by Malachi Davisdon BC ’22
The unity we saw in the various marches for Black Lives, between people of all races and classes, was profound. It set in motion the historic voter turnout witnessed of the 2020 Presidential election. All of the 159,633,369 voters who cast their ballots in person, who mailed them in from home, who organized, who educated the disenfranchised, or who registered the unregistered, became the agents of change. With this being the largest turnout in history, it raises a lot of questions around what made this all possible, and, more importantly, why hasn’t this been achieved much earlier in this country’s history?
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Violence, discrimination and injustice are as much a part of this nation’s history as is the constitution. More often than not, many of this nation’s shortcomings can be linked to its history of violence , and voter suppression is no outlier. Although Black people have been a part of the nation’s population since its birth, the majority of the time was spent under a vicious system of enslavement.
From the Civil War to Black Lives Matter, Blacks people and their allies have challenged the white supremacist ideology that has corrupted this country. And they continue the work to achieve this democracy, this nation.
One instance in particular where the American people came together to challenge the larger system of racial oppression was in the summer of 1964.
The Mississippi Summer Project, or “Freedom Summer,” was a project organized by the Council of Federated Organization (COFO), a coalition of organizations dedicated to the civil rights of of Black Americans. They were: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial Equity (CORE), and the Southern Chrisitian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Together, these organizations recruited thousands of college students, mostly white, coming from Mississippi and around the country, and stationed them in Mississippi for the summer for a total of ten weeks. These volunteers went into Mississippi to achieve widespread voter registration amongst Black folks, spurring the integration of Mississippi’s segregated political system.. These volunteers helped Blacks register to vote, establish a new political party (Mississippi’s Freedom Democratic Party) and learn about their history through“Freedom Schools”, community centers that they established throughout the state.
Why was Mississippi the focus of this campaign?
Mississippi is infamous for its racism. This is state where nine years earlier, Emmett Till was tortured, mutilated, and murdered in Delta Mississippi; where SNCC staff member Herbet Lee, was murdered in broad daylight by a state representative;the same Mississippi where the Ku Klux Klan’s presence was felt by every Black citizen, especially those who dared to show bravery; the same Mississippi where only 5.3% of its Black population was registered to vote; the same state where the federal government was reluctant to intervene or counteract the violence which ran rampant; and where white legislators had implemented laws like poll taxes and literacy tests that prevented Blacks from voting.
Visit Headcount to view a list of organizations who work to challenge voter suppression and increase voter registration.
In preparation for this challenge, the number of state troopers in Mississippi doubled, the state legislature passed dusk-to-dawn curfews, and the KKK’s numbers expanded–the legislatures even tried to outlaw the incoming Freedom Schools. The Klan burned crosses in 64 of the state’s 82 counties in a single night. Eighty Freedom Summer volunteers were attacked and beaten; 37 churches were bombed or burned; another 30 Black homes and businesses bombed or burned; three COFO workers, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, were kidnapped and murdered. During the search for their whereabouts, the unidentified bodies of another five Black men were pulled from Mississippi rivers; and volunteers and COFO organizers were regularly arrested and beaten. Despite all of this, the students found the strength to continue organizing.
The volunteers fully understood the significance of their work and their responsibility to empower the disenfranchised Black Mississippians and protect democracy. Annell Ponder, supervisor of SCLC, urged the volunteers to “let the people speak for and with you” as she wrote in a 1964 memo to the volunteers. “As you work you must somehow resist the temptation to do things for the people, but share the work, the planning and the decision making with them, so they realize that if the center is to continue after summer, they will have to do it.” This aspect of organizing was essential toward COFO’s larger mission.
Bob Moses, director of the Mississippi Summer Project with SNCC sought to nurture and develop the existing community leaders, recognizing the untapped power and silenced voices within the communities of Black Mississippians. “You don’t have to worry about where your leaders are, how are we going to get some leaders…If you go out and work with your people, then the leadership will emerge.” Temporary change would only bring about temporary solutions, they realized that the only way to combat racism was through education and political empowerment.
In the spring of 1964, SNCC developed the Freedom School Cirriculum, broken into two separate parts–the “Citizenship Cirriculum” and the “Guide to Negro History.” These cirriculums were designed to help students examine their personal experiences with racial discrimination and understand their broader context in Mississippi’s closed society. The Freedom Schools taught voter registration classes preparing Black adults for the states arduous registration exam. SNCC was always concerned about the ways that public education had been damaging toBlack students in a state where funding for white schools sometimes quadrupled that of Black schools. These Freedom Schools, though originally intended to politically educate the members, found themselves providing basic education in some cases. These volunteers also held workshops teaching basic reading, math, civics and Black history. They also read books and poetry by Black authors and listened to stories about Black resistance around the world, and throughout history.
What was the result?
For many Black Mississippians, the Freedom Schools were the first time they felt encouraged to think politically, and explore their creative impulses. This project inspired many to join the larger Civil Rights Movement. Many Freedom Schools developed their own newspapers, spreading awareness of their work and reporting on the events of the summer, including the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a Black political party created by SNCC to challenge the white suppremacist democratic party which represented Mississippi. Near the end of the program, delegates from all 41 schools traveled to a statewide convention, where the young people took over the event and drafted their own political platform for the MFDP, laying the foundation for the Mississippi Student Union (MSU) which continued coordinated action against injustice in the state.
Freedom Summer of 1964 was a turning point of the Civil Rights Movement. Not only was the protest largely organized and executed by students, but it was also one of the first times that the movement gained around the clock media attention. This meant the atrocities happening under the federal government’s nose were brought to the attention of the national audience, forcing the Federal Government’s hands. In July on 1964, Lyndon B Johnson signed The Civil Rights Act, whose goal was to end segregation in public places and ban discriminiation on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. This also played a major role in the signing of the Voting RIghts Act in 1965, which was meant to overcome legal barriers to the state and local levels which prevented Blacks from exercising their right to vote under the 15th amendment.
It is important to remember that everything that we desire–peace, liberation, justice, or safety–won’t come easily. The struggle that our forefathers and foremothers dedicated their lives to has been passed onto us, and it is our responsibility to dismantle this oppressive, together, for the fate of our future generations and the world itself. So together, let’s get involved in our communities and use our individual power to contribute to the larger movement for more justice, both here and around the world.