James Arthur Peacock
1935-1998
James Arthur Peacock was born in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, where his father was a sharecropper. In the early 1960’s James was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers. Matt Jones wrote: “We traveled over 300,000 miles around this country and Canada raising money for the movement and spreading the word of our struggle. We would send an average of $5000 a week to continue our work in the South. James sang bass in the group. If you listen, his voice can be heard in the PBS Documentary “Eyes on the Prize,” the Academy Award nominated documentary “Freedom on My Mind,” and the Rob Reiner film “Ghosts of Mississippi.”
Charles Neblett, another member of the Freedom Singers, remembers James telling him that James was a bootlegger in Mississippi before joining SNCC. “He was one heck of a bass singer. After SNCC he moved to California, married and had a daughter” remembers Charles.
