Freedom Summer

1. Freedom Summer Historical Context

2. The author of Freedom Summer writes, • “When the Civil Rights Act was passed (in 1964) the town pool closed. So did the roller rink and the ice-cream parlor. Rather than lawfully giving blacks the same rights and freedoms as white, many southern businesses chose to shut down their doors in protest.”

3. She continues, writing, • “Also in the summer of 1964, civil rights workers in Mississippi organized ‘Freedom Summer,’ a movement to register black Americans to vote. It was a time of great racial violence and change. . . . This story grew out of my feelings surrounding that time. It is fiction, but based on real events.”

4. Literacy tests to vote • Mississippi in the 1950s systematically suppressed blacks from voting. One way was to give potential voters a “literacy test” that asked them to interpret a document. Basically, the white county clerks would claim that white people interpreted it correctly and that black people’s interpretations were incorrect.

5. Movement to Register Voters • So, in the late 1950s the NAACP started to go into Mississippi to expose voter fraud and to register people to vote. Voter education and registration was also accompanied by non-violent protest against segregation.

6. Freedom Summer • In the summer of 1964, 800 college students from around the country gathered for an orientation in Ohio, where they were warned they might be killed for attempting to register black voters.

7. Freedom Summer • Most of the volunteers were young, white, and upper-class since only people who could provide transportation and bring with them $500 for bail money were allowed to volunteer.

8. Freedom Summer • In June, three workers, including one student volunteer, disappeared. • In August, just a few weeks before the Democratic National Convention, their bodies were found. • Mississippi refused to investigate or indict anyone for the murders. • In 2005, 40 years after the killings, Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty, as being one of the leaders in the killing and he was sentenced to prison.

9. During Freedom Summer • Four civil right workers were killed • Four were seriously wounded • Eighty workers were beaten • 1,000 people (workers and locals) were arrested • 37 churches were bombed or burned • 30 black homes or businesses were bombed or burned

10. Success! • In 1962, 6.7 percent of Mississippi’s voting-age blacks were registered to vote. • By 1969, five years after “Freedom Summer,” 66.5 percent were registered.

11. Freedom Summer picture book • The author of this book chose to write fiction instead of non-fiction and chose to focus on two young boys, perhaps too young to fully comprehend the larger political storm waging around them. • It becomes, then, the teacher’s job to place the book into a context. • This can be done poorly or it can be done thoughtfully. Let’s look at examples of each . . .