Civil Rights Movement
Articles & Speeches by Movement Veterans
Freedom Summer, 1964
Photos

See also:
     Letters & Reports From Mississippi Freedom Summer
     Summer Project Documents
     Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) Documents
     Freedom Summer Press Releases
     MFDP Articles by Movement Veterans

[Terminology — In the articles below, various authors use either "Summer Project," or "Freedom Summer," or both interchangeably. This section uses "Freedom Summer" to refer to the totality of Movement efforts in Mississippi over the summer of 1964, including the "Mississippi Summer Project" organized and led by COFO/SNCC, and the efforts of organizations such as Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR), National Council of Churches (NCC) and other religious groups, National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), and the various legal support operations such as the ACLU, National Lawyers Guild (NLG), NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, Lawyer's Constitutional Defense Committee (LCDC) and so on.

In most of these articles, the term "volunteer" refers to people from out of state — Black and white — who came to Mississippi for Freedom Summer, though of course, the many, many thousands of Black Mississippians who participated were also unpaid volunteers.]

Contents:

Articles From CRMVets History & Timeline

Articles by Freedom Movement Veterans

Personal Memories of Freedom Summer

Remembrances of Freedom School Students

Mississippi 1964: Articles From CRMVets History & Timeline

Freedom Day in Hattiesburg (Jan)

Louis Allen Murdered (Jan)

Freedom Day in Canton (Feb)

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) Founded (April)

Freedom Summer (June-August)

Freedom Summer 1964 [PDF]

Mississippi Summer Project (June-Aug)

[Sidebar] Organizational Stucture of Freedom Summer

Lynching of Chaney, Schwerner, & Goodman

Freedom Schools

Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) Founded

The McGhees of Greenwood

McComb — Breaking the Klan Seige

MFDP Challenge to Democratic Convention

Wednesdays in Mississippi

Delta Ministry Founded in Mississippi (Sept)

MFDP Congressional Challenge (Nov '64-Sept '65)

ASCS Elections — A Struggle for Economic Survival (Dec)

MFDP Challenge to the Democratic Convention

Articles by Freedom Movement Veterans

Journey to Understanding: Four Witnesses to a Mississippi Summer, Nation. December 1964      "Introduction," Howard Zinn      "The Lawyer," William M. Kunstler      "The Minister," Beverly Allen Asbury      "The Educator," Richard J. Bernstein

Long Hot Summer in Mississippi & Letter From the South, Kitty Baker, WILPF. July 1964.

Some Notes on Education, Charles Cobb, SNCC.

Tired of Being Sick and Tired, Jerry DeMuth, SNCC. The Nation, June 1, 1964. (SNCC reprint)

Deeper Than Politics, Mississippi Freedom Schools, Liz Fusco, Freedom School coordinator. Liberation, November 1964

The Southern Front: 2 Weeks in Mississippi, Bell Gale (Jackson). (Village Voice)

Life in Mississippi, Fannie Lou Hamer. (Freedomways.)

Freedom Schools Concept and Organization, Staughton Lynd. (Freedomways.)

A Parent Looks Beyond The Summer, William Mandel. (Campus CORE-Lator)

Bob Moses Speech to National Guardian Dinner, November.

Tremor in the Iceberg: The Mississippi Summer, Eric Morton. (Freedomways)

Freedom Day in Cleveland MS, Wally Roberts. July, 1964

Mississippi 1964, Jo Ann Ooiman Robinson. (Fellowship)

Mississippi at Atlantic City Mimeo version, Reprint version, Charles Sherrod, SNCC. 1964

All My Days, Wally Roberts. July, 1964

The Cat and Mouse Game, Elizabeth Sutherland (Betita Martinez), SNCC (reprint from The Nation, Sept 1964)

The Mississippi Summer Project and the Closed Society, Joe White. (Campus CORE-Lator)

Summer in Mississippi, Jerry DeMuth, SNCC. Nation magazine. September 14 1964

Personal Memories of Freedom Summer

In the summer of 1964 close to a thousand volunteers came to Mississippi in support of the Movement. They worked on projects across the state. Led by SNCC and CORE field secretaries, they helped Afro-Americans try to register to vote and join the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), they taught in Freedom Schools, participated in community organizing, and endured the danger and hardship of civil rights work in the Deep South.

Most — but certainly not all — were college students or recent grads. Most — but certainly not all — were from the North. Most — but certainly not all — were white.

They were warned of the danger they would face — but they came anyway. Three were murdered by racist police and Klan, others were beaten, abused, and jailed. These are their stories:

Together, they were a living witness of solidarity with the courageous communities of Mississippi who were demanding freedom and equality for all.

Sandra Adickes	History Lessons in Hattiesburg
George Albertz	Tells His Experiences as a Freedom Summer volunteer
Chude Pam Parker Allen	My Parents Said Yes!" Why I Am Going to Mississippi Would You Marry One? Loneliness in the Circle of Trust Watching the Iris Grow
David Bailin	Mississippi Summer Project Diary, August 1964
Corinne Freeman Barnwell	Mass Meetings & New Orlans Freedom School My Freedom School Experiences — Mississippi & New Orleans
Heather Booth	Memories From Shaw, Especially of the Hawkins Family
Jennie Nancy Dishotsky	Memories of the Freedom Summer Project
Karen Duncan	Remembrances of Mississippi Summer 1964
Gail Falk	Remembering Freedom Summer
Robert C. Hargreaves	Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964
James Kates	June & August, 1964
Adam Kline	Greenwood Mississippi
Charles Leck	Riding on the Spirit of New Orleans
Karol Nelson McMahan	Fighting for Freedom in the Mississippi Sun
Martin Nicolaus	Mississippi Winter 1964-65
Fran O'Brien	Faith and Activism
Ron Ridenour	Freedom Summer Orientation On the Road to Freedom Personal Diary, Moss Point Mississippi:
Wally Roberts	Sheriff Capps & the Shaw Freedom School
Larry Rubin	A Walk in Holly Springs: 1964
Jonathan Steele	Summer of Hate
Roy Torkington	Itta Bena and Elsewhere
Bob Weil	A Faulkner Tale
Mark Weiss	Interview
Bright Winn	Mrs. Magruder
Grenville Whitman	Mississippi Summer 1964

If you were a volunteer, send us your story for posting here. You can email photocopies to: webmaster@crmvet.org.

Remembrances of Freedom School Students

Jacqulyn Reed Cockfield

Zellie Rainey Orr

Emily Rembert

If you were a Freedom School student, send us your remembrance for posting here. You can email it to: webmaster@crmvet.org.

See also:

Documents From Freedom Summer

Letters From Mississippi Freedom Summer

Mississippi ~ Into the Storm (Articles 1955-1963)

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) (Articles)

McComb Mississippi Incidents & Events

Mississippi Movement web links

Freedom Summer Web Links

Mississippi Movement for books.

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