1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio, Hello, and Welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Over the 4 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:20,599 Speaker 1: last few months, the state of Georgia made a lot 5 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:24,440 Speaker 1: of headlines when it's voters elected Joe Biden for president 6 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: and then in a runoff elected John Ossoff and Raphael 7 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: were Not as senators. This broke a decades long pattern 8 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:37,120 Speaker 1: of Georgians electing Republicans rather than Democrats into these roles. 9 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: These elections followed just years of organizing an advocacy and 10 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,479 Speaker 1: legal work and voter registration efforts in the state, and 11 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 1: the person who has become most widely known for all 12 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:52,320 Speaker 1: this work is Stacy Abrams. Really though it involved multiple 13 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: civil rights and voting rights and labor organizations along with 14 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: individual people, and Abrams has made it entirely clear that 15 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: it was not work that she did by herself, So 16 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 1: I just wanted to call that part out too. As 17 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,400 Speaker 1: I was watching all of this unfolded, though, my mind 18 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:13,560 Speaker 1: kept returning to other earlier voter registration efforts in the 19 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,680 Speaker 1: United States, and one of those is the Mississippi Summer 20 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:19,959 Speaker 1: Project of ninety four, which is now better known as 21 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: Freedom Summer. This project was met with an extremely violent 22 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:28,400 Speaker 1: and deadly backlash, and in some ways that backlash has 23 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 1: overshadowed the work that the projects set out to do, 24 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:34,280 Speaker 1: and that work actually involved a lot more than registering 25 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:38,119 Speaker 1: people to vote. So that is today's topic for the show. 26 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:40,680 Speaker 1: And before we start, I just wanted to shout out 27 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:45,680 Speaker 1: the podcast seen on radio, especially its fourth season, which 28 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,480 Speaker 1: is called The Land That Has Never Been Yet. Uh. 29 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:51,920 Speaker 1: That is a twelve part series exploring the history of 30 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:55,000 Speaker 1: democracy in the United States and the many, many ways 31 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 1: that it has not actually been all that democratic. Episode 32 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 1: seven is on Freedom Summer, and it's what inspired me 33 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:04,760 Speaker 1: to put it on the topic list when that episode 34 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:08,760 Speaker 1: first came out in April, because it kind of contextualized 35 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:12,280 Speaker 1: Freedom Summer a little differently than I had learned it before. 36 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,520 Speaker 1: So for some context about what led up to Freedom Summer. 37 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: In the early nineteen sixties, Mississippi existed in a state 38 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:25,200 Speaker 1: of deeply oppressive, violent racism. Most of its black residents 39 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:27,960 Speaker 1: were still working in the same jobs that their ancestors 40 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 1: had done while enslaved things like tending and picking cotton, 41 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:35,359 Speaker 1: doing manual labor or doing domestic work, and these were 42 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:39,480 Speaker 1: overwhelmingly the only kind of jobs available for them. Most 43 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:43,520 Speaker 1: of Mississippi's black population lived in poverty. The U. S. 44 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:47,840 Speaker 1: Supreme Court had ruled that public school segregation was unconstitutional 45 00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:51,160 Speaker 1: and brown versus board in nineteen fifty four, but in 46 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:54,440 Speaker 1: the early sixties, Mississippi was one of the places where 47 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:58,400 Speaker 1: schools were still segregated in spite of that ruling. Some 48 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: of the school buildings for black students were actually relatively new, 49 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:07,800 Speaker 1: but the schools themselves were deeply deliberately underfunded. A fewer 50 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,679 Speaker 1: than one percent of Mississippi's black students graduated from high 51 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:14,639 Speaker 1: school at the time, and many black people in Mississippi 52 00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 1: could not read or write. This wasn't a case of 53 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 1: pettiness or the Mississippi government just not caring about the 54 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:24,239 Speaker 1: quality of education for black students. It was an intentional 55 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:28,400 Speaker 1: effort to keep Mississippi's black population in a state of ignorance. 