Mary Dora Jones, at the risk of her life and threats to burn down her home, took in seven blacks and four whites during the Freedom Summer of 1964 in Marks, Mississippi. “Some of the black folks got the news that they were gonna burn it down,” she reflected. “My neighbors was afraid of gettin’ killed. People standin’ behind buildin’s, peepin’ out behind the buildin’s, to see what’s goin’ on. So I just told ’em, ‘Dyin’ is all right. Ain’t but one thing ’bout dyin’. That’s make sho’ you right, cause you gon’ die anyway.’ . . . If they burnt it down, it was just a house burn down. . .
