Freedom Summer, 1964

What was Freedom Summer?

Freedom Summer was a project aimed at increasing the number of registered black American voters in the state of Mississippi. It was called the Mississippi Summer Project.

When did Freedom Summer occur?

Freedom Summer happened between June and August, 1964.

What was the purpose of Freedom Summer?

There were 4 main reasons for Freedom Summer:

• ❖ To increase voter registration as it was an election year.
• ❖ To provide other community projects, such as summer schools.
• ❖ To target Mississippi, which had the lowest percentage of African American voters registered to vote even though 45% of its population was black. It was one of the most segregated states in the USA.
• ❖ To help African Americans pass the difficult literacy test so they could register to vote.

Who organised Freedom Summer?

Freedom Summer was organised by 2 groups:

• ❖ SNCC.
• ❖ CORE.

What happened during Freedom Summer?

There were 5 main events during Freedom Summer:

• ❖ More than 700 volunteers, mostly white and from middle-class backgrounds, joined African Americans in Mississippi to work on projects in black communities.
• ❖ They trained African Americans how to pass the literacy tests and set up 'Freedom Schools' which taught subjects like maths and black history.
• ❖ The project was targeted by the KKK.
• ❖ On 21st June 3 CORE activists, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, were arrested, released by the police and went missing.
• ❖ On 4th August, their bodies were discovered. They had been murdered.

What opposition was there to Freedom Summer?

There were 2 main forms of opposition to Freedom Summer:

• ❖ The volunteers faced huge opposition from the KKK, which burned down 37 black churches and 30 homes.
• ❖ In June 1964, three volunteers - two of them white were abducted and killed by the KKK. Although 18 men later appeared in court for civil rights violations, none was charged with murder.

Did Freedom Summer work?

There were 5 main consequences of Freedom Summer:

• ❖ President Lyndon B Johnson was persuaded to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, partly due to media coverage of events.
• ❖ Only 1,600 out of the 17,000 black people who tried to register to vote were successful.
• ❖ The violent reaction by the KKK resulted in at least 6 deaths of civil rights workers, 80 physical beatings, over 60 bomb attacks, more than 1000 arrests and 35 shootings.
• ❖ It did successfully provide a basic education to many African Americans.
• ❖ It was successful in that it raised awareness of voter registration problems.