What was Mississippi Freedom Summer? What did the volunteers want? Who led the movement? How successful was the movement? What did it lead to?

 

Freedom Summer, or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a 1964 voter registration drive aimed at increasing the number of registered black voters in Mississippi. Over 700 mostly white volunteers joined African Americans in Mississippi to fight against voter intimidation and discrimination at the polls. The ten weeks that comprised the "long hot summer" centered around several goals: to establish Freedom Schools and community centers throughout the state, to increase black voter registration, and to ultimately challenge the all-white delegation that would represent the state at the Democratic National Convention in August.

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Robert Moses. He proposed the idea of Freedom Summer to SNCC and COFO leaders in the fall of 1963 and was chosen to direct it early in 1964. More than any other person, Moses could be said to have led Freedom Summer.

Voter registration in Mississippi was not greatly impacted by the Freedom Summer. While 17,000 black Mississippians attempted to register to vote that summer, only 1,200 were successful.

Step-by-step explanation

The Freedom Summer project was created to draw the nation's attention to the violent oppression experienced by Mississippi blacks who attempted to exercise their constitutional rights, and to develop a freedom movement that could continue long after student activists left Mississippi. In the racially-segregated South, African Americans were subjected to repressive legislation and local intimidation that enhanced their disenfranchisement. The right to vote for African Americans developed into a major issue within the South as most African Americans were either not permitted to vote due to restrictions, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, or they were too daunted by white retaliation to attempt registration. During the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, an emphasis was placed upon black voter registration in order to reduce the amount of influence white representatives held in the southern Democratic Party. Multiple civil rights organizations, including The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) collaborated to devise a strategy that would promote black suffrage while enhancing media attention towards the issue. The plan they organized was a summer program in which Northern college students would travel down and reside within the South and, with the help of local activists, pursue voter registration and community connection. Historically, the state of Mississippi typically had the lowest levels of African-American registration, such as in the 1962 election where only about seven percent of the eligible black voters were registered. Therefore, most volunteers would be sent into Mississippi to attempt to reduce the stronghold of the segregation epicenter.

Freedom Summer, or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a 1964 voter registration drive aimed at increasing the number of registered black voters in Mississippi. Over 700 mostly white volunteers joined African Americans in Mississippi to fight against voter intimidation and discrimination at the polls. The ten weeks that comprised the "long hot summer" centered around several goals: to establish Freedom Schools and community centers throughout the state, to increase black voter registration, and to ultimately challenge the all-white delegation that would represent the state at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Around 800 students, generally whites of middle-class standing, gathered in Oxford, Ohio, where they were trained in voter registration, teaching literacy and leadership techniques, non-violent resistance, and promoting the cause of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The MFDP was aiming to attract enough support to challenge the all-white democratic delegation that would participate that summer in the Democratic National Convention held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Caucasian demographic of the volunteers was part of a strategy to attract national attention to the abuses of Mississippi system. The volunteers were also prepared for the intense southern racial conditions that would engulf them throughout their program. They were requested to read books that dealt with past activists' experiences, including the narrations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and letters were delivered to all volunteers detailing the risks of participation, including incarceration, directed violence, and intimidation.

Image result for Who led the Mississippi Freedom Summer movement?

Robert Moses led the Mississippi Freedom Summer movement. He proposed the idea of Freedom Summer to SNCC and COFO leaders in the fall of 1963 and was chosen to direct it early in 1964. More than any other person, Moses could be said to have led Freedom Summer.

Voter registration in Mississippi was not greatly impacted by the Freedom Summer. While 17,000 black Mississippians attempted to register to vote that summer, only 1,200 were successful. Freedom Summer raised the consciousness of millions of people to the plight of African-Americans and the need for change. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed Congress in part because lawmakers' constituents had been educated about these issues during Freedom Summer.

The increased awareness it brought to voter discrimination helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.