Current:Home > StocksDorie Ann Ladner, civil rights activist who fought for justice in Mississippi and beyond, dies at 81 -Momentum Wealth Path
Dorie Ann Ladner, civil rights activist who fought for justice in Mississippi and beyond, dies at 81
View
Date:2025-04-13 19:32:30
Dorie Ann Ladner, a longtime fighter for freedom and equality in her home state of Mississippi with contributions to the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and voter registration drives, has died, her family confirmed.
“My beloved sister, Dorie Ladner, died peacefully on Monday, March 11, 2024,” her younger sister, Joyce Ladner, wrote on Facebook. “She will always be my big sister who fought tenaciously for the underdog and the dispossessed. She left a profound legacy of service.”
Dorie Ladner was 81.
In a telephone interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Joyce Ladner said she and her sister were born 15 months apart and grew up in Palmer’s Crossing, a community just south of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
“My sister was extraordinary. She was a very strong and tough person and very courageous,” she said.
One example of that courage, she recalled, happened when they were about 12 years old and went to a store to buy donuts.
“The white cashier came up behind Dorie and hit her on the butt. She turned around and beat him over the head with those donuts,” Joyce Ladner said with a giggle.
“We were scared but you know how you have that feeling of knowing you had done the right thing? That’s what overcame us,” she said.
Dorie Ladner and her sister went on to help organize an NAACP Youth Council Chapter in Hattiesburg. When they attended Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, they continued demonstrating against the segregation policies within the state. Those activities ultimately got both of them expelled from the school but in fall 1961, they both enrolled at Tougaloo College where they became active members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
“SNCC was the green beret of the civil rights movement,” Joyce Ladner said. “She dropped out of college three times to work full time with SNCC. She was extremely intense about the rights of Black people. She would tell me ‘I can’t study while our people are suffering.’”
Dorie Ladner was one of the first workers to go to Natchez, Mississippi in 1967, to help people register to vote, her sister said. The experience was harrowing at times, amid heightened Ku Klux Klan activity.
“Oftentimes the phone would ring at 3 a.m. which was never a good sign,” she said. “The person on the other end of the line would say ‘Dorie, y’all have two choices. You can stay in there and we’ll burn you and the house up or you can come outside and we’ll shoot you to death.’ That kind of stress would be unbearable for almost anyone, but they stayed.”
Ladner said one of the people her sister helped register to vote was Fannie Lou Hamer, who often said that experience and her involvement with SNCC helped her find her voice for freedom. She also knew other civil rights luminaries such as NAACP state field representative Medgar Evers, who was assassinated in 1963; Hattiesburg NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer and Clyde Kennard, another NAACP leader who had attempted to integrate the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
Dorie Ladner was a key organizer for Mississippi Freedom Summer, a volunteer campaign launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi. She also attended every major civil rights protest from 1963 to 1968, including the March on Washington and the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, Joyce Ladner said.
Dorie Ladner died in Washington, D.C., where she called home since 1974, her sister said.
“She became a social worker and worked in the ER at DC General Hospital for 28 years,” she said. “That was an extension of her organizing and fighting for people, helping people through their crises.”
In addition to Ladner, Dorie Ladner’s survivors include her daughter, Yodit Churnet, and a 13-year-old grandson “who she doted on,” Ladner said.
A memorial service is pending.
veryGood! (89)
Related
- Travis Hunter, the 2
- Binance was once FTX's rival and possible savior. Now it's trying not to be its sequel
- In a year marked by inflation, 'buy now, pay later' is the hottest holiday trend
- In bad news for true loves, inflation is hitting the 12 Days of Christmas
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- Our Shopping Editor Swore by This Heated Eyelash Curler— Now, We Can't Stop Using It
- How new words get minted (Indicator favorite)
- Two Indicators: The fight over ESG investing
- The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room
- Minnesota and the District of Columbia Allege Climate Change Deception by Big Oil
Ranking
- North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
- Nikki McCray-Penson, Olympic gold-medalist and Women's Basketball Hall of Famer, dies at 51
- Ohio’s Nuclear Bailout Plan Balloons to Embrace Coal (while Killing Renewable Energy Rules)
- Eric Adams Said Next to Nothing About Climate Change During New York’s Recent Mayoral Primary
- How to watch the 'Blue Bloods' Season 14 finale: Final episode premiere date, cast
- Heather Rae and Tarek El Moussa's Baby Boy Tristan Undergoes Tongue-Tie Revision
- Make Waves With These 17 The Little Mermaid Gifts
- Warming Trends: Asian Carp Hate ‘80s Rock, Beekeeping to Restore a Mountain Top and a Lot of Reasons to Go Vegan
Recommendation
Rams vs. 49ers highlights: LA wins rainy defensive struggle in key divisional game
A Pandemic and Surging Summer Heat Leave Thousands Struggling to Pay Utility Bills
Market Headwinds Buffet Appalachia’s Future as a Center for Petrochemicals
How new words get minted (Indicator favorite)
South Korea's acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after Yoon impeachment
In a year marked by inflation, 'buy now, pay later' is the hottest holiday trend
Extremely overdue book returned to Massachusetts library 119 years later
Chicago officers under investigation over sexual misconduct allegations involving migrants living at police station