56 00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:31,320 Speaker 1: It was the same logic that had led to laws 57 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: making it illegal to teach enslaved people to read a 58 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:38,680 Speaker 1: century before. In many parts of Mississippi, white people were 59 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: in the minority, and like enslavers of the past, they 60 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 1: knew it would be harder for black people to organize 61 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:49,040 Speaker 1: if they lacked literacy and a basic education. Throughout the South, 62 00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:52,240 Speaker 1: white Citizens Councils had formed in the wake of the 63 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:56,920 Speaker 1: Supreme Court's decision in Brown versus. Board. These organizations were 64 00:03:56,920 --> 00:04:00,400 Speaker 1: made up of powerful, high profile white citizens, and they 65 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:04,080 Speaker 1: were dedicated to maintaining a state of segregation and white 66 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: supremacy in the places where they operated. Although White Citizens 67 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:12,440 Speaker 1: Councils and their members could be violent, these organizations tended 68 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:15,880 Speaker 1: to be more focused on things like legal and economic 69 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:20,960 Speaker 1: oppression than there were on physical violence. In Mississippi, the 70 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: white Citizens Councils were so effective at maintaining the racial 71 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,919 Speaker 1: status quo that the Ku Klux Klan, which tended to 72 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:31,719 Speaker 1: be more overtly violent, didn't have much of a presence 73 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:35,280 Speaker 1: there until nineteen sixty three. And on top of all this, 74 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:37,799 Speaker 1: as we said at the beginning, Mississippi was a place 75 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: of violent racist hostility. Black people were expected to maintain 76 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:45,799 Speaker 1: a demeanor of total deference and subservience to white people. 77 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:50,080 Speaker 1: Any perceived lapse was punishable by violence or even death. 78 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:53,960 Speaker 1: More people were lynched in Mississippi than anywhere else in 79 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:57,440 Speaker 1: the South, including the notorious lynching a fourteen year old 80 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,280 Speaker 1: Emmett Till, which took place in Money, Mississippi in nine. 81 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 1: The n Double A CP started establishing field offices in 82 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:09,839 Speaker 1: Mississippi in the early nineteen fifties. In late nineteen fifty four, 83 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: Medgar Evers was appointed in Double A CP Field Secretary 84 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: for Mississippi, and by nineteen fifty five, then Double A 85 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:20,599 Speaker 1: CP was the most powerful civil rights organization in the state, 86 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 1: along with the Mississippi Progressive Voters League and the Regional 87 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 1: Council of Negro Leadership. Then Double A c P worked 88 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 1: primarily on issues related to voting in Mississippi, including offering 89 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:37,599 Speaker 1: voter education and support, and registering to vote. Double A 90 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:41,960 Speaker 1: CP Youth councils also offered Civics education for young people 91 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:44,600 Speaker 1: to prepare them to register to vote once they were 92 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:47,279 Speaker 1: old enough to do that. Most of this work was 93 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:50,880 Speaker 1: done discreetly because the level of racist violence in Mississippi 94 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:54,240 Speaker 1: was so extreme, but just the act of registering to 95 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 1: vote was incredibly risky. Under the fifteenth Amendment to the U. 96 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 1: S Constitution, quote, the right of citizens in the United 97 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:05,040 Speaker 1: States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by 98 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:08,960 Speaker 1: the United States or by any state on account of race, color, 99 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:13,279 Speaker 1: or previous condition of servitude. But in Mississippi, anyone who 100 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:16,720 Speaker 1: wanted to register to vote had to face a white registrar, 101 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:21,599 Speaker 1: and those registrars routinely denied voter registration to black people. 