Student Activism and Civil Rights in Mississippi: Protest Politics and the Struggle for Racial Justice, 1960-1965

7. Freedom Summer, Part I

83 7 Freedom Summer, Part I They say that freedom is a constant struggle. . . . Oh, Lord, we’ve struggled so long. We must be free, we must be free. —a movement song The strongest preservative of the closed society is the closed mind. It has been argued that in the history of the United States democracy has produced great leaders in great crises. Sad as it may be, the opposite has been true in Mississippi . As yet there is little evidence that the closed society will ever possess the moral resources to reform itself, or the capacity for self-examination, or even the tolerance of self-examination. —james w. silver, spring 1964 T he Mississippi Summer Project operated on two levels. On the one hand there were programs aimed at the immediate problems within the state, and on the other there were programs that represented an attempt to dramatize those problems and win participation in the political forum for Mississippi African Americans on a national level. The first projects were voter registration activities, the Freedom Schools, community centers, research pointed at winning federal help for the African American community, and the “white folks” project. Then there was the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which attempted to gain the place of the regular Mississippi Democratic Party delegation at the Democratic National Convention in August 1964 and challenged the seating of the Mississippi delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives in January 1965. All of these projects will be discussed in later chapters. At the outset, though, it is necessary to take note of the process of getting ready for the Summer Project, along with the orientation, composition, and organization of the volunteers. In addition, the “invasion” that attempted to 84 student activism and civil rights in mississippi force open the closed society was greeted by the Mississippi power structure in ways that determined the outcome of the Summer Project. Inasmuch as Freedom Summer was a culmination of the student-supported movement’s work in the state since 1960, as well as being tied to the efforts of local African Americans since the end of World War II, and particularly after 1954, the summer of 1964 and the winter of 1964–65 represented a turning point for civil rights efforts in Mississippi. African Americans had previously been afraid to confront the white power structure, but during the summer of 1964 local African Americans participated in large numbers in the movement, especially after being violently attacked by the white population in such places as Neshoba County and southwest Mississippi. And the movement fulfilled its commitment to return to McComb during the summer after being absent from this area for two and a half years, and throughout the Delta where they had been continually harassed and attacked from the beginning. Furthermore, a substantial number of African Americans tried to register to vote, and a surprisingly large number of African American schoolchildren and adults studied in the Freedom Schools and helped movement people canvass the African American community. The summer of 1964 was the time when Mississippi African Americans finally overcame their fear of confronting “the man” and came to the conclusion that they really had nothing to gain by staying “in their place.” The Mississippi Summer Project gained attention in the national press, providing encouragement for overcoming their fears. Also, the presence of nearly one thousand summer volunteers, most of whom were white northerners, helped provide the needed push that encouraged them to abandon their pretense of happiness. In short, the summer of 1964 represents the point at which the Mississippi civil rights movement became a national concern and the plight of Mississippi African Americans could no longer be overlooked by the federal government. During the summer, the federal policy of passivity changed, and the government turned to Mississippi with a new activism that was to shake the Mississippi power structure and encourage African Americans into open confrontation . After 1964, the movement quickly returned to being largely a local affair, and the national civil rights organizations began to withdraw from the battle. A new spirit seemed to appear among African Americans during the summer . Not only did local African Americans take movement people into their homes; during the summer they also protected them through the long nights. Nonviolence was practiced by the movement during public activities, but weap- freedom summer, part i 85 ons, which are part of...