During the Civil Rights Movement, mass meetings at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Itta Bena helped register voters, distribute food, and teach citizens how to read and write. On June 18, 1963, while people were assembling for a meeting, more than seventy men, women, and children were arrested and taken to the Itta Bena jail, known locally as "the Caboose." Charged with disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct, forty-five Black citizens were sent to the county farm for 58 days and fined.
