Freedom Summer
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Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the
The project was organized by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of the Mississippi branches of the four major civil rights organizations (SNCC, CORE, NAACP, and SCLC). Most of the impetus, leadership, and financing for the Summer Project came from SNCC. Bob Moses, SNCC field secretary and co-director of COFO, directed the summer project.[1]
Freedom Vote
Freedom Summer was built on the years of earlier work by thousands of African Americans, connected through their churches, who lived in Mississippi. In 1963, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized a mock "Freedom Vote" designed to demonstrate the will of Black Mississippians to vote, if not impeded by terror and intimidation. The Mississippi voting registration procedure at the time required Blacks to fill out a 21-question registration form and to answer, to the satisfaction of the white registrators, a question on the interpretation of any one of 285 sections of the state constitution.[2] The registrars ruled subjectively on the applicant's qualifications, and decided against most blacks, not allowing them to register.
In 1963, volunteers set up polling places in Black churches and business establishments across Mississippi. After registering on a simple registration form, voters would select candidates to run in the following year's election. Candidates included Rev. Ed King of Tougaloo College and Aaron Henry, from Clarksdale, Mississippi.[3] Local civil rights workers and volunteers, along with students from northern and western universities, organized and implemented the mock election, in which tens of thousands voted.
February 1964 planning
By 1964, students and others had begun the process of integrating public accommodations, registering adults to vote, and above all strengthening a network of local leadership. Building on the efforts of 1963 (including the Freedom Vote and registration efforts in Greenwood), Moses prevailed over doubts among SNCC and COFO workers, and planning for Freedom Summer began in February 1964. Speakers recruited for workers on college campuses across the country, drawing standing ovations for their dedication in braving the routine violence perpetrated by police, sheriffs, and others in Mississippi. SNCC recruiters interviewed dozens of potential volunteers, weeding out those with a "John Brown complex"[4][5] and informing others that their job that summer would not be to "save the Mississippi Negro" but to work with local leadership to develop the grassroots movement.
More than 1,000 out-of-state volunteers participated in Freedom Summer alongside thousands of black Mississippians. Volunteers were the brightest of their generation, who came from the best universities from the biggest states, mostly from cities in the
Organizers focused on Mississippi because it had the lowest percentage of any state in the country of African Americans registered to vote, and they constituted more than one-third of the population. In 1962 only 6.7% of eligible black voters were registered.[10]
Southern states had effectively
Most of these methods survived US Supreme Court challenges and, if overruled, states had quickly developed new ways to exclude blacks, such as use of
During the ten weeks of Freedom Summer, a number of other organizations provided support for the COFO Summer Project. More than 100 volunteer doctors, nurses, psychologists, medical students and other medical professionals from the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) provided emergency care for volunteers and local activists, taught health education classes, and advocated improvements in Mississippi's segregated health system.
Volunteer lawyers from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Inc ("Ink Fund"), National Lawyers Guild, Lawyer's Constitutional Defense Committee (LCDC) an arm of the ACLU, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCR) provided free legal services — handling arrests, freedom of speech, voter registration and other matters.
The Commission on Religion and Race (CORR), an endeavor of the
Violence
Many of Mississippi's white residents deeply resented the outsiders and any attempt to change the residents' society. Locals routinely harassed volunteers. The volunteers' presence in local black communities drew drive-by shootings, Molotov cocktails thrown at host homes, and constant harassment. State and local governments, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (which was tax-supported and spied on citizens), police, White Citizens' Council, and Ku Klux Klan used arrests, arson, beatings, evictions, firing, murder, spying, and other forms of intimidation and harassment to oppose the project and prevent blacks from registering to vote or achieve social equality.[13]
Over the course of the ten-week project:[14]
- 1,062 people were arrested (out-of-state volunteers and locals)
- 80 Freedom Summer workers were beaten
- 37 churches were bombed or burned
- 30 Black homes or businesses were bombed or burned
- 4 civil rights workers were killed (one in a head-on collision)
- 4 people were critically wounded
- At least 3 Mississippi blacks were murdered because of their support for the Civil Rights Movement
Volunteers were attacked almost as soon as the campaign started. On June 21, 1964,
When the men went missing,
Throughout the search, Mississippi newspapers and word-of-mouth perpetuated the common belief that the disappearance was "a hoax" designed to draw publicity. The search of rivers and swamps turned up the bodies of eight other blacks who appeared to have been murdered: a boy and seven men. Herbert Oarsby, a 14-year-old youth, was found wearing a CORE T-shirt.
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
With participation in the regular Mississippi Democratic Party blocked by segregationists, COFO established the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as a non-exclusionary rival to the regular party organization. It intended to gain recognition of the MFDP by the national Democratic Party as the legitimate party organization in Mississippi. Delegates were elected to go to the Democratic national convention to be held that year.
Before the convention was held, Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson gained passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
When the forces of white supremacy continued to block black voter registration, the Summer Project switched to building the MFDP. Though the MFDP challenge had wide support among many convention delegates, Lyndon B. Johnson feared losing Southern support in the coming campaign. He did not allow the MFDP to replace the regulars, but the continuing issue of political oppression in Mississippi was covered widely by the national press.