102 00:06:22,279 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: This was not just a matter of the registrar saying no, 103 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:29,919 Speaker 1: though a two dollar poll tax was financially out of 104 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:35,040 Speaker 1: reach for Mississippi's poorest people, who were disproportionately black. There 105 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:41,440 Speaker 1: was also an extremely unnecessarily complicated application form. There was 106 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,880 Speaker 1: a test as well, and once again this test was 107 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:49,279 Speaker 1: unnecessarily complicated, even to the point of being unpassable. It 108 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:54,200 Speaker 1: involved interpreting a section of the state constitution. It was 109 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:56,839 Speaker 1: up to the registrar what passage you were given, and 110 00:06:56,880 --> 00:06:59,839 Speaker 1: it was also up to the registrar whether you're interpretation 111 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:04,160 Speaker 1: past the test. Black people also faced intimidation and threats 112 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:07,719 Speaker 1: during the entire process, things like the sheriff standing in 113 00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:10,240 Speaker 1: the room with one hand on his gun and the 114 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:12,960 Speaker 1: other on his baton while people tried to take those 115 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:17,120 Speaker 1: impossible tests, especially in small towns and rural parts of 116 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,000 Speaker 1: the state where everyone knew each other, the sheriff or 117 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,240 Speaker 1: the registrar might pointedly mention that they knew your employer 118 00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:25,720 Speaker 1: or your landlord, who would not be happy if they 119 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: found out that you were trying to register to vote. 120 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: Beyond the convoluted process and the threats and intimidation, black 121 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: people who tried to register to vote in Mississippi often 122 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:42,840 Speaker 1: faced actual retribution afterward, whether they were successful at registring 123 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:45,600 Speaker 1: to vote or not. If you were black and you 124 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:48,120 Speaker 1: tried to register to vote, you might be fired from 125 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:50,960 Speaker 1: your job, or evicted from your home, or run out 126 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:54,960 Speaker 1: of town entirely. Somebody might burn across in your yard 127 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:59,320 Speaker 1: or firebomb your house, or you might be arrested, beaten, 128 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:02,560 Speaker 1: or even killed as a consequence of all of this. 129 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:06,600 Speaker 1: By nineteen sixty two, less than seven percent of eligible 130 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:10,200 Speaker 1: black voters in Mississippi were actually registered. This was the 131 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:14,000 Speaker 1: lowest percentage in any state, and that was after years 132 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:16,120 Speaker 1: of work on the part of the ub A c P, 133 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:21,040 Speaker 1: the Mississippi Progressive Voters League, the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, 134 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:25,600 Speaker 1: and other organizations. One of those other organizations was the 135 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 1: Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee or SNICK. SNICK had been 136 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:32,680 Speaker 1: formed during the lunch counter SIN ins that we talked 137 00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:36,839 Speaker 1: about on the show in January. Was formed after Ella 138 00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:40,800 Speaker 1: Baker convened a meeting of youth activists at Shaw University 139 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:44,880 Speaker 1: in Raleigh, North Carolina. Members of SNICK started arriving in 140 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:49,880 Speaker 1: Mississippi in nineteen sixty one. Snake activists quickly realized that 141 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:52,320 Speaker 1: the kind of direct action they had been doing during 142 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:55,839 Speaker 1: the lunch counter sit ins and other demonstrations was not 143 00:08:55,920 --> 00:08:59,000 Speaker 1: what the people of Mississippi were really looking for. The 144 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:02,200 Speaker 1: threat of viole in response to such an outward protest 145 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:05,440 Speaker 1: was just too great. But on top of that, many 146 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:08,319 Speaker 1: of the direct action campaigns that had taken place earlier 147 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:11,520 Speaker 1: in the Civil rights movement just weren't relevant to a 148 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:15,320 Speaker 1: large portion of Mississippi's black population. If you were a 149 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 1: sharecropper living in a rural part of the state, there 150 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,480 Speaker 1: probably was no lunch counter for you to patronize at all, 151 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:25,200 Speaker 1: nor were there services like municipal buses to integrate as 152 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 1: had been done through the Montgomery bus boycott. So as 153 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:33,439 Speaker 1: Snake activists established themselves in the state, they started looking 154 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:36,080 Speaker 1: for a way to turn their attention to what was 155 