Lost history: Reverend M.M. Flynn and the South’s first voter drives

SHREVEPORT, La. ( KTAL/KMSS ) — Though most residents didn't realize it at the time, Rev. Milton McElroy Flynn was a gift to the Shreveport and Grambling communities when he was born on Christmas day in 1900.

Here's why.

Flynn the pastor

At 30 years old, M. M. Flynn began his ministry and began working to make a change both in and out of the civil rights realm.

Flynn pastored several area churches in Northwest Louisiana (NWLA) including Mt. Bethel B.C. in Keithville, Rocky Valley Baptist Church in Grambling, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Homer, and Greenwood Acres Baptist Church in Shreveport.

While maintaining his role as a pastor in the late 1930s, M. M. became one of the earliest recorded Presidents of Shreveport's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

But Reverend M. M. Flynn's efforts during Shreveport's Civil Rights era have been woefully underreported.

Flynn attracts new members to Shreveport's NAACP chapter

The Shreveport Sun, Louisiana's oldest weekly African American Newspaper, reported on March 19, 1938 that NAACP President M. M. Flynn aimed to educate local African Americans "on the necessity (of) facts that concern his rights and happiness and the pursuit of liberty."

An excerpt from the , which was signed by Flynn, stated that all persons, who are interested in civic improvement, a square-deal and jjustice attend the meeting next Tuesday night.

"Bring a friend with you–be a BOOSTER for the membership drive," wrote Flynn.

Only two years later, Flynn's brought international icon William Pickens to speak in Shreveport.

Pickens was a national fixture in the NAACP scene as a field secretary and later Director of Branches for the organization. He was known for his intelligence and oration and was one of the foremost anti-lynching and African American education advocates in the United States and abroad.

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The NAACP event featuring Pickens as the speaker was held at Little Union Baptist Church on Mar. 31, 1938.

Fifteen new members were added to the NAACP's roster in Shreveport on that day.

"For nearly two hours he (Pickens) held the attention of his hearers with logic, wit, and humor. His discourse on the economic(al), social, and anthropological sides of races of the people was very encouraging, and his versatility in discussing such topics was (so) outstanding," we read in a Mar. 31, 1940 copy of The Shreveport Sun.

Flynn in the 1940s

By the early 1940s, Reverend Flynn had become the business manager of an African American mimeograph newspaper called The Announcer. The paper debuted during the black Louisiana State Baptist Convention on July 20th, 1940.

Flynn and his wife Beatrice were well-known in the Shreveport community in the early 1940s for their annual flower and garden shows. The couple invited all citizens to their annual garden that began in 1939 through the Shreveport Beautification Foundation. This became a staple for The Flynn family for the ensuing decades, so much so that they were awarded national recognition.

But during WWII, both Flynn and the congregation he pastored in Grambling hit the national stage when Rocky Valley Baptist Church was selected to appear in a scene from the US Government-sponsored film "Food For Victory."

Rocky Valley Baptist Church was formerly the congregation pastored by Dr. Roy Mayfield.

Roy Mayfield changed Black education in Nashville, Little Rock, Homer, Shreveport

Civilians who stayed home in the United States during WWII were very involved with the war effort. The nation rationed items such as food, metal, clothing, and clothing.

And according to an Aug. 21, 1943 copy of The Shreveport Sun, "Victory Gardens promoted Americans growing their own food to leave more commercially produced fruits and vegetables for the military personnel in the war."

Flynn's church in Grambling was chosen out of thousands of rural, Southern churches. Millions of Americans swa video of the church and their Victory Garden that supported Allied troops in the fight against fascism.

Flynn also opened Flynn Church Supply in Shreveport during the same time period. He sold Bibles, books, songbooks, Sunday school books, and general supplies needed by churches. The store was located on Looney Street in Shreveport.

And as the war continued throughout 1943, Flynn found himself juggling responsibilities in both Shreveport and Grambling. By this point, Flynn was a pastor in Grambling and the president of the Shreveport chapter of the NAACP.

