Freedom Summer

[x16wda]

Just saw the Freedom Summer program on PBS.  How could you watch that and not get chills.  I was an 8-year-old in Alabama during that time and only caught the very slightest glimmer of anything.  What heroes these people were.

[Renegade]

What is it? I've never heard of it.

[Stoic Joker]

What is it? I've never heard of it.

IIRC (from the commercial) it is about pivotal people/moments in the 60s era equal rights movement.

[40hz]

What is it? I've never heard of it.

IIRC (from the commercial) it is about pivotal people/moments in the 60s era equal rights movement.

It's about a very bad moment in US history that's well within living memory. Wikipedia has it covered here.

Freedom Summer (also known as the Mississippi Summer Project) was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi, which had historically excluded most blacks from voting. The project also set up dozens of Freedom Schools, Freedom Houses, and community centers in small towns throughout Mississippi to aid the local black population.

The project was organized by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of the Mississippi branches of the four major civil rights organizations (SNCC, CORE, NAACP and SCLC). Most of the impetus, leadership, and financing for the Summer Project came from the SNCC. Robert Parris Moses, SNCC field secretary and co-director of COFO, directed the summer project.

The problem wasn't one of those subtle "sense of discrimination" situations open to personal interpretation either. This was a blatant 'right out in the open with no apologies given' situation.

Freedom Summer was built on the years of earlier work by numerous African Americans who lived locally in Mississippi. In 1963, SNCC organized a mock "Freedom Vote" designed to demonstrate the will of Black Mississippians to vote, if not impeded by terror and intimidation. The Mississippi voting procedure at the time required Blacks to fill out a 21-question registration form and to answer, to the satisfaction of the white registrar, a question on interpretation of any one of 285 sections of the state constitution.

Lest it seem like any other social reform movement, this one was marked by a degree of violent pushback that would be unbelievable to many people living today. Unlike many (but not every) protest from that period, Freedom Summer had documented casualties - and a bodycount.

Some of the most flagrant abuses of government and police power shown during the Occupy Wall Street protest would seem almost genteel by comparison.

Bad old days those late 50s and early 60s.

[superboyac]

geez.  one one hand, i want to say i shouldn't complain about current stuff.  on the other hand, yes i should. 

[app103]

I am reminded of this:

Most of you have no idea what Martin Luther King actually did

[40hz]

I am reminded of this:

Most of you have no idea what Martin Luther King actually did

As Santayana said: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

I think America is heading for major 'do-over.'

[40hz]

geez.  one one hand, i want to say i shouldn't complain about current stuff.  on the other hand, yes i should. 

Yes indeed. That's an excellent way to lay the groundwork for change.

The two biggest threats to this country's way of life are a false sense of helplessness on the part of the general public - and its silence.

[x16wda]

The two biggest threats to this country's way of life are a false sense of helplessness on the part of the general public - and its silence.

True. But I think the silence is 50% ignorance and 50% fear... 50 years later there are ever so many more options available for responding to complainers...