* Annie Devine; Mississippi Voting Rights Advocate

Annie Devine, 88, voting rights advocate and a founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party who once challenged the seating of five members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Born in Mobile, Ala., and raised in Canton, Miss., Devine graduated from Tougaloo Southern Christian College and taught in the public schools before taking an executive position with a life insurance firm. Voting in Mississippi was virtually closed to blacks when Devine became involved in the civil rights movement. She organized voting rights drives in Canton and the surrounding area and is credited with being the driving force behind the registration of blacks in the state. In 1964, she and two colleagues attended the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City with the objective of unseating the state’s all-white delegation. That failed, as did an effort to run for the House of Representatives. They took their protest to Washington in January 1965, demanding that the House deny membership to the state’s representatives-elect because blacks had been denied the vote in the state. The Washington protest, called the Mississippi Challenge, also failed but it focused national attention on voting rights in Mississippi. The Voting Rights Act was passed that same year. By 1968, 54% of blacks in Mississippi had registered to vote, a marked increase from 6% in 1964. A committed activist, Devine also helped found the Child Development Group of Mississippi and was a longtime volunteer in the Head Start program. On Aug. 22 at a hospital in Ridgeland, Miss.