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EspañolFREEDOM SUMMER
'Freedom Summer' (also known as the 'Mississippi Summer Project') was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register to vote as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi, which up to that time had almost totally excluded black voters. The project was organized by the Council of Federated Organizations(COFO) which was an umbrella of four established civil rights organizations: the NAACP, the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Over 1,000 mostly young people volunteered, most of them northern whites interested in helping out the civil rights cause.
Organizers made early attempts to register blacks and to encourage black participation in the regular Mississippi Democratic Party, but they were blocked at every turn by the regulars, often with the help of local police. The program also established many summer schools in Mississippi as an alternative to Mississippi's totally segregated and underfunded school system. The project then worked with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as a non-exclusionary alternate to the regular Mississippi Democratic Party. The MFDP held alternate local caucuses, county assemblies and a state-wide meeting (as prescribed by Democratic Party rules) to elect delegates to the national Democratic Party Convention scheduled for Atlantic City in August.
Two one-week orientation sessions for the volunteers were held at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, from June 14 to June 27.[1] Violence struck the campaign almost as soon as it started. On June 21, 1964, James Chaney (a black volunteer from Mississippi) and Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman (two Jewish volunteers from New York) were abducted, tortured and killed by Klansmen from Philadelphia, Mississippi. The volunteers' badly beaten bodies were found several months later buried in an earthen dam. This and other violence such as church burnings reinforced local black fear that they would be victims of violence if they registered to vote.
Seven men in total were tried and convicted after a year for minor federal crimes related to the murders, but Mississippi refused to investigate or indict anyone for the murders. A few served some time, but none more than four years.
As a result of investigative reporting by journalist Jerry Mitchell—an award winning investigative reporter for the ''Jackson Clarion-Ledger''—and high school teacher Barry Bradford along with a team of three students from Illinois (Brittany Saltiel, Sarah Siegel, and Allison Nichols), Edgar Ray Killen, the organizer of the killings, was finally indicted for murder and was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the crime. He appealed the verdict, but his punishment of 3 times 20 years in prison was upheld on January 12, 2007, in a hearing by the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Undeterred, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party sent its elected delegates by bus to the Democratic Party convention held in late August in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They challenged the right of the regular Mississippi Party's delegation to participate in the convention, claiming that the regulars had been illegally elected in a completely segregated process, in violation of party and federal law, and asked that the MFDP delegates be seated rather than the segregationist regulars. The Democratic Party referred the challenge to the Convention Credentials Committee. The MFDP delegates lobbied and argued their case, and large groups of supporters and volunteers established a daily picket line on the Boardwalk just outside the convention, both of which garnered considerable publicity.
The Credentials Committee televised its proceedings, which allowed the nation to see and hear the testimony of the MFDP delegates, particularly the testimony of Fannie Lou Hamer, whose evocative portrayal of her hard brutalized life as a sharecropper on the plantation owned by Jamie Whitten, a long time Mississippi congressman and chairman of the House Agricultural Committee, galvanized the nation.
After that, most knowledgeable observers thought the majority of the delegates were ready to unseat the regulars and seat the MFDP delegates in their place. After a frantic scramble, Lyndon Johnson, the party's certain nominee, ordered the chairman of the Credentials Committee not to decide the matter and not to send the issue to the convention, on the grounds that it would be more appropriate to have the convention celebrate his birthday than hold further proceedings.
The national Democratic Party offered the MFDP two convention seats—in the balcony, from whence they could watch the floor proceedings but not take part. The MFDP rejected the offer and returned on their bus to Mississippi.
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party continued as an alternate for several years, and many of the people associated with it continued to press for civil rights in Mississippi, but it eventually joined forces with the regular Mississippi Democratic Party.
Because of the volunteers' courage and sacrifice, and because the crux of their claim was so obviously meritorious, Freedom Summer had a lasting influence on America, on Mississippi, and on the volunteers who took part. 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 and worked for many years on the staff of the United Farm Workers. And Mario Savio returned to the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a leader of the Free Speech Movement.
