Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer refers to a pivotal campaign in 1964 aimed at increasing voter registration and promoting civil rights for African Americans in Mississippi. Organized by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), this initiative emerged against a backdrop of systemic racism and violence, wherein many who attempted to assert their rights faced severe repercussions, including murder. The campaign involved the establishment of freedom schools to educate African Americans about their civil rights and job skills, as well as community centers to foster local activism. Notably, the campaign was marred by tragedy when three civil rights workers—James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman—were murdered by a mob, highlighting the extreme risks faced by those advocating for change.
Despite the violence, Freedom Summer succeeded in drawing national attention to the injustices in Mississippi, leading to federal involvement and increased awareness across the country. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) emerged as a significant force, challenging the regular Democratic Party's delegates at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. While the immediate impact of Freedom Summer did not yield lasting change in the state, it set the stage for future civil rights advances. By the 1990s, Mississippi saw a rise in elected African American officials and improved educational opportunities, although underlying racial tensions and economic disparities persisted. Freedom Summer remains a crucial chapter in the American civil rights movement, symbolizing both the struggles and resilience of those who fought for equality.
Freedom Summer
Date: 1964
An organized challenge to racism in the heart of the South. Mississippi African Americans with the help of one thousand volunteers from all over the country succeeded, at the expense of many jailings and some deaths, in breaking some barriers and alerting the nation to the reality of a social system maintained by terror.
Origins and History
In the early 1960’s, Mississippi’s elected officials were determined to preserve white supremacy and segregation. Several African Americans who attempted to register to vote or to challenge the status quo were murdered. In 1961, leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) formed the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) to further the cause of civil rights in Mississippi. The COFO planned to register voters; set up freedom schools to teach African Americans job skills, African American history, and the rights of citizens under the U.S. Constitution; form community centers from which to launch challenges to segregation under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and canvass for the newly established Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), which had no standing under Mississippi law. Organizing began in especially difficult towns such as McComb in southwest Mississippi. Stokely Carmichael moved SNCC headquarters to Greenwood in the Delta area of the state, where local businessperson Amzie Moore and SNCC organizer Robert P. Moses began planning for a massive effort for the summer of 1964, which would follow the violent resistance to the enrollment of James H. Meredith at the University of Mississippi in 1962 and the murder of NAACP leader Medgar Evers in 1963. Recruitment of volunteers of all races took place, mostly on college campuses, and civil rights workers began arriving long before the summer began. Many underwent orientation in Oxford, Ohio.
The Summer
Three COFO volunteers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were murdered in Neshoba County by a mob led by Sheriff Lawrence Ramey and containing Ku Klux Klan members on June 21, 1964. However, the violence did not stop the COFO from carrying out its plans for community centers, freedom schools, and voter registration drives. White volunteers got most of the publicity, and their presence protected local African Americans to some extent, but permanent change was achieved by local people working in their own behalf, using the volunteers as a catalyst. Volunteers averaged slightly more than one arrest each by local authorities during the summer, and many were beaten or otherwise harassed. Publicity for the project had a major national impact. A reluctant Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies were forced into action to protect volunteers and local people, a role that has been much exaggerated in films such as Mississippi Burning (1988).
The MFDP challenge to regular Mississippi Democrats at the 1964 Democratic National Convention provided a showcase for local leaders such as Fannie Lou Hamer of Ruleville. Some disputes arose between Moses, who believed that local people should lead the movement for their own freedom, and Allard Lowenstein, who believed the COFO should form a close alliance with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party; however, COFO remained united until the summer project was over. Many volunteers stayed on to work with SNCC and other organizations that flourished in the wake of the pioneering 1964 effort.
Impact
Freedom Summer was successful in opening the eyes of the American public to the inequities suffered by Mississippi blacks; however, the public’s concern with the state of affairs in Mississippi itself did not last much longer than the summer. The white volunteers gained considerable experience during the summer, and many of them continued to be active in other organizations. Within the COFO, the divisions between black and white activists and local and outsiders grew, causing it to disband in 1965.
The MFDP gained considerable publicity when it challenged the seating of the “regular” Democratic Party delegates from Mississippi at the party’s national convention in 1964. Although the MFDP was unable to replace the official delegates with any of its own, it had a lasting effect: The 1968 Democratic National Convention featured a racially integrated Mississippi delegation.
Although Freedom Summer ended without any marked improvements in the state, by the 1990’s, Mississippi had more elected African American officials than any other state, social relations among the races did not differ greatly from those in other parts of the country, and educational opportunities for African Americans had greatly improved. However, tensions between whites and blacks remained and the poverty of the majority of the African American community was largely unabated.
Additional Information
John Dittmer’s Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (1994) is an analytical history of Freedom Summer. Doug McAdam’s Freedom Summer (1988) gives the background and subsequent activities of the volunteers.