A CELEBRATION OF LIFE & MEMORIAL SERVICE
FOR
WILLIE B. WAZIR
PEACOCK
S E P T E M B E R 5, 1 9 3 7 - A P R I L 1 7, 2 0 1 6
SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2016 | 1:00 pm
Tabernacle of Praise Church of God In Christ
1971 Forest Avenue
Jackson, MS 39213
Elder Timothy L. Curry, Pastor
Bro. Hollis Watkins Muhammad, Officiating
Quest & Question of Peacock
Peace, Love and Happy Smiles
Emerge from my roots & boy is they nappy
Submerge you in the boots of the life of my granpappy
Under the shotgun roof, born in Tallahatchie
‟37 the year, September 5, date exactly
Humid & it‟s hot, that‟s no mystery
Mississippi brought pains & no doubt misery
To sharecrop or not? The family‟s plight essentially
To free his brother from chains of the penitentiary
Attended the, elementary, got A‟s and B‟s
Extended the, history studies, mostly slavery
Epiphany, his home life and behavior seems
A simile, same shackles, unchain me please
Woke up thinking it was a normal day
but oh my oh my was I wrong
The sun was up and the birds were out
but my dear grandpa was gone
If I had the chance to tell you one last thing
it might sound like this
“Fly high and later on in the land of peace we
will meet,
but you have to remember to save your
grand baby a seat”
Some heroes wear capes, spandex or a mask
But my favorite hero fought for equality and
grew old with fine red wine in his glass.
Sure you were good at fighting and standing for
what you believe
But the one thing I‟ll miss are the jokes and
laughs that brought us tumbling to our knees!
I‟m proud of you, I love you and the list can go
on and on
But one thing I can say for sure is that even
though you are gone
your motto of “peace…love…..and happy
smiles” will surely live on.
Love,
Dana
Your Granddaughter
Pray when he wake, Sun gon‟ shine
He got freedom on his mind
Peacock struttin‟ to a new song
I am cuttin‟, I am gone
Peacock left he had to swerve on „em
Year on the streets, they ain‟‟t heard from him
Peacock left he had to swerve on „em
Talk down on his name, throw dirt on him
Dwight Hill, Jr.,
Grandson
ORDER OF SERVICE
Mr. Hollis Watkins Muhammad, Officiating
Chairman, Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc.
Opening Song………….…….”Woke Up This Morning”.....…………...The SNCC Freedom Singers
Opening Prayer……………….………………………….…..…………………Elder Woodruff Logins
Tabernacle of Praise Church of God In Christ
Scripture………………………………………………………..…………………Elder Howard Marye
Associate Elder, St Luke Church of God in Christ, Greenwood, MS
Welcome……………………………………………………..………...Mr. Hollis Watkins Muhammad
Freedom Song…………………….….“Get On Board”…….……………………………Led by Willie
As featured on the ―Voices of the Civil Rights Movement –Black American Freedom Songs CD
Tributes…………..………………....……………………....................................... Mr. Dwight Hill, Jr.
Grandson
Mr. Arvester “Smitty” Smith
Friend
Mr. Mac Arthur Cotton
Civil Rights Veterans
Dr. Leslie Burl McLemore
Founding Director, Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy
Other Family/Friends/Movement Veterans
Freedom Song…………………….“Calypso Freedom Song”…………………………...Led by Willie
As featured on the ―Voices of the Civil Rights Movement –Black American Freedom Songs CD
Video Presentation......…………………”In His Own Words”..…….………………… “PEACOCK”
Acknowledgements…………..…………………..………..…..….………………….. Ms. Anita Burton
Niece
Presentation…………………………………………………………………..…...Ms. Margaret Kibbee
Ms. Brenda Travis
Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc.
Words of Thanks………………………….…………………….. Ms. Della Hill & Mr. Pallo Peacock
Daughter & Son
Freedom Songs……….…..…………………………….…………....…...The SNCC Freedom Singers
Closing Remarks….……………....................................................... Mr. Hollis Watkins Muhammad
Benediction……………………………..……………………………….……………. Rev. Willie Blue
Chaplain, Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc.
