VIOLA HARRIS MCFERREN

Fayette County - Viola Harris McFerren, 81, a civil rights activist and advocate for seniors, died of natural causes on April 22, 2013. Born October 19, 1931, the eleventh of twelve children, to Joseph T. Harris and Rose Etta Webb Harris, Viola McFerren was raised in Benton County, MS, where she experienced racial injustices. In 1950, she married John McFerren (divorced 1980), a resident of Fayette County, TN whose family had lived generations under segregation. In the fall of 1960, 257 black families were living in tents on the farms of two black landowners, having been evicted from farms owned by whites because they registered to vote. Tent City, as it came to be known throughout the nation, was a striking symbol of the early civil rights struggle. Viola quickly joined her husband John and other activists to bring the plight of Tent City residents to national attention, marking the beginning of a lifetime of activism and community service. During the 1960s, McFerren traveled throughout the United States delivering speeches and spearheading food and clothing drives for blacks in Fayette County. She and her husband opened a grocery store/gas station in Somerville, TN after blacks could not get those services elsewhere. In 1961, the national focus on Fayette County persuaded President John Kennedy to order the federal government to send food to Tent City and other poor black residents. In 1960, McFerren became a chartered member of a reorganized activist group, The Original Fayette County Civic and Welfare League (the “Civic League”). Its initial mission was voter registration, but it quickly expanded to include integration of public facilities and schools, and access to credit and employment for blacks. From 1966 to 1967, McFerren was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to serve on the National Community Representative Advisory Council to the Office of the President of the United States. This council advised the Office of Economic Opportunity, which administered the Anti-Poverty Program. Determined to secure a quality education for black children, Viola and John McFerren consented to their son serving as the named plaintiff in the 1965 school desegregation case, John McFerren, Jr., v. Fayette County Board of Education. This case remains open today with a consent order entered in August 2012 outlining a comprehensive plan to desegregate and consolidate Fayette County schools. From 1978 until she retired in 1995, McFerren was the executive director of the Fayette County Commission on Aging, Inc., where she worked tirelessly to secure resources for senior citizens. McFerren was the last president of the Civic League and presided over the sale of its building. In 2010, the sale proceeds were used to establish a $100,000 college scholarship fund. McFerren and the Civic League’s board concluded that they would further their legacy of activism by supporting educational opportunities for students who showed a commitment to social change. McFerren graduated from Fayette County Training School and was a licensed cosmetologist. Throughout her life, she was devoted, loving, and generous to her five children and to extended family and friends. She was an outstanding seamstress, gardener, and cook. Viola McFerren was preceded in death by her son, the late John McFerren, Jr., and is survived by daughters Jacqueline McFerren, Claudia McFerren-Jones, Daphene R. McFerren of Memphis, TN; and a son, Harris N. McFerren of Atlanta, GA. McFerren is also survived by a brother, Harry Montague Harris of Millington, TN. A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 11 am at New Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 13510 N. Main Street in Somerville, TN. Service arrangements are with J. A. Lofties Funeral Home. Memorials may be made to the University of Memphis Foundation and mailed to the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis, 107 Scates Hall, Memphis, TN 38152.