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One of the towering figures of our nation’s 1960s Civil
Rights/Freedom Movement Victoria Jackson Gray Adams made transition/passed at
her son’s home in Baltimore,
Maryland on Saturday, August 12, 2006.
Mrs. Gray Adams was the first woman to run for the United States Senate from Mississippi. Along
with Fannie Lou Hamer and Annie Devine, Victoria
Jackson Gray Adams was one of the first three African-American women in the
history of the United
States to be seated as guests on the floor
of the U.S. Senate (PLEASE SEE The Congressional Challenge of 1965, Hamer-Gray-Devine.). Mrs. Gray Adams, Mrs. Hamer, and Annie Devine were also the first women in the
history of Mississippi
to run for U.S. Congress.
One of the earliest and most vigorous supporters of civil rights/human rights
activity in Mississippi,
Mrs. Gray Adams continued her work in spite of repeated death threats, being
shot at, chased by people in cars with guns, threats to kill her family, and
other attempts to end her life.
She was an ardent supporter of and on the staff of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
and a National Board Member of his organization, The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC), during and following Dr. King’s presidency. An
active participant in the Mississippi Freedom Summer project of 1964, Mrs.
Gray Adams was also a founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
(MFDP), Director of its National Office in Washington,
D.C., and a pivotal frontline participant in
the historic 1964 Challenge of the National Democratic Party in Atlantic City, New
Jersey. Her efforts helped Black people in the
South gain the right to vote and be free from a vicious system of segregation
and white terrorism; and Mrs. Gray Adams’ efforts helped all people have more
opportunity to be truly human, whole, healthy, and sane.
Born 5 November 1926,
in the African American village of Palmer’s Crossing, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Victoria Jackson Gray Adams began her Civil
Rights/Freedom Movement work teaching voter registration and literacy classes
in the early 1960s. After two weeks of increasing steadily in physical
strength, with everyone expecting her to begin walking independently at any
moment, Mrs. Adams walked suddenly and wonderfully from this Life into the
next Life. At 5:40 PM,
she flowed peacefully and victoriously into The Complete Presence of The
Almighty and was received with dancing and affirmation by the Ancestors. A
woman of immense bravery and immeasurable courage, Mrs. Gray Adams
persevered, pushed through, and prayed through real threats and great fear;
she lived her own adage: “Life shrinks or expands in direct proportion to the
courage with which we live it.”
Mrs. Gray Adams’ life journey has included teaching in public schools in
rural Mississippi; being a young mother, businesswoman, and wife;
participating actively in the Thai and American Women’s Club while in
Bangkok, Thailand; teaching in the Royal Thai Army Languages Academy,
Bangkok, Thailand; founding and serving as the first president of the Afro
American Women’s Club (AAWC) in Bangkok, Thailand; realtor/real estate and
marketing, Petersburg, Virginia; being appointed to and serving creatively
for eleven years as a member of The Commonwealth/State of Virginia’s Fire
Services Board; being drafted into service as -- and proving to be enormously
effective as -- Campus Minister at Virginia State University, Petersburg,
Virginia; Vice President of the National Board of The Institute for Cultural
Affairs/The Ecumenical Institute (North America); being a dedicated, lifetime
member of — and serving on numerous local through conference level Boards and
Commissions within -- The United Methodist Church; and teaching and lecturing
at Harvard University, Jackson State University, Stanford University, Tougaloo College, The University of Virginia, Iliff School of Theology, Gettysburg College, The
University of Southern Mississippi, Northwood Appold
Community Academy Public Charter School, Earlham College, SpiritHouse,
Phillips-Exeter Academy, University of Michigan; the United Nation’s
Development Fund for Women; Alex Haley’s Farm/The Children’s Defense Fund;
and hundreds of other local, state, national, and international colleges,
universities, and organizations.
As a result of her more than seven decades of contributions to society and
the world, Mrs. Gray Adams has received awards, citations, and appreciations
too numerous to list. A very brief listing includes: The Martin Luther King,
Jr. Community Service Award; Wilberforce
University’s
Distinguished Alumni Award; The United Methodist Church’s highest education
award, The John Wesley Award for Education; The Methodist Federation for
Social Action’s Bishop Leontine Kelly Peace and
Justice Award; and The Fannie Lou Hamer
Humanitarian Award. A local-and-global woman, with an immediate and long-term
vision, Mrs. Victoria Jackson Gray Adams —with clarity and intentionality —
gave her life to her family and local people, all over the globe. She was
committed profoundly to empowering and elevating local people, because she
wanted local people to access and enjoy greater life chances and greater life
choices.
Mrs. Gray Adams is featured in numerous Civil Rights
films/documentaries/books — including Taylor Branch’s Pulitzer Prize winning
book, Parting the Waters and his sequel, Pillar of Fire; Kaye Mills’ book,
This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer;
and numerous other books; the documentary films Citizen King, Eyes on the
Prize, and A Century of Women; the Academy Award nominated film, Freedom On
My Mind, the recent film, Standing On Our Sisters’ Shoulders, and others.
Also, Mrs. Gray Adams is the face [at 37 years of age] featured on the central
PR/Publicity poster for the said Academy Award nominated film, Freedom On My
Mind; and the same photo graces the cover of the important books Freedom Is A
Constant Struggle (edited by Susan Erenrich) and
Freedom’s Daughters (Lynne Olson).
The daughter of Mack and Annie Mae Ott Jackson,
Victoria Jackson graduated from Depriest
Consolidated School in Palmer’s
Crossing (Hattiesburg), Mississippi. She also attended Wilberforce University
(Ohio), Tuskegee Institute/University (Alabama), and Jackson State College/University (Mississippi). Her
first marriage was to Tony West Gray; and three children came forth during
that union -- Georgie Roswitha
Gray, Tony West Gray, Jr. (deceased/in transition, 1997), and Cecil Conteen Gray. Her second marriage was to Reuben Earnest
Adams, Jr.; the happy couple birthed one child, Reuben Earnest Adams, III.
Near the culmination of her Journey, Mrs. Jackson Gray Adams resided in
Petersburg, VA with her husband Reuben; simultaneously, she resided in
Baltimore, MD with her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter (Dr. Cecil
Gray, Mrs. Sonya Hunt Gray, and Nettsaanett
Victoria Gray, respectfully) and her husband Reuben. She and Reuben
celebrated forty years of marriage on 20 February 2006. What a wonderful and blessed Journey!
Now in transition and full of life among The Living Loving Almighty One and
the Ancestors -- and therefore even more able in many ways to catalyze
personal, local, national, and global justice, peace, and freedom for all
people of all colors, cultures, and countries -- Mrs. Victoria Jackson Gray
Adams looks forward to her legacy of bold, creative, courageous service to
African American people and all people being carried on by her husband,
Reuben E. Adams, Jr.; brother, Glodies C. Jackson
(Catherine); daughter, Georgie Roswitha
Gray Dunn Henderson; sons, Cecil Conteen Gray
(Sonya) and Reuben Earnest Adams, III (Lisa); granddaughters, Lolita Dunn, Tujuana Dunn Frost, Imani
Victoria Adams, Nia Lisa Adams, and Nettsaanett Amma Ruvarashe Searcy Merdie Frozene Victoria Hunt Gray; grandsons, Jerome Henderson,
Tyrone Henderson, and Reuben Jelani Adams; and many
other family members by blood-choice-or-chance; and uncountable friends and
colleagues throughout our nation and around the globe.
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