Freedom Schools
In addition to voter registration and the MFDP, the Summer Project also established a network of 30 to 40 voluntary summer schools – called "Freedom Schools," an educational program proposed by SNCC member, Charlie Cobb[17] – as an alternative to Mississippi's totally segregated and underfunded schools for blacks. Over the course of the summer, more than 3,500 students attended Freedom Schools, which taught subjects that the public schools avoided, such as black history and constitutional rights.[18]
Freedom Schools were held in churches, on back porches, and under the trees of Mississippi. Students ranged from small children to elderly adults, with the average age around 15. Most of the volunteer teachers were college students. Under the direction of
The Freedom Schools operated on a basis of close interaction and mutual trust between teachers and students. The core curriculum focused on basic literacy and arithmetic, black history and current status, political processes, civil rights, and the freedom movement. The content varied from place to place and day to day according to the questions and interests of the students.[19]
The volunteer Freedom School teachers were as profoundly affected by their experience as were the students. Pam Parker, a teacher in the Holly Springs school, wrote of the experience:
The atmosphere in the class is unbelievable. It is what every teacher dreams about — real, honest enthusiasm and desire to learn anything and everything. The girls come to class of their own free will. They respond to everything that is said. They are excited about learning. They drain me of everything that I have to offer so that I go home at night completely exhausted but very happy in spirit ...[20]
Freedom Libraries
Approximately fifty Freedom libraries were established throughout Mississippi. These libraries provided library services and literacy guidance for many African Americans, some who had never had access to libraries before. Freedom Libraries ranged in size from a few hundred volumes to more than 20,000. The Freedom Libraries operated on small budgets and were usually run by volunteers. Some libraries were housed in newly constructed facilities while others were located in abandoned buildings.[21]
Freedom Houses
The volunteers were housed by local black families who refused to be intimidated by segregationist threats of violence. However, project organizers were unable to place all the volunteers in private homes. To accommodate the overflow, the remaining volunteers were placed either in the project office or in Freedom Houses. Volunteers believed that it was important to free themselves from their race and class backgrounds, so the Freedom Houses would become places where cultural exchange would happen, so the Freedom Houses were free from segregation.
Of course, the practice of group living was already well established among American college students, for example, and soon the houses became communal living centers. Freedom houses also played a significant role in the volunteers' sexual activities during the summer. They considered themselves free from the restraints of racism and consequently free to truly love one another. As such, for many of them, interracial sex became the ultimate expression of SNCC ideology, which emphasized the notions of freedom and equality. At the beginning of the summer the Freedom Houses were places to accommodate the overflow of volunteers, but in the eyes of volunteers by the end of summer they had become structural and symbolical expressions of the link between personal and political change.[citation needed] One volunteer said:
You never knew what was going to happen [in the Freedom Houses] from one minute to the next ... I slept on the cot ... on a kind of side porch ... and ... I'd drag in some nights and there'd ... be a wild party raging on the porch. So I'd drag my cot off in search of a quiet corner ... [only to find] an intense philosophical discussion going on in one corner ... people making peanut butter sandwiches-always peanut butter ... in another ... [And] some soap opera ... romantic entanglement being played out in another ... It was real three-ring circus [22]
Aftermath
Freedom Summer did not succeed in getting many voters registered, but it had a significant effect on the course of the Civil Rights Movement. It helped break down the decades of isolation and repression that had supported the
Many of the volunteers have recounted that the summer was one of the defining periods of their lives.[24] They had trouble readjusting to life outside Mississippi. They came with a positive image of the government, but the events of the Freedom Summer upset this simplistic distinction between 'good guys' and 'bad guys'. They saw that those two ideas were linked together. They experienced such lawlessness that they became critical toward American society and federal agencies, like the FBI. Most of the volunteers became politicized in Mississippi. They left intent on carrying on the fight in the North. After that summer, many Christians faced a religious crisis. Personal transformation of volunteers led to social changes. It increased student activity in the civil rights movement. These students also played a role later in the resurgence of leftist activism in the United States.
Long-term volunteers staffed the COFO and SNCC offices throughout Mississippi. After the flood of summer workers in 1964, their leadership decided that projects should continue the following summer, but under the direction of local leadership. This was challenged by Northern establishment members of the coalition, beginning with
Among many notable veterans of Freedom Summer were Heather Booth, Marshall Ganz, and Mario Savio. After the summer, Heather Booth returned to Illinois, where she became a founder of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union and later the Midwest Academy. Marshall Ganz returned to California, where he worked for many years on the staff of the United Farm Workers. He later taught organizing strategies. In 2008 he played a crucial role in organizing Barack Obama's field staff for the campaign. Mario Savio returned to the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a leader of the Free Speech Movement.
In Mississippi, controversy raged over the three murders. Mississippi state and local officials did not
Mississippi began to make some racial progress but white supremacy was resilient, especially in rural areas. In 1965 Congress passed the federal
Renewed investigation of the 1964
See also
References
- ^ Clayborne Carson, In Struggle (Harvard University Press, 1981), p. 114.