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 1: relevant to the people of Mississippi and what Mississippi's black 156 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:42,680 Speaker 1: residents wanted was to be able to vote so that 157 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:46,320 Speaker 1: they could vote racist officials out of office. And we're 158 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:48,520 Speaker 1: going to talk more about that after we pause for 159 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:59,200 Speaker 1: a sponsor break. A series of events in Mississippi in 160 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:01,760 Speaker 1: the early ninet in sixties led to the creation of 161 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:06,120 Speaker 1: the Mississippi Summer Project. In nineteen sixty one, the Freedom Rides, 162 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:09,480 Speaker 1: which were organized by the Congress of Racial Quality or CORE, 163 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:14,040 Speaker 1: tested whether bus lines had integrated following the Supreme Court's 164 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:19,040 Speaker 1: decision that interstate bus segregation was unconstitutional, and this included 165 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:22,840 Speaker 1: integrated groups of Freedom Writers making their way into Mississippi, 166 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:26,280 Speaker 1: many of whom were arrested and abused while in prison 167 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:29,160 Speaker 1: once they got there. There's, of course, a whole lot 168 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:31,319 Speaker 1: more to this. This is one of the many things 169 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 1: that has come up in the episode so far that 170 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:37,640 Speaker 1: we have previous episodes on. We actually replayed previous hosts 171 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:40,480 Speaker 1: episodes on the Freedom Rides as a Saturday classic back 172 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:45,480 Speaker 1: in Also in nineteen sixty one, James Meredith applied for 173 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:48,880 Speaker 1: admission to the University of Mississippi, which was still not 174 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:52,640 Speaker 1: admitting black students, and that launched a legal battle that 175 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:55,520 Speaker 1: went all the way to the Supreme Court. In nineteen 176 00:10:55,600 --> 00:10:59,800 Speaker 1: sixty two, the Kennedy administration announced its Voter Education Project, 177 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,840 Speaker 1: which would provide funding and tax exempt status for organizations 178 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:07,280 Speaker 1: that were working to register black voters. Part of the 179 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:10,000 Speaker 1: project's goal was to encourage the civil rights movement to 180 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:14,040 Speaker 1: shift away from direct action demonstrations and to focus instead 181 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:18,360 Speaker 1: on voting, which the administration saw as less confrontational and divisive. 182 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:22,600 Speaker 1: Civil rights organizations knew that this was a strategic move 183 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,240 Speaker 1: on the government's part to try to influence what they 184 00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:28,439 Speaker 1: were doing, but they also saw it as an opportunity, 185 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:31,960 Speaker 1: and as a result, in nineteen sixty two, the Council 186 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:36,960 Speaker 1: of Federated Organizations was formed to act as an umbrella organization. 187 00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:40,640 Speaker 1: It brought together SNIC CORE and then Double a CP 188 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:44,080 Speaker 1: to focus all of their efforts on voting rights and 189 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:48,480 Speaker 1: registration in Mississippi. In the fall of nineteen sixty two, 190 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:52,680 Speaker 1: the Board of Supervisors of Lafleur County, Mississippi, voted to 191 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:56,920 Speaker 1: end its participation in the federal Surplus Food commodity program 192 00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,240 Speaker 1: that was a critical food source for thousands of the 193 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:04,120 Speaker 1: counties black residents. Snick Field organizers concluded that this decision 194 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:08,080 Speaker 1: was in retaliation for their voter registration work in the county, 195 00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:12,400 Speaker 1: although the Board of Supervisors denied this allegation. Comedian and 196 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:17,000 Speaker 1: activist Dick Gregory brought about fourteen thousand pounds of basic staples, 197 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:20,520 Speaker 1: including baby food, to the area in a chartered plane. 