Bernice Sims

Bernice Sims grew up in Meridian, Mississippi, where she became involved in the NAACP as a young teenager in 1963 and witnessed pivotal moments in the civil rights movement. Now in her 70s and living in Mineola, Sims recalls living near James Chaney, a Black Mississippian who worked for the Congress of Racial Equality, who would be killed by the Klan in 1964, along with two white men. Credit: Chris Ware ; Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr./J. Conrad Williams Jr.