1. Doug McAdam, ''Freedom Summer'' (Oxford Univ. Press, 1988), p. 66.
★ Doug McAdam, ''Freedom Summer'' (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). ISBN 0-19-504367-7
★ 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
★ Mississippi Burning, by Kent Germany (LBJ tapes and documents)
★ Video on History Channel 4:25
Organizers made early attempts to register blacks and to encourage black participation in the regular Mississippi Democratic Party, but they were blocked at every turn by the regulars, often with the help of local police. The program also established many summer schools in Mississippi as an alternative to Mississippi's totally segregated and underfunded school system. The project then worked with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as a non-exclusionary alternate to the regular Mississippi Democratic Party. The MFDP held alternate local caucuses, county assemblies and a state-wide meeting (as prescribed by Democratic Party rules) to elect delegates to the national Democratic Party Convention scheduled for Atlantic City in August.
| Contents |
| Violence |
| MFDP at the Democratic Convention |
| Aftermath |
| Notes |
| References |
| External links |
Violence
Two one-week orientation sessions for the volunteers were held at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, from June 14 to June 27.[1] Violence struck the campaign almost as soon as it started. On June 21, 1964, James Chaney (a black volunteer from Mississippi) and Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman (two Jewish volunteers from New York) were abducted, tortured and killed by Klansmen from Philadelphia, Mississippi. The volunteers' badly beaten bodies were found several months later buried in an earthen dam. This and other violence such as church burnings reinforced local black fear that they would be victims of violence if they registered to vote.
Seven men in total were tried and convicted after a year for minor federal crimes related to the murders, but Mississippi refused to investigate or indict anyone for the murders. A few served some time, but none more than four years.
As a result of investigative reporting by journalist Jerry Mitchell—an award winning investigative reporter for the ''Jackson Clarion-Ledger''—and high school teacher Barry Bradford along with a team of three students from Illinois (Brittany Saltiel, Sarah Siegel, and Allison Nichols), Edgar Ray Killen, the organizer of the killings, was finally indicted for murder and was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the crime. He appealed the verdict, but his punishment of 3 times 20 years in prison was upheld on January 12, 2007, in a hearing by the Mississippi Supreme Court.
MFDP at the Democratic Convention
Undeterred, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party sent its elected delegates by bus to the Democratic Party convention held in late August in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They challenged the right of the regular Mississippi Party's delegation to participate in the convention, claiming that the regulars had been illegally elected in a completely segregated process, in violation of party and federal law, and asked that the MFDP delegates be seated rather than the segregationist regulars. The Democratic Party referred the challenge to the Convention Credentials Committee. The MFDP delegates lobbied and argued their case, and large groups of supporters and volunteers established a daily picket line on the Boardwalk just outside the convention, both of which garnered considerable publicity.
The Credentials Committee televised its proceedings, which allowed the nation to see and hear the testimony of the MFDP delegates, particularly the testimony of Fannie Lou Hamer, whose evocative portrayal of her hard brutalized life as a sharecropper on the plantation owned by Jamie Whitten, a long time Mississippi congressman and chairman of the House Agricultural Committee, galvanized the nation.
After that, most knowledgeable observers thought the majority of the delegates were ready to unseat the regulars and seat the MFDP delegates in their place. After a frantic scramble, Lyndon Johnson, the party's certain nominee, ordered the chairman of the Credentials Committee not to decide the matter and not to send the issue to the convention, on the grounds that it would be more appropriate to have the convention celebrate his birthday than hold further proceedings.
The national Democratic Party offered the MFDP two convention seats—in the balcony, from whence they could watch the floor proceedings but not take part. The MFDP rejected the offer and returned on their bus to Mississippi.
Aftermath
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party continued as an alternate for several years, and many of the people associated with it continued to press for civil rights in Mississippi, but it eventually joined forces with the regular Mississippi Democratic Party.
Because of the volunteers' courage and sacrifice, and because the crux of their claim was so obviously meritorious, Freedom Summer had a lasting influence on America, on Mississippi, and on the volunteers who took part. 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 and worked for many years on the staff of the United Farm Workers. And Mario Savio returned to the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a leader of the Free Speech Movement.
Notes
1. Doug McAdam, ''Freedom Summer'' (Oxford Univ. Press, 1988), p. 66.
References
★ Doug McAdam, ''Freedom Summer'' (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). ISBN 0-19-504367-7
★ 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
External links
★ Mississippi Burning, by Kent Germany (LBJ tapes and documents)
★ Video on History Channel 4:25
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