198 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:25,680 Speaker 1: Dick Gregory's donation got a lot of media attention, and 199 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:28,480 Speaker 1: activists in Mississippi started trying to figure out a way 200 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:31,800 Speaker 1: to keep that focus going to make the rest of 201 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:36,160 Speaker 1: the country more aware of what conditions were like in Mississippi, 202 00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:39,640 Speaker 1: and an idea on how to do this was proposed 203 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:43,520 Speaker 1: by snick Field secretary Robert Moses known as Bob, and 204 00:12:43,640 --> 00:12:46,880 Speaker 1: Alard Loewenstein, who had been a Freedom writer and had 205 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:50,319 Speaker 1: worked with Snick to coordinate a mock gubernatorial election in 206 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:55,160 Speaker 1: Mississippi in November of nineteen sixty three. That mock election 207 00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:58,800 Speaker 1: had brought in about a hundred volunteers, most of them white, 208 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:02,000 Speaker 1: to try to demon straight how black voters could shift 209 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,959 Speaker 1: elections if they could freely vote. Freedom Summer was more 210 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:09,480 Speaker 1: ambitious than the nineteen sixties three mock election. They would 211 00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:12,640 Speaker 1: bring as many as one thousand volunteers, most of them white, 212 00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:16,280 Speaker 1: to Mississippi. The involvement of white students would mean that 213 00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:19,040 Speaker 1: the white media and the general population of the rest 214 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:21,640 Speaker 1: of the country might actually pay attention to what was 215 00:13:21,679 --> 00:13:25,960 Speaker 1: happening there, and organizers also knew that white parents were 216 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,200 Speaker 1: likely to start contacting their representatives in the federal government 217 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:32,720 Speaker 1: and otherwise demanding action if they thought that their children 218 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:37,880 Speaker 1: were at risk. This idea was deeply controversial, though the 219 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:41,839 Speaker 1: groups that made up the Council of Federated Organizations were integrated, 220 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:44,680 Speaker 1: and they had worked with groups of white activists before. 221 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:48,520 Speaker 1: The civil rights movement as a whole had also involved 222 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:52,040 Speaker 1: the ongoing work of Jewish and Christian activists and clergy, 223 00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:56,559 Speaker 1: and plenty of black activists who were already in Mississippi 224 00:13:56,600 --> 00:14:00,480 Speaker 1: had come there from somewhere else. As one example, Moses 225 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:04,120 Speaker 1: himself had been born in Harlem. But this idea of 226 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:08,720 Speaker 1: just so many young white students all coming from other 227 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: states into Mississippi was really troubling to a lot of people. 228 00:14:13,160 --> 00:14:15,959 Speaker 1: There were also concerns that these students, who would mainly 229 00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:19,440 Speaker 1: be recruited from prestigious universities in the North, would be 230 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:23,040 Speaker 1: too idealistic or unwilling to work under the direction of 231 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:26,520 Speaker 1: black people. This was compounded by the fact that many 232 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:29,600 Speaker 1: of the most experienced activists in Mississippi were by this 233 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:34,800 Speaker 1: point exhausted and burned out. Plus, this was inherently dangerous work, 234 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:38,520 Speaker 1: and anyone who participated was putting their own lives at risk. 235 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:42,240 Speaker 1: This idea had its supporters as well, though one of 236 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:45,240 Speaker 1: them was Fannie Lou Hamer, who is definitely on the 237 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:48,240 Speaker 1: list for her own episode in the future. At some point, 238 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:52,080 Speaker 1: Hammer was a sharecropper and a timekeeper on the plantation 239 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:55,920 Speaker 1: where she worked. She had become an organizer for SNICK 240 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,360 Speaker 1: and had been forced to leave that plantation in August 241 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:02,240 Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty two after she led a group of 242 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:05,800 Speaker 1: black people to register to vote. In an interview with 243 00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:09,600 Speaker 1: Terry Gross, SNICK activist Charlie Cobb, who had been born 244 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:12,960 Speaker 1: in Washington, d c. Described Hammer as backing him against 245 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:16,440 Speaker 1: a wall and saying, Charlie, I'm glad you came down here. 246 00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:19,960 Speaker 1: What's the problem with other people coming down here. The 247 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 1: controversy went on until the summer of nineteen sixty three. 