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Growing up in Sumrall, Eberta Spinks was taught by her parents to care for those in their community. In this episode, she remembers helping her mother deliver fresh-cut flowers and home-cooked meals to sick neighbors. Spinks was five years old when she and a playmate became gravely ill in 1919. She recalls how neighbors sat with her around the clock so her parents could get some rest during the ordeal.

During the Great Depression, many Americans relied on food assistance provided by the government. Spinks describes how her family shared the vegetables and meat they raised with their community. These lessons of working for the betterment of others would later influence her to become active in the Civil Rights Movement.

Spinks was living in Hattiesburg in 1964 when the Freedom Riders came to help black citizens register to vote.\\xa0 She credits her faith in God, and an understanding husband, with her decision to offer free housing to civil rights workers while they were in town.

PHOTO: onlyinyourstate.com