Please join the family for a fellowship meal immediately following!
WILLIE B. WAZIR
PEACOCK
S E P T E M B E R 5 ,1 93 7 - A PRI L 1 7 , 2016
Willie B. (Wazir) Peacock was born on September 5, 1937, to the late George Washington and Della Mae Peacock
in Charleston, MS. He departed this life on April 17, 2016 at the Creekside Health Care Center in San Pablo, CA.
He ran away from home at an early age, and he would often say that‟s when he knew he had a calling to fight injustice due to circumstances of injustice to his family whereby his father was forced to move to a “plantation” and Willie was not able to accept this circumstance. After running away for the second time, just a few months before his
fifteenth birthday, Willie returned home after the family moved from the plantation to Grenada, MS. His greatest
motivation was to do something practical about the conditions faced by black people, his people and he returned to
school and finished High School. He won a 4-year music scholarship to attend Rust College in Holly Springs, MS
and performed with the Male Acapella Choir. He sang throughout his life and he especially enjoyed singing.
In 1960, his first true foray into activism was helping to organize a boycott of a local movie theater that was segregated in Holly Springs. He knew about the sit-ins by black college students in Raleigh, North Carolina and some
Rust students wanted to show their solidarity. The balcony of the movie theater in Holly Springs was segregated so
he and others organized a student boycott of the theater. They tried to get the students at a nearby industrial college
to join them, but the president made them go to the theater and break the boycott.
From the boycott, he moved on to voter registration in Holly Springs. In fall, 1960, he met his first Student
Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) representatives, Jim Bevel, Sam Block, Dewey Greene, Jr., and Dion
Diamond. In 1962, he met Frank Smith at Rust College who was the SNCC Field Secretary. Recognizing the
importance of the vote in getting access to things such as education, housing, and paved roads, Willie and Frank
started taking people to register to vote. There, they became known as the “two lil Black FBIs.” Willie organized a
credit union with Frank until they graduated from Rust College.
Willie had a strong desire to become a medical doctor and was headed to Meharry Medical School College in
Nashville, TN but went home to Charleston. He wanted to help humanity with the unmet needs and suffering he
encountered early in life but he heeded the call of Activism. Amzie Moore, a friend of Willie‟s father (both men
were Prince Hall Masons), and Bob Moses came to see him because help was needed in Sunflower County and they
heard about Willie‟s work in Holly Springs. They recruited him to join SNCC‟s voter registration efforts and he left
the same day for Cleveland, MS to the disappointment of his mother and with the blessings of his father. He then
joined Sam Block in Greenwood. Gaining local trust in these early days in Greenwood was not easy but Willie and
Sam were persistent, and they continued to knock on doors although many were slammed in their face. Eventually,
“the people stepped out on faith.”
From 1961-1966, Willie served as a Field Secretary of SNCC where he co-organized in Greenwood (Leflore
County) Carroll, Holmes, Humphreys, Montgomery Counties and all over Mississippi. Things began to move very
fast after this. He had to organize for the Voter Education Project (VEP). They pulled together the Council of
Federated Organizations (SNCC, CORE, SCLC and the NAACP) at a church in Clarksdale, Miss., with Bob Moses
as COFO director.
To continue his education, Willie enrolled at Tuskegee Institute in the fall of 1964 where he became active with
the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League, a student civil right organization, and then worked with SNCC
organizers in Macon, Montgomery, and Lowndes Counties, and Selma, Alabama during the year of 1965.
In 1965, he founded the Mississippi Folk Festival, where he promoted Black culture by organizing a festival which
would highlight the music such as gospel, spiritual, and blues; artistic crafts such as quilting, food preservation, food
processing, making molasses and corn meal. The festival was featured in Milestone, McComb, Greenwood and Itta
Bena, MS and is known as the widely celebrated Delta Blues Festival, which still exists today. The festival was
featured in Downbeat magazine and in the March 1966 issue of Ebony magazine.
