OAKLAND, Calif. — It is with profound sadness that the family and friends of musician, activist and living skills counselor, Willie B. “Wazir” Peacock, passed away Sunday morning, April 17, at 12:30 a.m.
Born in Charleston Sept. 5, 1937, he left to attend Rust College in Holly Springs. Because he always had a desire to help humanity in their need and suffering, he had plans to become a medical doctor. However, it was while at Rust that his life of activism began when he participated with a group to organize a boycott of a segregated movie theater.
In 1960, he began working with SNCC, organizing voter registration in northeastern Mississippi, specifically in Greenwood. The more involved he became in the Civil Rights Movement, the more he realized that working toward justice and equality would be a lifelong struggle.
In addition to his work in Civil Rights, for which he received many honors and accolades, including being presented with a key to the city of Holly Springs, Mr. Peacock helped organize cultural revival programs in Mississippi — programs that still exist today, known as the widely celebrated Delta Blues Festival. After working for a while in Los Angeles to build alliances between blacks and latinos, he returned to Mississippi in 1970, where he married and had a family. They moved to the Oakland, Calif. area in 1989.
At the time of his death he had been retired from the Stepping Stones Growth Center, an organization that serves developmentally disabled children and adults. He leaves to mourn his passing his children, cousins, nieces, nephews, many friends in the Charleston area, many former Civil Rights colleagues, and special friends, David and Judy Strain of Berkeley, Calif.
