On Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, civil-rights icon Hollis Watkins Muhammad, 82, died peacefully at home with his wife Edna Watkins Muhammad at his side.
Muhammad was born on July 29, 1941, in Summitt, Miss., to sharecroppers John and Lena Watkins. In the 1960s, he became a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—a coalition of young Black college students that was dedicated to nonviolent, direct action tactics to fight racial segregation. Voter-registration campaigns were the primary focus for SNCC members in Mississippi, and their efforts helped propel the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
On July 29, 1961, Muhammad and Curtis Hayes, a fellow 18-year-old who also attended SNCC-led workshops in nonviolent direct action, sat in at the local Woolworth’s in McComb, Miss. This sit-in was the first action of its kind in the area and served as a catalyst for the nonviolent movement in Pike County.
In 1989, Muhammad along with Leroy Johnson and Mike Sayer co-founded Southern Echo, a nonprofit organization focused on empowering marginalized and vulnerable communities throughout the Southern region. “Hollis never wavered in his work to fight for voting rights, equality, fairness and justice to advance opportunities for Black Americans,” Brenda Hyde, current deputy director at Southern Echo, said.
Hollis Watkins Muhammad, center, takes a photo with a group of his mentees in 2010. Photo courtesy Monica McInnis
Muhammad, Sayer and Johnson learned redistricting and map-making from the late Henry Kirksey, one of the first two Black men elected to the Mississippi Legislature. Southern Echo also taught demography skills to its community leaders. As the father of Southern Echo, Muhammad and his staff are credited with engaging the white power structure at the local, county and state levels in Mississippi through the redistricting process. They opened the gates and helped Black elective officials gain more seats in public offices than any other state in the union from the 1990s into the 2000s.
I’ve personally witnessed Muhammad drive at night from Jackson, Miss., through Alabama, through Georgia and to South Carolina just so we could be on time for redistricting training. I quickly
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