Editor, Sun-Sentinel:
On Dec. 17, 2022, the noted voting rights organizer, Rev. Willie (Bubba) Blue, passed away.
Mr. Blue graduated from Allen-Carver High School in Charleston, Mississippi, and is credited with writing the lyrics to the school song, which was vocalized in assemblies and other gatherings at the school until the school was integrated.
Anyone from the race (or anyone wanting to see justice done) that didn’t have the right to vote in some states until the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, owes Rev. Blue a debt of gratitude.
He joined the voter rights organization SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the early 1960s.
SNCC was supposed to be the youth wing of Dr. Martin Luther King’s organization, SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference).
Dr. King visited Charleston in 1966, and Mr. Blue was instrumental in getting the civil rights leader to come to Charleston.
Mr. Blue is mentioned in many articles about the civil rights movement written in magazines and books. In one such magazine article in1963, Mr. Blue is pictured with Bob Dylan in Greenwood. Dylan is the writer of the song, “Blowing in the Wind,” the song that Sam Cooke said inspired him to write the iconic song, “A Change Is Gonna Come.”
The New York Times bestselling author Taylor Branch wrote a trilogy of books about the civils rights movement and Dr. King. In one of the books (At Canaan’s Edge), the author mentions Mr. Blue’s name on pages 250 and 251 and his (Blue’s) intricate role in Dr. King’s Chicago campaign to gain fair housing rights in 1966.
Mr. Blue served as the chaplain of the veterans of the civil rights movement organization for many years.
He was courageous, and from his youth he displayed a brilliant mind.
His contribution to the betterment of this society is well documented, and many of us appreciate it.
» Alvin Johnson,
Chicago
