Going National
In his childhood years, local politics were the big focus in Holmes’ hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Figures like Cecil B. Moore — a prominent lawyer, civil rights activist, and president of the Philadelphia NAACP chapter — were working to bring the national Movement to their local communities.
Holmes vividly remembers listening to his grandmother and aunt discuss who was running for office and what they stood for. The daily paper they insisted on buying helped them stay up-to- date.
They had good reason. The sisters were born in the early 1900s, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the heart of the Jim Crow South.
By the time they came to Philadelphia in the 1920s, they realized local politicians would play the most direct role in how their community was treated.
But by the late 1950s and early 1960s, their focus had turned to the national stage.
“The big push was on for the Civil Rights Movement. We’d seen the Brown v. Board of Education case unfold. That was the first time I saw my grandmother and aunt get into voting on a national scale,” Holmes said. “Up until then, the focus was more on local politics, because that’s where you saw most of the civil rights activists doing their work.
“But with all of these events going on, and Kennedy running, I think their thought process shifted to, ‘Who’s going to care for us and our concerns at the national level?’”
On election day, Jackson — a homemaker — would ensure that all of her chores were done well in advance of her sister’s return from her job in a high school cafeteria.
They insisted on two things: that they would always go to the polls together, and that nothing would interfere with them casting their vote.