Willie worked in Los Angeles, CA in the late 60s helping to build alliances between African-Americans and Latinos.
In 1966, Willie served as a co-organizer of the Black Political Liberation Organization in Inglewood, CA. In that
capacity, he assisted local black candidates in organizing for their electoral political positioning. He also participated
in the first campaign for the late former mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley.
Beginning in July 1966 until May 1970, Willie served as a
Neighborhood Adult Participation Project Community Developer in
Huntington Park, CA. He trained and assisted students with job
placements, worked with center directors to strategize community
activities, conducted leadership training seminars and contacted
with businesses for job placement among other things. This project
became one of the most outstanding social service-oriented organizations in the area.
Willie returned to Mississippi in 1970 where he married and started
a family. From 1970 to 1989, Willie worked with several organizations in Jackson, MS and in many capacities throughout his career
including the following: The Liberty House (marketed and sold
products produced by the Poor People‟s Corporation); Mississippi
Community Documentation Committee Co-Organizer (chronicled
and organized documentation of events, individuals and places of
history of the civil rights movement in the state of Mississippi);
Hanging Moss East Cooperative Community Organizer (established
the first city-wide recycling program and promoted a racially
integrated neighborhood through understanding of and cooperation
with one another); and the Director of the Clinic of Herbal Medicine (assisted clients to see the connections
between their health, environment, social, economic, and political issues.
Willie moved his family to the Bay Area in 1989. He continued to love and serve humanity by working with the
developmentally challenged children and adults as an Independent Living Services Instructor at the Stepping
Stones Growth Center in San Leandro, CA until he retired. He was also a member of the Vukani Mawethu Choir,
who sang freedom songs of Southern Africa and performed concerts to raise funds to support the African National
Congress. They were honored to sing before the former president, the late Nelson Mandela.
Wazir was a founding member of the Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement (Bay Vets) in 1999. He
became an important guide and contributor to the Civil Rights Movement Veterans website. Most of the members
had been active in the Movement in Alabama and Mississippi from 1963 on, so he was the link to the early
pioneering days when young students were first stepping up and, "daring to stand in a strong sun and cast a sharp
shadow."
While in the Bay Area, Wazir loved to speak about the Freedom Movement to community groups, churches, and
most definitely school kids. He had a special affinity for reaching the younger children in elementary school with
whom he could talk about what it was like growing up as a child in segregated, Jim Crow Mississippi. And he
loved -- and they loved -- being able to share with them the freedom songs of the Freedom Movement.
For six years, Wazir was a primary resource expert for the San Francisco summer Freedom School program that
worked to bring the lessons of the Movement to today's teachers and students. He was a regular guest speaker in
San Francisco State University history and political science classes up until he became ill.
Willie would often tell the many stories of the trials they endured during this time to his family and friends. He
was a man of many talents and reliving his life in his own words was one of them. The more involved he became
in the Civil Rights Movement, the more he realized that working toward justice and equality was his life-long
calling. Willie was a very humble man and never sought recognition for his love and service but he received many
accolades and honors for his faithfulness and diligence in the struggle, including The Tower Award from Rust
College, and the Key to the City of Holly Springs. He especially enjoyed singing to his children and grandchildren.
In 2014, Wazir recorded a video oral-history titled, "Stand For Freedom: The Life and Times of Willie B. Wazir
Peacock." He took great pride in being able to share his legacy with those who are picking up the freedom torch
today.
Willie was preceded in death by his parents and one son Silas Peacock; four brothers, Vernon Lewis Peacock,
Johnny Peacock, James Arthur Peacock, Jack Shelley Peacock and two sisters, Della Mae Hudson and Clara Jean
Peacock. Willie leaves to mourn his passing one daughter, Della Hill (Clinton, MS), two sons Pallo Peacock
(Oakland, CA), and Bijon Bruce (Grand Rapids, MI); four grandchildren; Dwight Anthony Hill Jr., Dana DeVante
Hill, Naia Rose Kramer, and Nouri Rana Peacock. He also leaves a host of Nieces, Nephews, Cousins, Civil
Rights comrades and many, many friends who loved and admired him for his Life of Love and Service.
