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Noted photographer Maria Varela, a former member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), became the first Latina woman to document the struggle for civil rights in the South with her photographs of the Meredith Mississippi March, scenes from the Mississippi Delta, and others.The Meredith Mississippi March was named after James Meredith, the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi, in 1962, after federal courts ruled that he could not be denied admission. In June 1966, Meredith began a walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to encourage African Americans to register to vote. After Meredith was shot and wounded, major civil rights organizations, including Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and SNCC, resumed the march. Varela caught some of those scenes and others on film. A selection of 20 of her photographs, collectively titled "Roots of My Resistance: Mississippi 1965-1967: Civil Rights Photography by Maria Varela," will be on display through Friday, November 14, in the Alumnae House as part of the celebration. Below are some thumbnail samples.
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Children participants of the Meredith Mississippi March, 1966
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Meredith Mississippi March participant entering Canton, Mississippi
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 Children outside their shack, Rosedale, Mississippi
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A voter handbill, Mississippi, 1966, reads: "Attention...Help Elect a Negro Sheriff"
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The Meredith March arrives at Tougaloo
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