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What happened in Mississippi that year was a mix of hope, persistence, and the horror of humanity's dark side unleashed in a torrent of racial and ethnic hatred. The case has been recounted, rehashed, and revisited a hundred times. Authorities pressed new charges well into the 21st century. A successful Hollywood film was released based on the summer's events. What was the Freedom Summer, also known as the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project? Learn about its causes, unfolding, and long-term effects in this explanation.
Did you find this explanation helpful? Check out our other explanations on civil rights, including Emmett Till, The Greensboro Sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and more!
Freedom Summer Summary
As the civil rights movement gained a foothold across the American South, three crucial groups formed a coalition to secure a Black voting registry in Mississippi. These groups were CORE (Congress on Racial Equality), the SNCC (Student Non-Violence Coordinating Committee), and the local COFO (Council of Federated Organisations). The activists would have their work cut out for them, as African Americans in this region were often subject to violence and intimidation at polling places. The KKK was highly active in Mississippi and reacted with predictable violence to the burgeoning rights activism in their state.
Fig. 1 Foner (Thomas) Freedom Summer Papers
Mississippi Freedom Summer Project
The activists dubbed their plan the "Mississippi Freedom Summer Project," or "Freedom Summer" for short. In addition to recent advances in the civil rights movement, the Freedom Rides of 1961, in which peaceful demonstrations protested Jim Crow laws at interstate stops across the South, inspired the Freedom Summer orchestrators.
Fig. 2 Foner (Thomas) Freedom Summer Papers Pt.2
The architects of Freedom Summer enlisted the help of over 700 white volunteers. On June 15, 1964, just five days after the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the drive for voter registration began. Leader of voter education and registration Bob Moses stressed to participants dispersed across the state that they should be prepared for the eventuality that they would end up in jail. Therefore, they had to take bail money with them into the field.
Freedom Summer Murders
Among the civil rights workers arriving on the 15th were Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney. Schwerner and Goodman were white, and Chaney was African-American. The trio traveled to rural Neshoba county, where they disappeared after visiting the town of Philadelphia.
The FBI agent in charge of the case was John Proctor, whose investigation code was "MIBURN," which stood for "Mississippi Burning." Proctor found that Neshoba County arrested Chaney for speeding. All three men were jailed and subsequently made bail. The police followed them on the way out of town.
Not long after, police received reports of a burning CORE station wagon outside the city limits of Philadelphia. State police soon received an anonymous tip from a "Mr. X," who divulged the location of the bodies underneath a dam on a nearly-250 acre local farm. A mob of Klansmen had shot all three victims of a Klan conspiracy.
Fig. 3 Missing persons poster created by the FBI in 1964
The Hollywood film Mississippi Burning (1988) is loosely based on the events of that summer. The movie received high praise and several awards upon its release. Willem Dafoe, Gene Hackman, and Frances McDormand star in the film. Many of the film's images are indelible, such as the burning crosses and the blanched robes of the KKK. The movie evokes the sweat-drenched summer in the South, steeped in a brew of loathsome racial hatred. The film brought even more attention to the case. It has an average rating of 84% on the Rotten Tomatoes movie database.
Verdict
The federal trial took place in Meridian, MI. Seven of the defendants received sentences from three to ten years. Nine were acquitted, and the jury deadlocked on the other three.
Freedom Summer Timeline 1964
| Year | Event |
| August 1955 | Emmett Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi. |
| February 1960 | Greensboro sit-ins protesting segregation of public accommodations took place in Greensboro, North Carolina. |
| July 1960 | Woolworths discreetly joined other restaurants across the South and desegregated their facilities. |
| 1960 | SNCC was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina. |
| 1961 | Freedom Rides took place across the South to protest discrimination at interstate accommodations. |
| 1963 | At the March on Washington rally in DC, Martin Luther King gave his "I have a dream" speech. |
| June 11, 1963 | JFK addressed the nation on the topic of civil rights. |
| June 12, 1963 | Medgar Evers was assassinated. |
| June 19, 1963 | JFK introduced his Civil Rights bill. |
| September 15, 1963 | 16th St. Baptist Church in Birm, Alabama, was bombed, and four African American girls were killed. |
| November 22, 1963 | JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. |
| November 24, 1963 | Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the bill in Congress, where all Southern representatives opposed it. |
| February 10, 1964 | The Civil Rights Act was passed in the House but was filibustered in the Senate by the Southern representatives. President Johnson stressed the necessity of continuing it with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. |
| June 10, 1964 | The Civil Rights Act became the law of the land after a lengthy filibuster by the Southern Bloc. |
| June 15, 1964 | The Mississippi Freedom Summer Project began, sending activists around the state to increase voter registration. Three activists ended up murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the KKK. |
| 1965 | The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was built on the Civil Rights Act, and the 15th amendment protections, ensuring voters were protected from voter discrimination. |
Freedom Summer Significance
Through the lens of history, the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project was a compelling but brief chapter in the fight for freedom. The project was not hugely successful in fulfilling its immediate aim of creating a Black voting registry. In the end, only about 1,200 new voters managed to cross the poll lines. However, 40 Freedom Schools served the Black Community. In addition, the project led to the foundation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Unfortunately, MFDP delegates were refused seats at the Democratic National Convention that year.
Fig. 4 George Raymond Mug Shot
Many folks are convinced that the publicity surrounding the case and the widely broadcast images of that sweltering summer persuaded President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965 the following year. After 1964, the civil rights movement would become more fractious and militant with the advent of the Black Power movement.
Freedom Summer Murders - Resolution
Improbably, the Justice Department reopened the case in 2002 thanks to a civilian investigation conducted by a high school class doing a research project on the case. "Mr. X," who had tipped off police about the location of the three men's bodies, was then identified as Maynard King, a local highway patrolman. Then, in 2005, aptly named killer Edgar Ray Killen was charged and sentenced to three counts of manslaughter. Killen died in prison in 2018.
Fig. 5 Edgar Ray Killed Mug shot
Freedom Summer - Key takeaways
- Mississippi's Freedom Summer, also known as the Mississippi Summer Freedom Project, took place on June 15, 1964.
- The project was initiated as an attempt to create a Black voter registry. These attempts were only partially successful in the end.
- Three civil rights volunteers went missing during the project's actualization. Their bodies were found on a farm outside Philadelphia, MI. They had been murdered, shot in cold blood by Klansmen.
- Most of the killers received light sentences at the time, but the case was reopened in 2005 thanks to a report on the case by a high school class. Edgar Ray Killen was then belatedly charged with three counts of manslaughter and died while serving a de facto life sentence.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Freedom Summer
What was the Freedom Summer?
The Freedom Summer or Mississippi Freedom Summer Project was a grassroots drive to increase registration among Black voters in the state.
When was the Freedom Summer?
In 1964.
What happened during the Freedom Summer?
The murder of three volunteers by the KKK rocked the community.
Why did civil rights groups organize the Freedom Summer?
It was inspired by recent civil rights successes like the Freedom Rides, which had opposed Jim Crow laws in the South.
What did the Freedom Summer try to accomplish?
It tried to consolidate the recent successes of the civil rights movement by driving up voter registration among blacks.
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