This page provides links to Civil Rights Movement Archive resources that have significant content related to the Freedom Summer projects of 1964 and 1965 and their role in the Freedom Struggle.
The various summer projects were designed to bring in to the South out-of-state Civil Rights Movement volunteers to assist local community organizing and voter registration efforts. The largest and best known Freedom Summer effort was the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project effort organizied by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) which was itself a coaltion of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). CORE also ran 1964 summer projects in Louisiana and North Florida.
In 1965, COFO and CORE ran smaller follow-on projects in Mississippi, Louisiana, and North Florida. Also in 1965, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organized the multi-state Summer Community Organizing Political Education (SCOPE) project in Virginia, the two Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.
Contents:
Freedom Summer, 1964.
SCOPE Project, 1965.
In the summers of '64 and '65 more than a thousand volunteers came South to support the Civil Rights Movement. They worked in Black communities and were housed in the homes of courageous African Americans who defied segregation. Led by each communities' local leaders and supervised by SNCC, CORE, and SCLC field secretaries, they assisted with voter registration and forming political organizations, taught in Freedom Schools, set up community centers, offered legal aid, and provided emergency medical care. Along with the people whose lives they shared in the Black community, they endured the danger and hardship of civil rights work in the Deep South.
Most of the SNCC, CORE, and SCLC staff who led the volunteers were African
American
Most of the volunteers — but certainly not
all — were college students or recent grads.
Most of the volunteers — but certainly not
all — were from the North.
Most of the volunteers — but certainly not
all — were white.
They were warned of the danger they would face — but they came anyway. Three in 1964, and one in 1965, were murdered by racist police and Klan, others were beaten, abused, and jailed. They were a living witness of solidarity with the courageous communities of Mississippi who were demanding freedom and equality for all. These are their stories:
Jacqulyn Reed Cockfield Zellie Rainey Orr Emily Rembert
Freedom Day in Hattiesburg (Jan, 1964) Louis Allen Murdered (Jan, 1964) Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) Founded (April 1964) 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Events (June-Aug) Mississippi Summer Project Organizational Stucture of Freedom Summer Lynching of Chaney, Schwerner, & Goodman (June) Freedom Schools Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) The McGhees of Greenwood McComb — Breaking the Klan Siege (July '64-March '65) MFDP Challenge to Democratic Convention (Aug) Wednesdays in Mississippi (1964-1965) Delta Ministry Founded in Mississippi (Sept, 1964) 1965 Summer Community Organization Political Education Project (SCOPE) Jackson, MS Protests (June, 1965) Americus GA Protests (July, 1965) Murder of Jonathan Daniels (Aug, 1965)
Some Notes on Education, Charles Cobb, SNCC. Tired of Being Sick and Tired, Jerry DeMuth, SNCC. The Nation, 1964. (SNCC reprint) Long Hot Summer in Mississippi & Letter From the South, Kitty Baker, WILPF. July 1964. The Southern Front: 2 Weeks in Mississippi, Bell Gale (Jackson). (Village Voice) Freedom Day in Cleveland MS, Wally Roberts. July, 1964 Violence in Mississippi, Jerry DeMuth, SNCC. August 1964 Freedom Schools Open a Door to the World, Joanne Grant. National Guardian. August 29, 1964 All My Days, Wally Roberts. July, 1964 Freedom Summer sermon, Rev. Bruce Hanson, SNCC. August 2, 1964 SNCC: Collegians vs The Klan, Jerry DeMuth. Rogue Magazine, August 1964 Mississippi at Atlantic City Charles Sherrod, SNCC. August 1964
Mimeo version, Reprint versionLetter From Jackson re Freedom Summer, Calvin Trillin, New Yorker. August 29, 1964 The Cat and Mouse Game, Elizabeth Sutherland (Betita Martinez), SNCC (reprint from The Nation, Sept 1964) A Parent Looks Beyond The Summer, William Mandel. (Campus CORE-Lator) The Mississippi Summer Project and the Closed Society, Joe White. (Campus CORE-Lator) Summer in Mississippi, Jerry DeMuth, SNCC. Nation magazine. September 14 1964 Bob Moses Speech to National Guardian Dinner, November. Deeper Than Politics, Mississippi Freedom Schools, Liz Fusco, Freedom School coordinator. Liberation, November 1964 Journey to Understanding: Four Witnesses to a Mississippi Summer, Nation. December 1964
"Introduction," Howard Zinn
"The Lawyer," William M. Kunstler
"The Minister," Beverly Allen Asbury
"The Educator," Richard J. BernsteinTremor in the Iceberg: The Mississippi Summer, Eric Morton. (Freedomways, Spring 1965) Life in Mississippi, Fannie Lou Hamer. (Freedomways, Spring 1965) Freedom Schools Concept and Organization, Staughton Lynd. (Freedomways.) The Free Speech Movement and the Negro Revolution (52 page pamphlet), Mario Savio, Eugene Walker, Raya Dunayevskaya, Bob Moses. July 1965 Mississippi 1964, Jo Ann Ooiman Robinson. (Fellowship 1989)
1964: The Fight for the Right, by Mississippi Public Broadcasting. This one-hour MPC documentary examines the civil rights movement and its history using the voices of Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and includes Mississippi civil rights workers of today. 2018.A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer [director's cut], by Richard Beymer, 1964. A documentary film by Richard Beymer Documentary on the Mississippi Freedom Summer. Co-produced by Council of Federated Organization Film (COFO). 28min. YouTube live stream.