248 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:26,400 Speaker 1: On June twelfth of that year, thirty seven year old 249 00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:30,040 Speaker 1: and double a CP field secretary Medgar Evers was murdered 250 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:33,760 Speaker 1: in his own driveway. Evers had been born in Mississippi, 251 00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:36,480 Speaker 1: and he had been involved in boycotts of service stations 252 00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 1: that refused restroom access to black people, along with other 253 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:43,400 Speaker 1: boycotts and protest activities, and he had also helped investigate 254 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:45,960 Speaker 1: the murder of him at till he had faced a 255 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,800 Speaker 1: series of death threats before being murdered. After two different 256 00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:54,160 Speaker 1: juries failed to reach a verdict. His murderer, white supremacist 257 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:57,440 Speaker 1: and Ku Klux Klan member by Randela Beckwith, was finally 258 00:15:57,480 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 1: convicted in nineteen four. Ever's murder was what led many 259 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,200 Speaker 1: of the people who had opposed the project to put 260 00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:08,720 Speaker 1: those reservations aside. The Mississippi Summer Project, as this idea 261 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 1: came to be known, was announced in February of nineteen 262 00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:16,160 Speaker 1: sixty four by James Farmer of CORE, James Foreman of SNICK, 263 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:18,560 Speaker 1: and Bob Moses of both SNICK and the Council of 264 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:24,080 Speaker 1: Federated Organizations. They would train young white volunteers and activism 265 00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:27,600 Speaker 1: and non violence. Then these volunteers would come to Mississippi 266 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:30,359 Speaker 1: where they would live in the homes of black Mississippi 267 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:35,400 Speaker 1: residents and work on three interconnecting projects. One was talking 268 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:38,920 Speaker 1: to black residents about registering to vote. Another was to 269 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:42,440 Speaker 1: recruit these same people into a new political party that 270 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:46,040 Speaker 1: was the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, And the third was 271 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: to teach at Freedom Schools, which were independent schools that 272 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:51,680 Speaker 1: were meant to fill the gaps that had been left 273 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:56,600 Speaker 1: by Mississippi's intentionally bad public education system for black students. 274 00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:01,440 Speaker 1: The voter registration effort was an uphill battle. Volunteers went 275 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:04,040 Speaker 1: door to door in pairs, one black and one white 276 00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:07,320 Speaker 1: to encourage people to register to vote and to offer 277 00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:11,120 Speaker 1: support with the registration process, but most people they talked 278 00:17:11,119 --> 00:17:16,200 Speaker 1: to were understandably afraid to register. Although about seventeen thousand 279 00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:19,640 Speaker 1: people tried to register to vote during Freedom Summer, only 280 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:24,040 Speaker 1: about sixteen hundred were successful, but many more people were 281 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:27,760 Speaker 1: willing to join the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. By late 282 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:31,399 Speaker 1: summer of nineteen sixty four, that group had eighty thousand members. 283 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,119 Speaker 1: The Freedom Schools were also a success, and they grew 284 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:38,840 Speaker 1: in number over the course of this project. In the end, 285 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,840 Speaker 1: there were more than forty schools that served more than 286 00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:46,480 Speaker 1: two thousand students. They met in church basements, homes, and parks, 287 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:49,160 Speaker 1: and in places where children were working as farm labor. 288 00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:52,000 Speaker 1: They held their classes at night, Some of the schools 289 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:55,520 Speaker 1: had night classes for adults as well. The day often 290 00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:58,600 Speaker 1: began with freedom songs like Ain't Gonna let Nobody Turn 291 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:03,439 Speaker 1: Me Round, and there volunteers taught reading and math, black history, 292 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:08,879 Speaker 1: black literature and art, civics, dance, drama, music, storytelling, and 293 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:12,600 Speaker 1: other subjects. Some schools had their own newspapers, or they 294 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:16,160 Speaker 1: staged their own plays. Although the volunteers teaching in these 295 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:19,280 Speaker 1: schools were nearly all white, the curriculum was developed by 296 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:23,280 Speaker 1: black people from Mississippi according to their own needs. As 297 00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:25,439 Speaker 1: we noted up at the top of the show, the 298 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:29,119 Speaker 1: white response to the Mississippi Summer Project in Mississippi was 299 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:39,440 Speaker 1: incredibly violent, and we will talk about that after responsive break. 