Ladner remembered as ‘giant in the civil rights movement’

This story was published online at 5:08 p.m., Tuesday,
March 12, 2024, by The Natchez Democrat.

By Roscoe Barnes III

Dorie Ladner. Photo by Deborah Menkart (Click on image to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ – Dorie Ann Ladner, who fought for civil rights
and voter registration in Natchez, has died, her sister, Joyce Ladner,
announced on Tuesday. Dorie Ladner was 81.

“My beloved sister, Dorie Ladner, died peacefully on
Monday, March 11, 2024. She will always be my big sister who fought tenaciously
for the underdog and the dispossessed. She left a profound legacy of service,”
Joyce Ladner shared in a Facebook post. 

Dorie Ladner is remembered as a giant in the civil rights
movement who worked closely with such leaders as Bill Ware, George Greene, and
George Metcalfe, among others.

Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-Clifford M. Boxley, who knew Dorie
Ladner personally, said it was interesting that she died on Monday, one day
before the polls opened Tuesday on primary election day in Natchez.  In a Facebook post shared Tuesday, Boxley
said he “brought her back to Natchez to tell her story and free her spirit from
all the pent-up stress generated when she did outstanding community organizing
for [the] SNCC Voters Project.” 

‘A good job done’

Boxley wrote that she had not returned to Natchez since
leaving “after having plowed the grounds for voters’ civil rights and a good
job done.” 

Boxley said he brought Dorie Ladner, and the Rev. Al
Sampson of Chicago of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to Natchez
in 2015 for the 50th anniversary of the modern civil rights movement in Natchez
as part of his annual Black and Blue Civil War Living History program. The
guests spoke at Jefferson College. 

Dorie Ladner was one of the first workers to come to
Natchez to get people to vote, said Bobby Dennis, executive director of the
NAPAC museum. “That was the beginning of the time when we had a heightened
length of Ku Klux Klan activity here in Natchez,” he said.

Dennis said that when Dorie Ladner returned to Natchez as
part of Boxley’s program, she visited the NAPAC museum. 

Dennis pointed to the film, “Black Natchez” (1967), which
presents a documentary of the Natchez movement. He noted that Dorie Ladner is
shown approaching activist Bill Ware as he stood on top of a car in front of
the NAACP Headquarters. She rushed to him and beckoned for his attention. When
he knelt to hear her, she said, “The mayor rejected all of the demands.” 

SNCC Field Secretary Dorie Ladner speaking passionately to volunteers in a training session on nonviolent self-defense in June 1964 in Ohio. Photo courtesy of Dr. Joyce Ladner

In addition to fellow activists, Dorie Ladner’s work has
been praised by scholars, historians, and government leaders. The Mississippi
Humanities Council described her as “a giant in the civil rights movement.”

“Dorie Ladner was a vital part of the grassroots effort
to change Mississippi and America,” said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director
of the Mississippi Humanities Council. “A native of the small community of
Palmer’s Crossing, she took her experience in the Mississippi movement to
become a national leader in the effort for civil rights. The Mississippi
Humanities Councils looks forward to honoring the life and legacy of Ms. Ladner
and her sister Joyce with a new Freedom Trail Marker to be dedicated in their
hometown on May 4th.” 

Metcalfe Boarding House 

Dorie Ladner was a member of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC).  In 1964,
during Freedom Summer, she was one of several women who stayed at the Dr. John
Banks House at 9 St. Catherine St. At the time, the house served as the
headquarters for the Natchez Branch of the NAACP. It was also home to NAACP
President George Metcalfe, who lived on the first floor. 

The civil rights workers called the residence “Metcalfe
Boarding House.” They stayed at the house following the bombing of Freedom
House #1 at 611 S. Wall St., according to Boxley. 

John Dittmer wrote about the bombing in his book, “Local
People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi” (University of Illinois
Press, 1995):  “In the late summer of
1964, when SNCC organizers Dorie Ladner, Chuck McDew, and Charles Neblett
inaugurated COFO’s first project in Adams County, a bomb destroyed the building
next to the house where the SNCC workers were staying. Chief of Police J.T.
Robinson told Ladner that the ‘bomb was meant for you. I’m surprised you
haven’t been killed already.’” 

Dorie Ladner featured in ProPublica article, “Keep on Pushing” (Sept. 18, 2014). Photo by T.J. Kirkpatrick. Courtesy of  Dr. Joyce Ladner.

Other women who stayed at Metcalfe Boarding House
included Janet Jemmott, who would later marry the respected civil rights
leader, Bob Moses; and Annie Pearl Avery, who sometimes guarded the house using
her .22 pistol, according to SNCC.

Her later years 

During Dorie Ladner’s later years, she struggled as her
health began to deteriorate. A few weeks before her passing, her daughter,
Yodit Churnet, opened a GoFundMe page for her mother. 

“Dorie Ladner is at a critical time of her life and is in
urgent need of home healthcare assistance,” she wrote. “She suffered a stroke
and was struck with cancer and underwent a mastectomy. She is also suffering
from debilitating back problems such as arthritis and spinal stenosis (surgery
in October 2023) and is still in recovery.” 

Churnet noted her mother joined the movement while still
a teenager and continued to work for human and civil rights for more than 60
years. 

“America is a much more democratic society because of the
sacrifices made by Dorie to end racial segregation,” she wrote. “Millions of
African Americans throughout the South are now able to vote and participate in
determining the direction of America because of her contributions.”

Read more at:
https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2024/03/12/ladner-remembered-as-giant-in-the-civil-rights-movement/