TRIBUTES
“Peacock” as we most often
called him in Movement days,
could have been a doctor, was
in fact on his way to medical
school, but the movement
came knocking at his door in
Tallahatchie County, MS,
challenged him and his plans
changed. He once said of the
movement that reshaped him
and Mississippi in so many
important ways: “It caused me
to act. And I learned that this
is not just about myself. How
do I get other people involved
to help my dream come true,
and translate it to them to show that — in their own language —
this is what they're talking about too? Not to bring something, but
to find something.”
We who are engaged in the SNCC Legacy Project are part of
Wazir‟s legacy. And that legacy, Wazir would say, demands that
we continue to act; and to find ways to act with others.
Mississippi was changed because men and women like Peacock
acted. We emphasize this in this brief statement because as much
as we miss his presence and recognize the impact of his work, we
are neither gathered here nor thinking about Wazir from a distance,
to mourn him. He would not want that. We need to remind ourselves with Wazir on our minds, perhaps thinking of one of the
many songs he loved to sing, that struggle continues.
The SNCC Legacy Project
Wazir Peacock was Tuskegee Institute's student‟s guardian/
protective angel, especially for our beloved Sammy Younge, Jr. It
was always reassuring for me to see Peacock in the Student Center
on campus. Peacock and Winky (Bill Hall) were on visible and
quiet strength in our meetings with Institute administrators, especially during the time of students hosting the first "Black Power!"
in Tuskegee in 1967. Peacock will forever be a warm and living
spirit in my heart to continue our race to real freedom.
Gwendolyn M. Patton
I am so saddened to hear that Peacock has transitioned. I especially
identified with him because we both grew up in Mississippi and
fought for our own families and neighbors to be free. He was a
kind, gentle, "salt of the earth" person: warm hearted, very smart,
with a warm smile and a great baritone voice that lifted us up when
we needed it. He was headed to medical school when his plans
were diverted to work in Greenwood. He would have been a great
doctor. This is but one example of the kinds of sacrifices so many
of our generation made.
Peacock," as some of us called him, leaves a giant space that will
not be filled. He joins his brother Sam Block, June Johnson, Ida
Hollander, Jesse Harris, Lawrence Guyot & other Black Mississippians who have passed on .Rest in peace, my brother.
Joyce Ladner
DEEP BLACK 'SIPPI WILLIE
Based on the song Deep Blue Sea as
sung by Odetta
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
WILLIE,
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
WILLIE
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
WILLIE
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
IT WAS WILLIE
WHAT GOT FREEDOM
IN THE DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
FREED HIS SOUL
FROM HIS BLACK BODY
FREED HIS SOUL
FROM HIS BLACK BODY
FREED HIS SOUL
FROM HIS BLACK BODY
IT WAS WILLIE
WHAT GOT FREEDOM
IN THE DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
RAISED UP HIGH
ON HIS GOLD‟N WINGS
RAISED UP HIGH
ON HIS GOLD‟N WINGS
RAISED UP HIGH
ON HIS GOLD‟N WINGS
IT WAS WILLIE
WHAT GOT FREEDOM
IN THE DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
WILLIE
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
WILLIE
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
WILLIE
DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
IT WAS WILLIE
WHAT GOT FREEDOM
IN THE DEEP BLACK „SIPPI
Bob Moses
copyright © Bob Moses, 2016,
all rights reserved.
What a great impact Wazir made in so many lives in
his living witness in the Movement struggles that ended
racial segregation as a legal system in this country.
He was a great song leader and I still hear his voice...
I will not be able to be with those of you who gather,
I just want to share how important it was for me as a
SNCC activist from the Albany, Southwest Georgia
Movement to meet and sing and share with the great
singing courageous organizers of Mississippi,
Willie “Wazir” Peacock, Sam Black, Hollis Watkins
were organizers who brought sonic power as they moved
thru the changes we worked to create across the south.
