiority are as widespread and deep-rooted and as crippling to the woman as the assumptions of white supremacy are to the Negro."

BROWNMILLER, SUSAN. "In Our Time." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/brownmiller-time.html (accessed May 31, 2012).

"My Facebook profile picture...like for a like?"

HAVE NO FEAR...MARY IS HERE!!!

I let the country know how we were treated by police! What really made me a famous, Civil Rights Activist was that I wrote papers about the lack of respect that African Americans were given by the white community.
This is the time when you are supposed to say "thank you Mary".

Don't You Dare Ask Me to Make You a Sandwich!

During this movement, the SNCC's main focus was on bring equality to African Americans. What they did not focus on was helping us women out, thinking that we are only meant to be house wives. This made my friend Casey and I furious. First we had to fight for equality because of our skin, and now we had to fight for equality because of our gender! In order to make things right, Casey and I wrote Sex and Caste, a document that is now looked upon as a key component to the rise of second-wave feminism. After sending the document to 44 different women all over the country, the document became so famous that the magazine of War Resistors League, Liberation, published it and put it in their magazine!

"The University for Peace - Mary King." The University for Peace. http://www.upeace.org/faculty/resident/mking.cfm (accessed May 31, 2012).

http://maryking.info/?p=101

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee



Like I said before, it was not easy. We had nobody on our side. We were going against whites and police departments, but that did not stop us from following out main objective. We were to make our point without showing any sign of retaliation. This was hard though. Usually when someone hits you, your first thought is to fight back. Although this might have flown through our minds while we were being beat, we focused on our main goal, showing the world that things do not have to be accomplished by using violence.