Dream Deferred. SNCC, 1964. Produced for Freedom Summer (also available from Prime).
Freedom Summer, Firelight Films. Documentary narrating events of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. YouTube live stream
The Freedom Summer Murders — Was It Worth It? (re Chaney, Schwerner, Goodman lynching), by two junior high students from New York City as National History Day Competition, 2019. YouTube live stream.
Heather Booth: Changing the World, a documentary film by Lily Rivlin. 2017. How the Civil Rights Movement inspired SNCC activist and Freedom Summer volunteer Heather Booth to a lifetime of fighting for social justice.
Iowans Return to Freedom Summer, by Keeping History Alive foundation. 2015. Firsthand accounts from six Freedom Summer volunteers from Iowa who reflect on their motivations, fears, triumphs and the life altering events that took place 50 years ago. YouTube live stream (IPTV)
Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964: Memory, Legacy & the Way Forward, by Civil Rights History Project Collection (LoC & NMAAHC). 4 hour discussion of the 1964 Freedom Summer project by Bob Moses, Dorie Ladner, Joyce Ladner and Charlie Cobb. 2014.
Mississippi Cold Case, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Documentary about the Ku Klux Klan murders of two 19-year-old young black men, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, in southwest Mississippi in May 1964.
Mississippi Justice, by Kirstin Butler, Ben Greenberg and Eric P. Gulliver, (American Experience ~ PBS), 2020. Short 14 minute film, the murders of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman.
Mississippi Summer: The Unfinished Journey. Films for the Humanities, 1993.
Neshoba: The Price of Freedom The lynching of Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman and the struggle to bring their killers to justice.
Pursuing a Late Justice: the Prosecution of Mississippi's Civil Rights Murders. Video tape of forum at University of Southern Mississippi. Can be obtained from: Email: Bobs Tusa, $8.00.
SNCC & Freedom Summer, Freedom School series by SpadeWork Community. 2 hour discussion with Zoharah Simmons and Charles Payne. 2021. YouTube live stream.
Frank Bates, 25 minute interview re SCLC, Taliaferro Co. GA & Crawfordsville.Walter Bruce, 85-min interview by John Dittmer about Mississippi movement & Freedom Summer, 2011.
Willy Leventhal, three-hour interview by David Cline about SCOPE, SCLC, & the movement. 2013.
Kay Tillow, 73-minute interview by David Cline about the Cairo IL and the freedom and labor movements. 2011.
Mississippi Becomes a Democracy. Story of voter registration, Freedom Summer, and the MFDP challenge in Atlantic City.
Chude Allen, My Mother and Father Believe Ours Is a Good Country 2010
Maria Gitin, Story From Wilcox County, Alabama 2010
Linda Halpern, The Shooting of Silas McGhee 2010
Bruce Hartford, Albert Turner & the Rocking Chair 2010
Don Jelinek, The Two Cows 2010
Adam Kline, Greenwood, Mississippi 2010
Sherie Labedis, Fireball in the Night 2010
Bob Weil, A Faulkner Tale 2010
Bright Winn, Mrs. Magruder 2010
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) (Articles)
McComb Mississippi Incidents & Events
Mississippi Movement web links
Mississippi Movement books
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