Woke History: Freedom Summer, and the Fight for Voting Rights
Black history is American history.
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We are currently functioning in a world with “leaders” committed to taking us back to the stone age. If we are going to stop the rise of white supremacy and fascism, we will need to educate ourselves and each other. Here’s a slice of history you may not hear of very often.
On June 24th, 1964, the state of Mississippi was “invaded” by an army of young women and men looking to “stir up trouble.” They crossed the state lines with the sole intent of shaking up the status quo and doing it in a way that would change the trajectory of history forever. Their plan to make this happen was a simple but ambitious one. They wanted to go into the heart of the South with the sole purpose of registering African Americans to vote. For ten weeks, over 1,000 college students, black and white, inundated Mississippi, looking to be the spark that would ignite positive change. By working to empower the disenfranchised group of black Mississippians, these young and idealist leaders risked everything to change the future of our country forever, or at least we all thought.
What Was The Freedom Summer:
“The 1964 Freedom Summer project was designed to draw the nation’s attention to the violent oppression experienced by Mississippi blacks who attempted to exercise their constitutional rights and to develop a grassroots freedom movement that could be sustained after student activists left Mississippi.” Freedom Summer was divided into three sections: voter registration, Freedom Schools, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
Voter Registration:
This was probably the most well-known aspect of Freedom Summer. The strategy was simple: freedom organizers spread all over the state of Mississippi and spent their days canvassing neighborhoods and convincing African-American residents to register to vote. At the beginning of the campaign, just 6.7% of all African Americans were registered to vote. Like most other southern states, Mississippi used oppressive measures to keep these numbers low. Still, organizers believed a registered Black electorate would be able to gain wins that would change their material conditions.
Freedom Schools:
“We are going to talk about a lot of things: about Negro people and white people, about rich people and poor people, about the South and about the North, about you and what you think and feel and want. . . . And we’re going to try to be honest with each other and say what we believe. . . . We’ll also ask some questions and try to find some answers. The first thing is to look around, right here, and see how we live in Mississippi.”
From Introduction to Unit I of the Citizenship Curiculum: Comparison of Students’ Realities with Others
Freedom Schools, while not as well-known as the rest of the movement, were probably the most crucial leg. In these schools, community members would receive lessons in all the things that Mississippi schools refused to teach them. Children were taught about Black history, African dance, African literature, and civic skills. The defining aspects of Freedom Schools were the resources that they provided. At the time, Black Mississippians were not allowed to visit the library. The Freedom Schools brought in books from black authors, teachers, and resources to ensure everyone had an opportunity to learn. They engaged in honest conversations and brought value to the communities in a way that the Mississippi public school wasn’t.
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP):
The Freedom Democratic Party was the political party created by primarily African-American organizers within the Freedom Summer movement. It was done with the Students Non-Violent Coalition Committee and Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). The goal of MFDP was to challenge the authority of the white (only) Mississippi Democratic party. “They challenged the right of the Mississippi Democratic Party’s delegation to participate in the convention, claiming that the regulars had been illegally elected in a completely segregated process that violated both party regulations and federal law and that, furthermore, the regulars had no intention of supporting Lyndon B. Johnson, the party’s presidential candidate, in the November election. They asked that the MFDP delegates be seated rather than the segregationist regulars.”
Results of Freedom Summer:
In the end, organizers couldn’t register most Black voters, but the movement was far from a failure. The work and the state's response garnered national media attention to the problems in the South. Along with the public platform, this program helped to develop countless organizers and provided people with the tools to advocate for themselves. The organizing work from this program also heavily influenced federal policy, as the Voting Rights Act was passed to address voter suppression in southern states. Finally, by the end of 1969, more than 60% of all African Americans in the South were registered to vote.
As the story of these brave activists fades into an abyss of banned books, a new generation of white supremacists is fighting with all of their might to erase this history. We must never forget what we fought for and what’s at stake if we give in to today’s chaos.
I appreciate this reminder brother ✊🏽
"We must never forget what we fought for and what’s at stake if we give in to today’s chaos."