Freedom Summer 1964: 57-years-later Mississippi Black Voter Registration Drive and Murder

Neshoba Countians march for Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman, near Philadelphia, Miss. on June 21, 1965. Dep. Sheriff, Cecil Price, a Klan member later convicted on federal civil rights charges in the murders, watches. Credit: Matt Herron/Take Stock/TopFoto.

Before the recent push to rally voters to register in Georgia, lead by Stacey Abrams, there was a movement that changed voters rights and impacted civil rights forever. About 57 years ago in 1964 the history changing movement was called the Freedom Summer and was also called the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964.

This project was a drive to get black voters registered to vote. The movement was a fight against voters discrimination and intimidation.

Over 700 volunteers, including a large number of white volunteers, joined together to break down barriers to vote. The volunteers were met with resistance from members of the state and local law enforcement along with the Ku Klux Klan.

The movement was organized by two civil rights organizations: Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The movement was run by Council of Federated Organizations (COFO).

The movement began because voting during the Civil Rights erases still a process met by poll taxes, intimidation, literacy tests, and discrimination tactics that were used to make it harder for black voters to use their constitutional right to vote.

Due to the restrictions black voters met, this caused change on a political front in Mississippi to be slow or non-existent.

Mississippi was the chosen state for the movement because of it's extremely low numbers of black voters. There were less than 7% of eligible black voters even registered.

A demonstration in Atlantic City, the site of the 1964 Democratic Convention, in “Freedom Summer,” Stanley Nelson’s documentary, on PBS stations on Tuesday.

Source: George Ballis/Take Stock

The Freedom Summer kicked off on June 15, 1964 and was led by project director Robert “Bob" Moses. He vowed to nonviolence during all situations from all staff and volunteers.

The first three volunteers: Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman- two white students from New York and a local Black man, James Chaney dissappeared after investigating a church burning, Mt. Zion Baptist church, in a neighboring Neshoba County Black community of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Their disappearance gained national attention.

The FBI distributed this poster in June 1964 announcing the disappearance of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner. Their murders galvanized the civil rights movement. Source: FBI

The FBI recovered the beaten bodies of the three missing volunteers were recovered 44 days later. The three men were killed by a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob and local police. The mob were protected by local law enforcement.

Source: Associated Press

Source: Associated Press

Although the Freedom Summer only resulted in 1,200 registered black voters out of 17,000, the Project did establish more than 40 Freedom Schools. Each school served a combination of 3,000 students. The movement also raised awareness for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr expressed himself about the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party by saying: “If you value your party, if you value your nation, if you value democratic government you have no alternative but to recognize, with full voice and vote, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holds pictures of murdered Freedom Summer Volunteers. Source: AP

The Mississippi Summer Project gained national attention for the civil rights movement. This awareness helped to convince the President, Lyndon B. Johnson and congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The passing of this act ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and the door was opened for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Sources:

Freedom Summer. King Institute of Stanford.
The 1964 Miss. Freedom Summer Protests Won Progress At a Bloody Price. The Daily Beast.

Freedom Summer MISSISSIPPI. 1964. PBS