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Clarie Collins Harvey

Biography: 

Clarie Collins Harvey (1916-1995) was a civil rights activist. A native of Louisa, Mississippi, Harvey attended college at both Baldwin College and Spelman College, graduating from the latter in 1937. She later earned graduate degrees from Indiana College and Columbia University. Harvey served as president of her family's two businesses, the Collins Funeral Homes and the Collins Insurance Company, both in Jackson. In 1961 Harvey founded Womanpower Unlimited, an organization in Jackson that provided necessary personal supplies to the Freedom Riders arrested and incarcerated at Parchman Penitentiary. The members of Womanpower Unlimited also organized a network of safe houses in which civil rights workers could stay, and they collaborated with other civil rights organizations to register black voters. Harvey also organized the Chain of Friendship, a network of white women outside Mississippi interested in supporting female integration workers inside the state.

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