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Seven young folks cross their arms and hold hands, their mouths open, as if mid-song. Behind them, four others peer out the window of a bus.
Freedom Summer activists sing at Western College for Women (June 1964). (Photo: Ted Polumbaum Collection/Newseum)

Freedom Summer organized in Mississippi.

1964

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Freedom Summer activists sing at Western College for Women (June 1964). (Photo: Ted Polumbaum Collection/Newseum)

White supremacist violence by police, white members of communities throughout Mississippi, and the Ku Klux Klan is used to scare away African-American voters from the polls in Mississippi, causing Black voters to be the lowest percentage in the country. This impedes legislative change towards desegregation. It is for this reason the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) build a strategy for political action and the massive registration of Black voters.

The Freedom Summer project organizes 30 "Freedom Schools" throughout Mississippi, focused on leadership training. Led by Septima Clark, the curricula includes reading, mathematics, and African-American history. Over 3,000 young Black people attend. The Freedom Schools also train skilled Black organizers to participate in Freedom Summer's massive voter registration project.