>Subject: Mississippi Lesbians Tell Bigots "We Won't Leave!" >From: ww@blythe.org (Workers World Service) >Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 13:24:19 EST Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit MISSISSIPPI LESBIANS TELL BIGOTS: 'WE WON'T LEAVE!' By Shelley Ettinger Earlier this year, civil-rights investigators cited rural Jones County, Miss., for systematic abuse of African American prisoners. Now the same forces responsible for racist violence are waging a terror campaign against two out-of-the-closet white lesbians in the small Jones County town of Ovett. The bigots say they mean to drive the women off their 120-acre farm. But Brenda Henson and Wanda Henson say they aren't going anywhere. And Ben Chaney--whose brother James was one of three civil-rights workers murdered in Philadelphia, Miss., in 1964--says they shouldn't have to. Chaney has lent his support to the Hensons' struggle against anti-gay violence. The Hensons are longtime progressive activists and educators. They run a literacy center, food bank, clothes closet, crisis line and displaced homemakers' program in Gulfport, Miss. They bought the Ovett property in July. They call it Camp Sister Spirit. They plan to make it a center for anti-poverty and anti-racism organizing and literacy training--an educational retreat for people of all nationalities, lesbian, gay and straight. Brenda Henson told Workers World: "This land is a dream come true for us: a feminist adult learning center. Being able to make a space available for lesbians and others is a dream come true." A Klan-type offensive by backward white townspeople has temporarily interrupted the dream. Henson said: "There's certainly a Klan mentality, a gang mentality, at work here. It creates a rabid-dog situation." "It feels like we're under siege," she said. But she also said: "We're armed. And I've made that real clear. "In fact, the sheriff said there's a bunch of trigger-fingered women out there." The women are bringing in reinforcements--also armed. The mad dogs will be stopped. Henson said what's needed is "more people being here, and also with people in Mississippi speaking out for us, clergy to speak out, Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays, and so on. "That's how to put the bigots on the defensive." GUNS AND PUPPIES The horrors against the Hensons have included many incidents of men with guns and rifles, often drunk, driving onto the land and threatening the women. Shots have been fired at their property. A dead puppy was hung on the mailbox. So were threatening signs. People drive by and yell anti-gay slurs. "Our latest telephone death threat was Christmas night," Henson said. Things reached a low on Dec. 6. At a so-called town meeting, 250 people ranted against lesbians and discussed how to kick the Hensons out of Ovett. According to a Henson friend who infiltrated the meeting, one participant actually said, "It's time to put on the white sheets." Another right winger referred to the civil-rights movement that shook the racists in the 1960s. He said: "Well, we let them come in 30 years ago. We should have stopped them then." Local officials, including the attorney for nearby Perry County's Board of Supervisors, also took part in the meeting. The sheriff has made his allegiance clear, too. Radio reactionary Rush Limbaugh has even mentioned Ovett on his show. Henson says this may indicate the right wing is organizing nationally around this case. Another "town meeting" is set for Jan. 3. There is to be a report on legal research into how to kick the lesbians out of Ovett--and, presumably, further discussion on stepping up more down-to-earth tactics. Brenda Henson said, "I view this as an open conspiracy to deny us our civil rights." HQ for racist lynchings Henson pointed out that Jones County has been the scene of some of the worst racist outrages in the state--including a wave of jailhouse lynchings of Black youths. At least 47 prisoners were "found dead by hanging" in Mississippi prisons from 1987 through 1992. Police claimed the prisoners all hanged themselves. But when a coalition of civil rights groups formed the Commission on Human Rights Abuses in Mississippi and held hearings in March 1993, testimony and evidence pointed to lynchings. The Hensons' daughter Andrea Gibbs, who is now helping her mothers protect their land, is already on the right wing's enemies list. She presented key testimony against prison officials at the March 1993 hearing. A former deputy at the Harrison County Jail, she had resigned in protest at the brutality inflicted on prisoners there. Since then, she has worked with Ben Chaney in the struggle against the racist prison system in Mississippi. Chaney has said the right wing is trying to create "a continuation, a revival, of the fear that existed in Mississippi prior to 1964." Chaney told Workers World that after the Hensons discovered the dead puppy on their mailbox, Gibbs called him to ask for help. He went to Camp Sister Spirit that afternoon. Later--at about midnight--Chaney came back. He led a caravan of four cars full of people who came to guard the lesbians' land. "We stayed there until about 4 in the morning," he told Workers World. Since then he has expressed his continuing solidarity with the Hensons, and consulted with them about their struggle. The Hensons are also in touch with the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Center for Constitutional Rights in Mississippi, and various religious and civil-rights groups. SUPPORT NEEDED! Meanwhile, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is appealing to Attorney General Janet Reno to intervene against the bigots. Robin Kane of the NGLTF told Workers World her organization has requested assistance from the Community Relations Service, a Justice Department agency. On Dec. 22, U.S. Rep. Don Edwards of California sent a letter to Reno urging federal intervention to defend the Ovett lesbians. But CRS's official mandate does not cover disputes concerning gays and lesbians. There is no federal or Mississippi law banning anti-gay bias. As of Dec. 28, Kane said, there has been only silence from the Clinton administration. Locally, neighbors have stopped by to offer solidarity. The Hattiesburg American newspaper ran an editorial defending the Hensons and denouncing the bigots--and positive letters to the editor poured in. Lesbians and gays in the area, however, are afraid for their lives. Some are working behind the scenes; most feel they can't come out in public. Support from the progressive movement around the country is crucial. Henson said supporters can send funds. Donations--which will be used to install a security system and other devices to defend the property, and to feed the people guarding the land--can be sent to Camp Sister Spirit, Post Office Box 12, Ovett, Miss. 39464. The lesbians also want supporters to come join them on the land. At this point a small crew guards it, sleeping in shifts and never leaving alone. The Hensons don't plan to attend the Jan. 3 "town meeting" to confront the right wingers. But there are rumors that others may. And national television crews are expected to film the proceedings. "Shining a light under their hoods should make the terrorists uncomfortable," commented lesbian anti-racist activist Pat Chin of the International Action Center in New York. "But what's really needed is to shift the balance of forces so that they're outgunned, out-organized, and driven back under their rocks. Mass support for Camp Sister Spirit is needed--now." -30- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 West 17 St., New York, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@blythe.org.) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + 212-675-9690 NY TRANSFER NEWS COLLECTIVE 212-675-9663 + + Since 1985: Information for the Rest of Us + + e-mail: nyt@blythe.org info: info@blythe.org +