INDIANOLA, Miss.—On a warm Thursday evening, people in tailored suits and tucked blouses sat side-by-side in metal chairs at the BB King Museum and Interpretive Center in Indianola, Mississippi. With a glow of Southern hospitality, the crowd received former U.S. House Rep. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts and NAACP President Derrick Johnson.

Kennedy, the son of Joe Kennedy II and a grandson of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, reminded Mississippians of their influence and the country’s duty to protect democracy.

“I think Mississippi has so much to teach our nation about what it means to fight for one another when your government is indifferent to your plight,” Kennedy said.

Mobilizing Young People

Kennedy, the grandnephew of 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy, served four terms in office, emphasizing civil rights and issues that affect historically disenfranchised groups. His time in Congress ended after he ran and failed to secure the Democratic nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat in 2020.

He is not the first Kennedy to visit the Mississippi Delta. In 1967, Robert F. Kennedy, who was a U.S. senator at the time, visited the Mississippi Delta, where he witnessed the poverty and food crises that the region’s mostly Black population was enduring. The experience helped shape his push for food security policies as he launched his 1968 presidential campaign. Robert F. Kennedy died when an assassin shot him during a campaign stop in Los Angeles, California, in June 1968, several months before the Democratic convention that year.

U.S. House Rep. Joe Kennedy III is one of the founders of the Groundwork Project, which does advocacy work in Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia. The organization, established in 2021, says its goal is to support “local community organizers in places where the fight for democracy isn’t over one candidate or one election but over the survival of the American democracy itself.”

The Organizing Accelerator, one of the organization’s trademark programs, works to train and empower younger leaders to fight for democracy in states that they believe have the most dire needs. The Groundwork Project, in partnership with the NAACP, hosts cohorts of young leaders across the country to take part in a 20-week program that teaches the importance and necessity of organizing work in their respective communities.

Derrick Johnson, who served as president of the Mississippi NAACP before leading the national organization, spoke on the power of relationships and the ability to create opportunities that help achieve the goals of civil rights mobilization. Working closely with young people in The Organizing Accelerator program, Johnson reassures attendees that they play an active role in fixing their communities.

“The solution we’re looking for is sitting in the seats in this room,” Johnson said.

Age and Activism

A graduate of Tougaloo College and a fraternity member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Johnson is familiar with the history and nuances of Mississippi politics. Acknowledging the presence of a mixed-age audience, he warned listeners not to be distracted by divisive tropes when it comes to electing officials based on age.

“We should never enter into these conversations with an us-versus-us paradigm. We have never had a successful movement in this state or this country in the Black community without the energy of the young people, the wisdom of the old, and the continuity of those in between,” Johnson said.

Indianola native Meghan Curry, a 2024 Organizing Accelerator cohort member and former president of the University of Mississippi’s NAACP, added her perspective to the conversation regarding age and elected offices in her home state.

She challenged older and younger generations to make a more intentional effort at working together for the betterment of their communities.

“There is a huge need for intergenerational coalition building. We do have to acknowledge the roadblocks and barriers in between making that possible on both ends with the youth and older individuals,” she told the Mississippi Free Press.

“Older individuals need to allocate more space and time to mentor and build young adults. Younger adults have to be receptive to what the older individuals have done for them,” she adds.

Engaging Indianola

The town hall was a group effort hosted by the Groundwork Project, The Davis System, LLC, and the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP.

One of the event organizers, Shequite Johnson, said she is proud to have the event hosted in Indianola because of the recognition it brings to her hometown.

“This is a major event. We don’t normally have national representation in the Mississippi Delta, better yet, Sunflower County. To be able to pour back into our community and have people present that are helping us identify issues that we are so concerned about is major,” she told the Mississippi Free Press on June 5.

Indianola Mayor Ken Featherstone also attended the town hall event. He expressed his gratitude for the men’s willingness to share their experiences and wisdom.

“The nuggets of wisdom that we took away from this event was wonderful. The fact that it was held in Indianola, Mississippi, at the historic B.B. King Museum is a plus,” Featherstone said.

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This article was originally published in the Mississippi Free Press.