They keeping falling all around me
The strongest leaves of my tree
Every paper brings the news that
The sisters and brothers of my sounds
Are moving on.
But you're not going to leave me...
It is your path I walk
It is your song I sing
It is your load I take on
It is your book I read
It the record you set that makes me go on
It your strength that helps me stand
You're not really going to leave me
I will try to sing my song right
Be sure to let me hear---from you....
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Wazir Peacock organized a Blues Festival in
Holmes County sometime between 1965-1968.
I remember listening to him talk to young people
at the Mileston Community Center about how
important it is to keep traditional music alive. He
talked about the history of African-American
music in Mississippi and made sure that future
generations would remember this history by
keeping roots music alive - blues and other forms
like field hollers and gospel - and how the music
gave people a way to stay strong under oppression. He said sometimes young people need
encouragement to appreciate the "old" music and
it should be remembered.
Wazir Peacock came to New York City in March
of 2011 to join other Freedom Singers in honoring the life and passing of fellow member
Matthew Jones with music they had all sung
together all over the country. Wazir sang and
spoke and the very next morning returned to his
home in California. His showed his loyalty to his
friends and fellow freedom fighters. It was good
to see him at the church in NYC where Matthew
Jones had conducted SNCC celebrations annually
on MLK Day.
I also remember Wazir joining the veterans 8th
annual conference in Jackson, MS in 2008. As
always he shared his experience & knowledge.
Marilyn Lowen
My dear friend, I just got the news that you are not well. Words cannot express my sadness. I have such fond
memories of you and I cherish the time we spent together during this phase of our journey through this Universe.
I will never forget how you and James took me under your care and how you protected me and looked out for me
during the early days of the Movement and beyond.
I still remember the time I was recovering from surgery in 1990 and I was in a great deal of pain. I called out to
Spirit and to my Angels and told them that I needed your healing hands. Within minutes, my doorbell rang and I
hobbled to the door and there you stood. You were visiting from California. I told you that I had just prayed for your
healing hands. You gave me a massage and the pain left my body and did not return throughout my recovery from
that surgery.
Please know I love and respect you always. You are in thoughts and prayers.
Peace and Love,
Euvester Simpson
(sent to Willie, February 2016)
I went to Greenwood the next summer (1963); Wazir was co-director of the project, and was the best of my teachers
there. When a huge truckload of food and clothing arrived at Greenwood, there was a scramble among people who
were the group who worked out of the office to take goodies. Wazir was among the first to insist that they stop and
that we meet and arrive at an agreement about how the goodies were to be distributed. It was not a popular thing to
do; he did it. In the meeting, an agreement was reached that all the goods would either be shelved (we created some
shelves in the office with bricks and boards) or hung on hangers, and that they would be distributed according to this
priority: first, to people who had tried to register and been sanctioned (loss of job, house; arrested or beaten); second, to others who had tried to register; third, to staff and volunteers in the office.
Mike Miller
Rust College is pleased to join with the Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc. in this Memorial
Service for our distinguished graduate of the Class of 1962, Willie “Wazir” Peacock. Mr. Peacock was a student
leader who took serious the call to join the civil rights movement of the 1960s. His commitment during his student
days at Rust College inspired other students to join the battle. As a result of his efforts as a student leader supported
by his mentor, Dr. Earnest A. Smith, President of Rust College from 1957-67, Rust played a major role in the Movement. Our State is better today because of his courage and leadership, leadership that challenges each of us today to
continue the struggle of improving the quality of life for all of our citizens and our State.
Willie Peacock lived up the Rust College motto “By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them”.
David Beckley, President, Rust College
It is with joy and sadness that I write to commemorate the great life of service and commitment of my friend Willie
Wazir Peacock. I first met Wazir in Holly Springs at Rust College in 1962 when Mississippi was still very segregated
and few to no blacks could vote. He was a Junior and had already been involved in marches, demonstrations and
registration programs.
