How Lowndes County, Alabama earned the name “Bloody Lowndes” is a tragedy in itself. The county’s high percentage of Black residents attracted white hatred and the barbaric lynchings that came with it.
White supremacists flocked to the area, hoping to silence the town with violence, and for decades it worked – until protest sprang out in 1966.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) became aware of the horrors committed against Black people in Lowndes.
Courageous organizers from nearby Black Belt counties formed the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) to register voters. With more political power, they might finally elect just representatives who could demand accountability and equal protection under the law.
If you’re thinking the LCFO ballot symbol – a snarling black panther – looks awfully familiar, you’re correct.
LCFO was the blueprint that organizer Stokely Carmichael used to develop the Black Power movement, passing on the panther symbol to Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, founders of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.
Sadly, Lowndes never fully recovered. Even with SNCC’s intervention, the organization failed to secure any local political victories and state elected officials soon abandoned the county. As a result, it’s a ghost town today, one that is unable to afford basic necessities for its citizens, such as septic tanks to prevent poisonous waste from impacting the soil and water.
“Bloody Lowndes” is just one example of the pronounced consequences that befall Black populations whose votes are suppressed.