- ^ Sargent, The Civil Rights Revolution: Events and Leaders, 1955-1968, McFarland, 2004, p 72
- ^ "Freedom Vote Flyer" Archived 2014-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University
- ISBN 9781101616260.
- ISBN 9781101190180.
- ^ "A Brief History of Jews and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s". Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
- ^ "The SNCC Project: A Year by Year History 1960-1970". Mapping American Social Movements.
- ^ Doug McAdam, Freedom Summer (Oxford Univ. Press, 1988), p. 66.
- ^ Wang, Hansi Lo (June 14, 2014). "50 Years Ago, Freedom Summer Began By Training For Battle". NPR.
- ^ a b "Freedom Summer". CORE. 2006. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
- ^ "Race and Voting in the Segregated South". www.crf-usa.org. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
- ^ "Voting Rights". Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. 2003. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
- ^ "Mississippi: Subversion of the Right to Vote" (PDF). Civil Rights Movement Archive.
- ISBN 978-0-19-504367-9.
- ^ "Lynching of Chaney, Schwerner & Goodman". Civil Rights Movement Archive.
- ^ Whitehead, Don (1970). Attack On Terror: The FBI Against the Ku Klux Klan In Mississippi. Funk & Wagnalls.
- ^ "Freedom Schools". SNCC Digital Gateway. Retrieved 2019-06-02.
- ^ "Freedom Summer and Freedom Schools", ~Education & Democracy
- ^ Mississippi Freedom School Curriculum ~Education & Democracy
- ^ Mississippi Freedom Summer — 1964 ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive
- ^ Cook, K. J. (2008). "Freedom libraries in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project: A history". ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
- ^ Letter written by Charles J. Benner to John Lewis, June 16, 1964
- ^ "Oh Freedom Over Me: Story". americanradioworks.publicradio.org. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
- ^ Veterans Roll Call ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive
- ISBN 9780252065071.
cofo, collapse.
- ^ Mitchell, Jerry (February 4, 2014). "Congressional Honor Sought for Freedom Summer Martyrs". USA Today.
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-674-44726-3
- ISBN 0-19-504367-7
- Bruce Watson, Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy (New York, NY: Viking, 2010). ISBN 978-0-670-02170-3
Further reading
- ISBN 9781604738230.
- Lyon, Danny (1992). Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807843864.
- ISBN 978-0-8139-1299-8
- Susie Erenrich, editor, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: An Anthology of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement (Montgomery, AL: Black Belt Press, 1999). ISBN 1-881320-58-8
- Matt Herron, Mississippi Eyes: The Story and Photography of the Southern Documentary Project, Talking Fingers Publications, 2014 ISBN 978-1933945187
- ISBN 978-0-8156-0594-2.
- Martinez, Elizabeth, ed. (2014). Letters from Mississippi: Reports from Civil Rights Volunteers & Poetry of the 1964 Freedom Summer. Zephyr Press. ISBN 9781938890024.
- William Sturkey and Jon Hale, eds., To Write in the Light of Freedom: Newspapers of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2015)
- Steven M. Gillon "10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America" (Three Rivers Press, New York, 2006)
External links
- SNCC Digital Gateway: Freedom Summer Digital documentary website created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, telling the story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee & grassroots organizing from the inside-out
- Mississippi Freedom Summer (Amistad Digital Resource)
- "Book Discussion on Freedom Summer". C-SPAN. 15 June 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
Bruce Watson recalls the "Freedom Summer"of 1964 when over 700 college students arrived in Mississippi to register African-American voters and create Freedom Schools to assist in the education of the populace. Their work was met with resistance exemplified through the disappearance of three volunteers, indiscriminate beatings, and the burnings of churches. Bruce Watson discussed his book at Lemuira Books in Jackson, Mississippi.
- Freedom Summer Digital Collection Archived 2016-04-01 at the Wayback Machine - Miami University of Ohio
- Freedom Summer National Conference - 2009 - Miami University of Ohio
- Freedom Summer 50th Miami University of Ohio, 2014
- Mississippi Burning (LBJ tapes and documents) - University of Virginia
- Freedom Summer, Mississippi 1964 ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive
- Photos of Freedom Summer ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive
- Freedom On My Mind a documentary distributed by California Newsreel
- "We had Sneakers, They Had Guns,". Webcast and event flier essay from the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, May 5, 2009 lecture. Illustrator and journalist Tracy Sugarman describes his experiences covering the voting registration efforts during the 1964 "Freedom Summer." The talk is related to the publication of Sugarman's book of the same title. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
- Mississippi & Freedom Summer - The Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s
- 1964: Freedom Summer Archived 2008-04-30 at the Wayback Machine - University of Southern Mississippi
- SNCC History and Geography from the Mapping American Social Movements project at the University of Washington
- Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive (USM)
- Oh Freedom Over Me - American RadioWorks
- Mississippi Digital Library[permanent dead link] Original photographs, documents oral history, letters from the Mississippi freedom movement
- Carpenters for Christmas Project to Rebuild Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Tippah County, Mississippi, burned after a speech held there by Fannie Lou Hamer
- The 1964 MS Freedom School Curriculum ~ Education and Democracy
- Freedom Summer, Civil Rights Digital Library