December 20

O come, Desire of Nations, guide us past the fears that would divide. From breath and clay all people made, plant peace within our hearts, we pray.

The Join the Movement Team

 

Abolitionist Profile

The Miles family farm near Batesville, Mississippi was a hub for civil rights activity in Panola County. Throughout the sixties, the family sheltered and fed young activists coming to the county to organize local Blacks for political and economic power. But Robert Miles’s activism began before civil rights activists came to the county. In 1959, he helped to organize a local NAACP branch. When the branch folded because of intense economic and political pressure from the county’s white elites, Miles organized a Voters’ League to take its place. During Freedom Summer, Miles played a leading role in organizing the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in Panola County who sought to challenge the seats held by Mississippi at the Democratic National Convention.  Miles connected his civil rights activism to his farming background.  He helped form a cooperative with local okra farmers after a white purchaser refused to pay more for the crop. Under his leadership, the co-op expanded to include other vegetables and cotton and applied for a $113,000 grant from the Farmer’s Home Association for land and equipment. By the mid-1960s, many of the Black agricultural workers in Panola County, with the help of Mr. Miles, were experimenting with abolitionist strategies to strengthen Black economic and political power in the county, ensuring not only that people got fed, and cultural crops could continue to be farmed, but also that the racist history of farming in the area be known, challenged and transformed.

Prayer

With seeds of justice and roots of mercy, come Desire of Nations.
In practices of remembering, restoration, and repair, come Desire of Nations.
With dignity that cannot be denied, come Desire of Nations.
In the daily practice of abolition, come Desire of Nations.