Flynn in the 1950s

In October of 1956, Rev. Flynn traveled to California in Oct. of 1956 to work with the San Francisco chapter of the National Society for the Study of Negro Life and History. He helped the organization conduct an election for their first officers.

Now known simply as the San Francisco African American Historical & Cultural Society, the organization still operates today.

After Flynn returned to Shreveport, he continued to advocate for education. Flynn and Rev. L. D. Scott accompanied four black applicants, later announced as Robert Knowles, Ed Samuel Allen, Beverly Cook, and G. F. Perrie, in seeking admission to the Shreveport Trade School. STS was a White trade school, but the nearest Black trade school was located in Natchitoches, a location that was quite inconvenient for Shreveport's Black community.

Louisiana Senator William Rainach reported that Flynn, Scott, Knowles, Allen, Cook, and Perrie's attempt to attend STS was "Part of a general pattern inspired by the NAACP to break down the social structure of the South."

Powerful Southern segregationist Senator was from Claiborne Parish, Louisiana

Then in early 1958, Flynn helped more than 1000 Black residents of Shreveport register to vote. he Shreveport Sun reported that this voter drive provided a structure that set a precedent for other cities across the south.

Flynn was able to lead the voter drive because he was a highly respected member of the United Christian Movement Inc.'s Board of Directions. Dr. C. O. Simpkins was Flynn's mentor during the voter registration drive.

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As a member of the Board of Directors of the United Christian Movement Inc., under the leadership of the legendary Dr. C. O. Simpkins, he led a successful voting registration drive in early 1958.

The next year, in 1959, the UCM hosted another voter registration drive. But this time it was in collaboration with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and their associate director Ella Baker.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the SCLC's president.

During the planning stages of this drive, Dr. C. O. Simpkins said it would be carried out "quietly and efficiently without a number of rallies."

At that time, local ministers and movement workers in Shreveport knew that local law enforcement was watching them closely.

Around this time, in February of 1959, the U. S. Civil Rights Commission stated that it would investigate "Negro Voter Complaints in the state."

Ironically, in Feb. 1959 the U.S. Civil Rights Commission stated that it would investigate "Negro voter complains in the state."

A photo taken on Feb. 21, 1959, shows Simpkins, Flynn, Ella Baker, and others together during the voter registration drive. Simpkins and Flynn were trying to double the number of Black voters registered in the city of Shreveport. They were focused on re-registering Black voters who had been purged from the list of voters.

It would be another five years before another formal partnership that large formed in the South. That collaboration happened in Mississippi in 1964. It became known as Freedom Summer.

Flynn in the 1960s

In the following years, several major Civil Rights events swept through Shreveport, bringing waves of violence and threats of violence to activists and their families.

And that's where Flynn's trail goes cold.

While we could take the lack of news s about Flynn during the 1960s as proof that he was inactive in the fight for civil rights. But in reality there are good reasons that Flynn went underground. He was busy with secret meetings that were being held away from the watchful eyes of local law enforcement. (Officers and deputies were constantly searching for ways to disrupt and intimidate movement workers.)

By 1965, Rev. Flynn was the Pastor of Greenwood Acres Baptist Church in Shreveport, where he held secret CORE meetings and quietly rallied the troops. The summer of 1965 found many Southern states addressing barriers to Black voter registration. But CORE also expanded their goals to empower local leadership in areas lacking racial progress.

A memo about CORE objectives states that "We have come to realize that voter registration and desegregation of public accommodations and facilities are not enough if we are to truly change the social, political, and educational structures that are based and thrive upon the premise that Negroes are inferior, unintelligent animals. The problems are deeper than lack of the vote and legislated segregation, and many aspects must be tackled at the same time if the whole is to emerge sound and sensible. CORE, through its upcoming summer projects, is trying to expand and develop an effective program that not only reaches more areas more effectively, but establishes a wide range of activity on many more levels of concern. In a recent meeting of CORE's National Action Council, the decision was made to assign top priority to the 1965 Louisiana Summer Project. The decision was a result of the realization of Louisiana's importance not only in the political arena of the nation at this time, but in the progress that can be made, considering the current atmosphere of the state, in the field of human relations in the South if successful emphasis is placed upon the area immediately. Recent events in Jonesboro and Bogalusa have made it imperative that massive, positive steps be taken now to open the way for social progress in Louisiana. The summer project will enable those presently working in the state to take constructive advantage of the political and emotional momentum now present, to mobilize the negro community, and aid in setting up the programs the community feels are important."