300 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:44,520 Speaker 1: Organizers of the Mississippi Summer Project were selective about which 301 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: volunteers they accepted. For this, they needed people who were 302 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:52,199 Speaker 1: responsible and level headed, and who would carry out the 303 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:57,560 Speaker 1: instructions of their black hosts and organizers without hesitation. They 304 00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:00,000 Speaker 1: had to be willing and able to follow the product 305 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:03,520 Speaker 1: ex principles of non violence, and that meant not resisting 306 00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:07,280 Speaker 1: or fighting back even if they were physically attacked, and 307 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:10,920 Speaker 1: they had to understand the risks involved, including the risk 308 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,080 Speaker 1: of being seriously hurt or killed because of this work, 309 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,159 Speaker 1: Many of the volunteers went through a two week training 310 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:21,680 Speaker 1: in orientation at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, which included 311 00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 1: everything from how to behave to how to non violently 312 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:29,199 Speaker 1: protect themselves while being beaten. Volunteers were also trained on 313 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:32,240 Speaker 1: how to keep themselves and others as safe as possible. 314 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:35,560 Speaker 1: They would be staying with black families and working with 315 00:19:35,640 --> 00:19:38,399 Speaker 1: black organizers, and they needed to know how not to 316 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,919 Speaker 1: put those people at risks through their actions. And this 317 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:44,800 Speaker 1: training really highlighted the fact that a lot of the 318 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:48,680 Speaker 1: volunteers had good intentions, but they didn't really comprehend what 319 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:52,480 Speaker 1: they were about to face. And one session, a group 320 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:56,160 Speaker 1: watched a video of the registrar from Forest County, Mississippi, 321 00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 1: whose appearance and demeanor and speech seemed almost like an 322 00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:04,120 Speaker 1: a exaggerated caricature. It was not an exaggeration at all. 323 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:08,439 Speaker 1: He was a real person. When volunteers started laughing, snick 324 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:12,640 Speaker 1: Field staff who were conducting this training were understandably outraged. 325 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:16,359 Speaker 1: This level of caution and effort to train and prepare 326 00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:21,320 Speaker 1: the white volunteers was absolutely justified. During the Mississippi summers, project, 327 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,200 Speaker 1: the homes of at least thirty black families and more 328 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 1: than thirty black churches were firebombed or otherwise destroyed. In 329 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,520 Speaker 1: just one night, the ku Klux Klan conducted a coordinated 330 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:35,960 Speaker 1: cross burning, simultaneously burning crosses in almost eight percent of 331 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:40,159 Speaker 1: the counties in Mississippi. There were thirty five documented shootings 332 00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:43,240 Speaker 1: and at least eighty volunteers were beaten, with four of 333 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:47,280 Speaker 1: them being critically wounded. There were also six known murders. 334 00:20:48,119 --> 00:20:51,560 Speaker 1: Volunteers for this project started arriving in Mississippi on June 335 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,920 Speaker 1: twenty one of nineteen sixty four, and the very next day, 336 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:59,280 Speaker 1: while others were still training in Ohio, three civil rights 337 00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:03,600 Speaker 1: workers hered. They were James Cheney of Mississippi, as well 338 00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:06,719 Speaker 1: as Michael Schwerner, who was known as Mickey, and Andrew Goodman. 339 00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:11,199 Speaker 1: Schwerner and Goodman were both from New York. Schwerner and 340 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:15,560 Speaker 1: Cheney were both field workers for the Congress of Racial Equality, 341 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:18,719 Speaker 1: and Goodman was there for Freedom summer and had just 342 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:23,520 Speaker 1: finished his training at Miami University. It was Goodman's first 343 00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:27,840 Speaker 1: day in Mississippi. The three men had volunteered to investigate 344 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:30,399 Speaker 1: the bombing of a church where Schwerner had been working 345 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:33,800 Speaker 1: for Core. Cheney was driving them back to Maurdi in 346 00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:38,040 Speaker 1: Mississippi when Nashoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price pulled him 347 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:42,480 Speaker 1: over for allegedly speeding and arrested all three men. After 348 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:44,760 Speaker 1: Cheney was allowed to pay a fine at about ten 349 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,600 Speaker 1: pm that night, the three men were allowed to leave 350 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:49,640 