Joyce Ladner was at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi in the 1950s and 60s as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She was mentored by Medgar Evers, expelled from Jackson State University for participating in a sit-in, and failed Mississippi’s voter literacy test three times.

She discusses those experiences with us, along with the disconnect between learning the principles of civics education knowing that some of them didn’t apply to her. Joyce also describes how Emmett Till moved her generation to action, and how Trevon Martin is doing the same for a new generation of organizers.

Listen to an interview with Ladner on the Democracy Works podcast, produced by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State and WPSU Penn State.

New episodes of Democracy Works are released every week. Subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app.