One CORE flyer from a meeting at Greenwood Acres asked local citizens to think about the following questions:

A copy of the Shreveport Sun from Aug. 3, 1967 stated that there were projects in Shreveport, Jonesboro, Alexandria, St. Francisville, Baton Rouge, Clinton, Bogalusa, Monroe, Plaquemine, and New Orleans.

"In order to carry out the proposed program, more base projects, as previously mentioned, will be set up to more adequately cover the state and additional staff brought in. About 200 volunteers will work in the various project communities to develop programs and train local people so that activity will continue to grow and strengthen long after the summer is over and the workers have gone," stated the Shreveport Sun.

But in Shreveport, CORE activity was not reported by local media outlets.

And that's where you could find Reverend Flynn. He was working in the underground of the movement, diligently doing what needed to be done in secrecy.

In 1967, Reverend M. M. Flynn was elected to the position of Vice Chairman of the Caddo-Bossier Council on Human Rights. The group aimed to oversee school desegregation play out without threats of violence. They wanted to improve race relations.

Future Southern University President Leon Tarver and Shreveport attorney Graham Rogers were leaders in the Caddo-Bossier Council on Human Rights.

By 1969, Flynn was the president of Shreveport's Mary Church Terrell Club.

Mary Church Terrell was an anti-lynching, women's rights advocate and one of the founding members of the NAACP. In her " Lynching from a Negro's Perspective ," she wrote about an innocent Black man who was lynched in Shreveport in April of 1902.

Flynn's presidency of the Mary Church Terrell Club in Shreveport gave him, and the group, the opportunity to focus on poverty, the lack of head-start programs for Black residents of Shreveport, to discuss scholarship disparities and local night schools for adults.

Cora Allen was one of the founding members of the Marcy Church Terrell Club in Shreveport. Allen was also the President of the National Association of Colored Women for Louisiana.

She also owned the Calanthean Temple in downtown Shreveport and was one of the most prominent Black women in the nation.

Dr. Flynn in the 1970s

In 1972, Flynn became Dr. M. M. Flynn when he earned his Doctor of Divinity degree from Union Baptist Seminary in Birmingham, Alabama.

Dr. Rev. M. M. Flynn, Dr. C. M. Lester Hersey D. Wilson, and Rev. E. Edward Jones were all elected to the Caddo Parish Police Jury.

They were the first African Americans to hold seats on the jury.

Flynn ran on the campaign phrase, "You can depend on Flynn."

Flynn was not a quiet juror. He called for restructuring the Parish Penal System. He encouraged better communication between the city council and the police jury. He strongly supported the review of potentially discriminatory hiring practices in Caddo Parish jobs.

In 1972, Shreveport's first annual Freedom Recognition Banquet honored the achievements of the city's NAACP President Herman Farr; State Representative-elect Alphonse Jackson, Jr.; Dr. Rev. M. M. Fynn; Dr. C. M. Lester; and Rev. E. Edward Jones.

Flynn had much to lose when he was active in Shreveport's civil rights movement.

But he was a self-employed man who was unafraid to fight for social progress. He was a barber, a preacher, a businessman, and an activist.

Dr. M. M. Flynn died in Seattle, Washington on Jan. 5, 1985.

He was 85 years old.

SOURCES:

Mik Barnes is a graduate student at LSU Shreveport. He and Jaclyn Tripp are both members of the KTAL, LSU Shreveport, and Red River Radio Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail Project team.

Mik took the lead on this .