Lowndes County, Alabama

Situated between Selma and Montgomery, Lowndes County was at the heart of Alabama’s Black Belt. Everything about Lowndes County was rural. In 1960, the county’s largest town, Fort Deposit, had a population of 1,446. Roughly 80 percent of the county’s population was African American, though there was only one Black registered voter. SNCC arrived in Lowndes in the wake of the Selma-to-Montgomery March in 1965. Alongside local people, led by John Hulett, SNCC staffers organized an independent Black political party known as the Lowndes County Freedom Party with a Black Panther as its logo.

People


Events

“Pull the Lever and Go Home!” Campaign Sign for the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, November 1966, Jim Peppler Southern Courier Photograph Collection, ADAH

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Jack Minnis, Lowndes County Freedom Organization: The Story of the Development of an Independent Political Movement on the County Level, 1967, crmvet.org