In the Spring of 1963 following the ambush shooting of Jimmy Travis in Greenwood, I was summoned by SNCC to
report to duty in Greenwood, the most violent place in Mississippi. Wazir came back and forth to Greenwood many
times and could hardly wait to finish his senior year at Rust and become a fulltime field secretary for SNCC. Wazir
was a fearless, dedicated person and because he was born and raised in Charleston, Mississippi, Wazir knew better
than most of us the danger he was headed into when he came to Greenwood where SNCC offices had been bombed,
cars shot up and a hit list of civil rights workers had been developed by the Klan. Yet like many others Wazir came to
SNCC and stayed until Jim Crow was dead & the people of Mississippi could vote, serve in office & in the Jury Box.
We mourn the passing of Wazir but thanks to a good and merciful God, Wazir was able to live long enough to see
African Americans serve in office in virtually every major city in Mississippi and in the sheriffs office throughout the
Delta. After many years of picking the lesser of two evils in Presidential elections, Wazir was able to vote for an
African American President, not once but twice.
Wazir has gone on to his heavenly rest having lived a life of dedication & commitment to freedom and justice for all.
Frank Smith
My Heart is Broken. My dear Brother Willie, Wazir Peacock, a black Mississippian like myself, is gone. I have been
in a state of denial about his sickness. He was one of the individual's that I bonded with in the struggle dating back to
1962. I was there in Greenwood when his father brought him to the SNCC office; and turned Him over to Amzie
Moore. There were several of us there at the time: Sam Block, Lawrence Guyot, Hollis Watkins, Charles McLaurin,
Jessie Harris, James Jones, and Bob Moses.
I was paying careful attention to his Father 's parting words to Amzie Moore. I didn't understand a word that he said
(I later learned that they were Masons). Wazir told us that he was on his way to Meharry Medical School but, elected
to "Fight for Freedom for himself and Black People." I admired that selfless commitment. And over the months and
years, we all faced many dark obstacles in our struggle for dignity, respect, the right to vote, and equal justice under
the law. Wazir lived up to his I initial commitment.
The last time that I saw him was at the Freedom Summer 50th Reunion at Tougaloo College in June 2014. He was not
well. Bob Moses spent a great deal of time with him. I was grateful!
Dorie Ann Ladner
"My memories of Wazir are very general. He was one of the people I looked forward to seeing whenever we as
SNCC workers got together, but we did not know each other deeply. One of the things I loved about being in the
Movement and being engaged with the Mississippi population was their commitment to help transform that
society. Also, I loved the rich deep brown coloration of the heroic population of the people we worked with and their
embrace of their culture. Wazir epitomized that population in those ways. His ready smile and his most pleasant
disposition made him a joy to associate with. Now that my brother has departed this earth, he will be a rejoining
family and friends who have gone before. A good man is gone, but we should rejoice and celebrate this life."
Muriel Tillinghast.
He certainly was an important (and memorable!) member of the Movement, and we will miss him.
Matt Herron
Willie Wazir Peacock was a beloved Brother and giant in the Movement. He will be missed by all of us who
believe in Freedom. I considered him a mentor and Brother. Long live his memory and good work.
Peace.
Leslie-Burl McLemore
Yes, this passing hit me very hard although I haven't seen Willie since about a decade with Jean Wiley in Oakland.
Deep in my heart also he lives as a strong and caring presence during my time at Tuskegee.
Maggie Magee
We in Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement (Bay Vets) were privileged to work with Wazir, and learn
from him. In the South in the 1960s, his Freedom Movement brothers and sisters usually referred to him as
"Peacock," but here in Northern California in the late '90s and after we used his self-chosen name "Wazir."
"So many Willie's in the world," he told us. "For awhile, I came to Islam right after SNCC around 1966, and I was
given the name. It means essentially one who shares with the people.
One of the persons who translated the Koran into English -- he said that the best meaning was one who
worked on behalf of the people for God, for Allah. A servant of the people in its truest sense."
