Mar 31, 2016 - Sale 2408

Sale 2408 - Lot 225

Price Realized: $ 812
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(CIVIL RIGHTS--VOTER REGISTRATION.) GREEN, DEBORAH ("DEBBIE"). CIVIL RIGHTS 1965, Impressions from the Battle Front. Original typed manuscript. 67 pages on rectos only. With 4 pages of letters relating to the trip at the end. Together with a number of newspaper clippings and Jack Newfield's Village Voice article. Amite County, MS and New York, 1965

Additional Details

the extraordinary first-hand account of Debbie Green, a 1960's folk-singer, and her folk-singer friend Erik Anderson. The two had traveled to the Deep South at the urging of their manager Arthur Gorson. Gorson, who managed a number of recording artists, thought it would make for good publicity, but had not prepared them for the frightening scenario that they would soon find themselves a part of. Gorson backed out at the last minute, and convinced Debbie Green to go in his place. Along on this junket was Village Voice columnist Jack Newfield, who had also been convinced by Gorson that it would make a great story. Ostensibly there to register voters in a rural county, Debbie had traveled in heels with a suitcase. Things began to come unraveled the moment they arrived. Their contact in Amity expected Erik and Jack only, and had not planned to put up a woman as well. Debbie was petrified from the start and would not be separated from Eric, which conservative Southern ethics dictated for sleeping arrangements. They finally made contact with E. W. Steptoe, the almost legendary leader of the voter registration and SNNC representative in Amite, Mississippi. Steptoe was the person who was going to take them around from farm to farm to get names on voter registration forms. Newfield in his article referred to Amite as Dante's "Ninth Circle of Hell." There had been so many murders and such intimidation that by 1961, only one person had been registered. Once things get settled, Debbie Green's narrative makes for fascinating reading. She gives a vivid account of dealing with the local farm people who did everything they could to make the three comfortable.