Remembering Mississippi Freedom Summer

The year is 1964. Imagine a country where you are a slave. You have no rights. You cannot attend public schools, the public library, restaurants, parks, churches, or movie theaters. You cannot vote or meet and organize with others like yourself who are denied these rights. That country is the United States of America, in the State of Mississippi. You are black. Remembering Mississippi Freedom Summer is a first-person account of Charles Prickett, a college student and civil rights activist, who worked during the Mississippi Freedom Summer of1964. This moving account explores rural Mississippi and the black community's efforts to change the stifling and brutal system of racism that touched every life. The Mississippi Freedom Summer focused on four goals: Freedom Schools tried to fill in the gaps left by a segregated educational system that denied black citizens a quality education. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party tried to give a political voice to disenfranchised black citizens. Black farmers were organized so they could share in federal programs that support agriculture. Voting registration drives tried to register black citizens to vote. All these efforts were met with violent resistance. What emerges is a triumph of democracy, as Mississippi became the state with more black elected public officials than any other state in the U.S.