Wazir was one of our founding members when we first came together in 1999. He became an important guide and
contributor to our Civil Rights Movement Veterans website (http://www.crmvet.org). Most of us had been active in
the Movement in Alabama and Mississippi from 1963 on, so he was our link to the early pioneering days when
young students were first stepping up and, "daring to stand in a strong sun and cast a sharp shadow."
We originally formed Bay Vets around the idea of finding ways to help our Movement sisters and brothers who had
fallen on hard times -- the "walking wounded" as we called them. It was Wazir who showed us that we whose boots
had been on the ground in the hard and dangerous days of the freedom struggle were all of us walking wounded ourselves. All of us were carrying hidden scars and emotional wounds that only others who had shared
similar experiences could help heal. That healing became a vital part of our Bay Vets work.
Wazir loved to speak about the Freedom Movement to community groups, churches, and most definitely school
kids. He had a special affinity for reaching the younger children in elementary school with whom he could talk about
what it was like growing up as a child in segregated, Jim Crow Mississippi. And he loved -- and
they loved — being able to share with them the freedom songs of the Freedom Movement.
Recently, Milton Reynolds of "Facing History" wrote to Wazir: "I appreciate the fact that we have had the opportunity to connect as colleagues in the struggle, but also that I've been able to share your work and your beloved community of freedom fighters with hundreds of students. They are inspired, and moved to action by your life.”
For six years, Wazir was a primary resource expert for the San Francisco summer Freedom School program that
worked to bring the lessons of the Movement to today's teachers and students. And until he fell ill, he was a regular
guest speaker in San Francisco State University history and political science classes.
Professor Kathy Emery of the S.F. Freedom School and S.F. State said, "I can't tell you how much my students
miss your semester visits to San Francisco State University. Your guest speaker visits have become legend.
Veterans students have told new students that you used to come to class & tell compelling stories of growing up in
Mississippi; running away to protest your father's decision to move you all to the plantation; why you changed your
name to Wazir from Willie B. (they are particularly outraged by the doctor naming you Willie B when you were
born)... Your stories have inspired hundreds of my students to participate in social justice action today..."
Two years ago Wazir recorded a video oral-history titled, "Stand For Freedom: The Life and Times of Willie B.
Wazir Peacock" which is now available on You Tube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcBfHAdtM4Q).
He took great pride in being able to share his legacy with those who are picking up the freedom torch today.
A transcription of an earlier oral history is also available at (http://www.crmvet.org/nars/wazir1.htm).
Bruce Hartford and Chude Allen
Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement
A CELEBRATION OF LIFE & MEMORIAL SERVICE
FOR
WILLIE B. WAZIR
PEACOCK
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To our many family members, friends and civil rights veterans, we are grateful to each of you for all you
have done not just during our bereavement, but through the years of Willie’s life. Your prayers, telephone
calls, visits, gifts of love and every other courtesy extended have not gone unnoticed, and we thank you.—
The family of Willie B. “Wazir” Peacock
SPECIAL THANKS
Elder Timothy L. Curry, Elder & Mrs. Alberstine Walker
Tabernacle of Praise Church of God In Christ
Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc.
Mr. Hollis Watkins Muhammad, Chairman
Ms. Cynthia Goodloe Palmer, Executive Director
SNCC Freedom Singers
Emory Harris * Bill Pearlman * Hollis Watkins Muhammad * Charles Neblett
Dr. Robert Smith * Mr. Charles Payne * The SNCC Legacy Project * Bill Rusk
Ms. Euvester Simpson * Rust College Class of 1964 * Dr. Leslie Burl McLemore
Gordon Gipson * First Unitarian Universalist Church, Richmond, VA
Public memorial organized by
Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement:
Saturday, June 18
First Unitarian Church of Oakland
685 14th St
Oakland, CA
Public memorial hosted by
Self Realization Fellowship:
Sunday, July 24, 1pm
Self Realization Fellowship Temple
3201 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA
Willie attends the 2008 conference of the Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Jackson, MS