National support to the local region that ultimately helped turned the tide toward voting equality came to Leflore County in the 1960s. The Kennedy administration created the Voter Education Project which gave support to national organizations who sent in local economic and volunteer support to voter registration efforts. In 1962, multiple civil rights organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) came into Leflore County and Greenwood for the sole objective of registering blacks to vote. Locals who had been influenced by these organizations from the state and national level first began to make inroads into the community – like activist Sam Block from Cleveland. Their entrance was slow and extremely labored, volunteers working door to door and living hand to mouth. Workers were arrested and put in jail on sham charges. They were harassed by officials and often had to change living and working locations lest those locals who were giving them support suffer as well.
Parker, Frank. Black Votes Count: Political Empowerment in Mississippi After 1965.
Payne, Charles. I’ve Got the Light of Freedom.