In Mississippi during the Summer of 1964, with COFO, I was involved in voter registration and helping to organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. I attended a district meeting and the first state convention of the party. I lived and worked in Madison County part of the summer (Valley View) and in Leake County the second part (Harmony).
In Madison, FL, the Summer of 1965, with the SCLC Summer Community Organizing and Political Education Project (SCOPE), I again did voter registration and in support for local efforts for integration and racial justice.
Through these two summers of civil rights involvement, I came to a whole new awareness of injustice in U.S. society, fueled by racism in ways I had not understood before, as a white farm boy from Kansas. In Mississippi the Summer of 1964, I was involved in voter registration and helping to organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. I attended a district meeting and the first state convention of the party. I lived and worked in Madison County part of the summer (Valley View) and in Leake County the second part (Harmony).
One event that had enormous impact for me was the coincidence of having been one of the volunteers who flipped a coin with Andrew Goodman at Oxford, OH, when Michael Schwerner had gotten the call from Mississippi about the church arson in Philadelphia was preparing to drive to Mississippi and wanted to take at least one summer volunteer with him. Andrew "won" the toss, and went with Schwerner, and then with Chaney and Schwerner to Philadelphia. When the three men's bodies were found in the dam, it was just a few miles from where I was then living in Harmony.
Since that first summer, I have sought to work for justice and especially for an end to racism in our society. My wife and I are currently deeply involved in working for justice and more humane treatment of immigrants who come to the U.S. seeking asylum and a better life.
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