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, many of them Jewish, interested in helping out the civil rights cause. Voter registration is the shit in some democracies for citizens to check in with some central registry before being allowed to vote in elections. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... The Council of Federated Organizations, or COFO, was formed in 1962. ... The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, generally pronounced as EN Double AY SEE PEE) is one of the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the United States. ... “CORE” redirects here. ... The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Logo. ... The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced snick) was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination...

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. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was an American political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the civil rights movement. ... Alternate meanings: See Atlantic City (disambiguation) Atlantic City is a city located in USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 40,517. ...

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. Location of Oxford in Butler County, Ohio Oxford is a college town located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio in northwestern Butler County in Oxford Township, originally called the College Township. ... is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... James Chaney James Earl Chaney (May 30, 1943 – June 21, 1964) was a civil rights worker who was murdered (along with Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman) by members of the Ku Klux Klan. ... Michael Schwerner Michael Schwerner (November 6, 1939 – June 21, 1964), called Mickey by friends and colleagues, was a CORE field worker killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to the civil-rights work he coordinated, which included promoting registration to vote among Mississippi African Americans. ... Andrew Goodman Andrew Goodman (November 23, 1943 – June 21, 1964) was an American civil rights activist who was murdered by gunshot in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan. ... For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... This article is about the state. ... Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally during the 1920s. ... Philadelphia is a city located in Neshoba County, Mississippi. ...

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. Official language(s) English[1] Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Largest metro area Chicago Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (149,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...

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. Sharecropping is a system of farming in which employee farmers work a parcel of land in return for a fraction of the parcels crops. ... Fundamentally, a plantation is usually a large farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semitropical country, on which cotton, tobacco, coffee, sugar cane, or trees and the like is cultivated, usually by resident laborers. ...

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. Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908–January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was an American politician. ...

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 refused the offer and kept up its agitation within the Convention, however, even after it was denied official recognition. When all but three of the "regular" Mississippi delegates left because they refused to pledge allegiance to the Party, the MFDP delegates borrowed passes from sympathetic delegates and took the seats vacated by the Mississippi delegates, only to be removed by the national Party. When they returned the next day to find that convention organizers had removed the empty seats that had been there yesterday, they stayed to sing freedom songs.

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. The Chicago Womens Liberation Union (CWLU) was the first womens liberation union in the United States. ... The Midwest Academy is an educational institution founded in 1973 and based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Heather Booth, an activist participant in the Mississippi Freedom Summer civil rights projects (1964) founded the Midwest Academy in 1973 to provide training for organizers in neighborhood organizations. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... The United Farm Workers of America (UFW) is a labor union that evolved from unions founded in 1962 by César Chávez, Philip Vera Cruz, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong. ... Mario Savio on Sproul Hall steps, 1966 Mario Savio (December 8, 1942 – November 6, 1996) was an American political activist and a key member in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. ... Sather tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ... The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which began in 1964 - 1965 on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of student Mario Savio and others. ...

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

Doug McAdam is a professor of Sociology at Stanford University. ...

External links

• Mississippi Burning, by Kent Germany (LBJ tapes and documents)
• Video on History Channel 4:25