[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 27 (Friday, February 17, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E226-E227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING THE LIFE OF MR. ROBERT C. MANTS, JR.--CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST 
                        AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 17, 2012

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the 
life of Mr. Robert C. Mants, Jr. of Lowndes County, Alabama. Mr. Mants 
will most notably be remembered as one the four civil rights leaders of 
the ``Bloody Sunday'' march in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965. He was 
also a very well known and respected community organizer and activist.
  Mr. Mants was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia in 1943. While in 
the 11th grade, at the age of 16, he was the youngest member of the 
Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, an Atlanta student movement. 
During this time, he also volunteered at the Student Non-Violent 
Coordinating Committee Headquarters (SNCC) in Atlanta. After graduating 
from high school in 1961, he briefly attended Morehouse College before 
deciding to dedicate one hundred percent of his time to the Civil 
Rights Movement.
  By the summer of 1964, Mr. Mants was working for SNCC in Americus, 
Georgia. While working with the SNCC Southwest Georgia Project, he met 
his future wife, Joann Christian. In early 1965, he went to work in 
Lowndes County, Alabama, and was instrumental in the planning of the 
Selma-to-Montgomery March in March 1965. The march was organized at the 
request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with the goal to lead 
protestors to Montgomery and ask Governor George Wallace for protection 
for black voter registrants. The march was led by Mr. Mants, Mr. John 
Lewis, Mr. Albert Turner, and Reverend Hosea Williams.
  On ``Bloody Sunday,'' Mr. Mants was in the front ranks of an 
estimated 600 marchers as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 
Selma, Alabama. Waiting for them on the other side of the bridge was a 
wall of Alabama state troopers. Subsequently, the demonstrators were 
brutally attacked with nightsticks and fired upon with tear gas. 
Seventeen marchers were hospitalized, and the day was nicknamed 
``Bloody Sunday.'' Televised images of the

[[Page E227]]

brutal attacks presented people with horrifying images of marchers left 
bloodied and severely injured, and roused support for the United States 
Civil Rights Movement. Two weeks later, Mr. Mants helped lead thousands 
of activists from around the country on a weeklong march from Selma to 
Montgomery to urge state officials to end practices aimed at keeping 
black Alabamians from voting.
  Mr. Mants could have easily bypassed the growing civil rights 
movement of the 1960s by remaining at Morehouse College and pursuing 
``a well-worn path'' to success. Instead, he became involved in the 
movement during its early stages and established a leadership 
reputation that put him on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 
7, 1965.
  Shortly after the marches, Mr. Mants moved to nearby Lowndes County, 
Alabama to continue his work with the SNCC. Although the Lowndes County 
population was roughly 80 percent African-American, no black had 
successfully registered to vote in more than 60 years, as the county 
was controlled by 86 white families who owned 90 percent of the land. 
As a result, the SNCC created the Lowndes County Freedom Organization 
(LCFO) in 1965. The LCFO was a political party that formed to represent 
African-Americans in the central Alabama Black Belt (17) counties.
  The LCFO was also known as the ``Black Panther Party.'' The Party's 
goal was to promote and place its own candidates in political offices 
throughout the Alabama Black Belt. In 1966, while their attempts were 
unsuccessful, they continued to fight and their goal and motto of 
``black power'' spread outside of Alabama. The movement spread all over 
the Nation. Two black Californians, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, 
asked for permission to use the Black Panther emblem that the LCFO had 
adopted for their newly formed Black Panther Party. The Oakland-based 
Black Panther Party became a much more prominent organization than the 
LCFO. Thus few people remember the origins of this powerful symbol with 
impoverished African-Americans in a rural Alabama County.
  Mr. Mants continued to live and work in Lowndes County until his 
untimely death in December 2011. Although he was known more as a civil 
rights leader and community organizer, Mr. Mants also served as a 
Lowndes County Commissioner for many years, and was Chairman of the 
nonprofit ``Lowndes County Friends of the Historic Trail.'' Mr. Mants 
is survived by his wife of 45 years, Joann Christian Mants, and three 
children--Kadisha, Kumasi, and Katanga.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that our colleagues join me in honoring the life 
and legacy of Mr. Robert C. Mants, Jr., a global citizen and activist 
for civil rights.

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