Speaker 1: the jail and told to get out of the county, 351 00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:52,359 Speaker 1: but they never reported back in with their friends or 352 00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:56,080 Speaker 1: other activists. At the time, the FBI did not have 353 00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:59,920 Speaker 1: a field office in Mississippi, so FBI agents from New 354 00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:05,320 Speaker 1: Orleans started a kidnapping investigation. On June twenty three, authorities 355 00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:08,600 Speaker 1: found the station wagon that the men had been traveling 356 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:11,679 Speaker 1: in that had been set on fire and was still 357 00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:15,040 Speaker 1: smoldering when they found it. This led the FBI to 358 00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:19,040 Speaker 1: call this the Mississippi Burning Case. Most of the activists 359 00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:21,760 Speaker 1: from Mississippi had concluded that the men were dead as 360 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:24,399 Speaker 1: soon as they did not check in as scheduled, but 361 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:27,240 Speaker 1: for the white volunteers, this really brought home how much 362 00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:31,560 Speaker 1: danger they were really in. Worried white parents started calling 363 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,160 Speaker 1: the capital to try to ensure that their kids would 364 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:37,480 Speaker 1: be safe, and Scharner's wife, Rita made a series of 365 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:41,240 Speaker 1: media appearances in which she consistently put the focus back 366 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:44,720 Speaker 1: on the project and on conditions in Mississippi. Yeah, she 367 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:46,080 Speaker 1: was one of the people that made a lot of 368 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:50,800 Speaker 1: demands for increased like federal attention on what was happening 369 00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:54,439 Speaker 1: in Mississippi and on this investigation. J Edgar Hoover called 370 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:58,160 Speaker 1: her and her husband communists, and there's a like a 371 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:03,240 Speaker 1: phone recording between Uver and President Lyndon Johnson where Lyndon 372 00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:05,720 Speaker 1: Johnson says that two was worse than a communist, that 373 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:08,600 Speaker 1: she was ugly and mean to him like that their 374 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,840 Speaker 1: treatment of her was not good at all. The FBI 375 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: established a Mississippi field office steering all of this, and 376 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,600 Speaker 1: although they didn't really investigate that other crimes that were 377 00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:21,000 Speaker 1: going on, they did search for Cheney, Schwerner, and Goodman. 378 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:26,439 Speaker 1: They found the bodies of eight other people during this search. 379 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:30,240 Speaker 1: After receiving a tip, law enforcement finally found the bodies 380 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:33,400 Speaker 1: of Cheney, Schwerner, and Goodman buried in an earth damn 381 00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:37,720 Speaker 1: on August five, nineteen sixty four. All three had been shot, 382 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:42,000 Speaker 1: and Cheney had also been severely beaten. Although more than 383 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:44,159 Speaker 1: twenty men most of whom were members of the Ku 384 00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:48,159 Speaker 1: Klux Klan, were arrested in connection with this crime. A 385 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:52,640 Speaker 1: Mississippi judge dismissed the charges against them. The only way 386 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:55,600 Speaker 1: for the federal government to have jurisdiction was to file 387 00:23:55,720 --> 00:24:00,240 Speaker 1: civil rights charges rather than murder charges. In nine s 388 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:04,480 Speaker 1: eighteen men were tried for having violated federal civil rights 389 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:08,280 Speaker 1: law in relation to these murders. An all white jury 390 00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:12,159 Speaker 1: found seven of the men guilty, including Deputy Sheriff Price. 391 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:16,480 Speaker 1: The jury deadlocked in their verdicts for three of the accused, 392 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:20,080 Speaker 1: and they acquitted the rest. None of the convicted men 393 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:23,560 Speaker 1: served more than six years in prison, and the only 394 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 1: person to actually be tried for murder in connection of 395 00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:31,080 Speaker 1: all of this was Edgar Ray Killen, who had orchestrated 396 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:34,760 Speaker 1: the attack. He was convicted of manslaughter in two thousand 397 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:40,480 Speaker 1: five and ultimately died in prison. President Barack Obama awarded Cheney, Schwerner, 398 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:45,280 Speaker 1: and Goodman the Medal of Freedom posthumously. Inten and their 399 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:48,720 Speaker 1: bodies were discovered just a day before the Mississippi Freedom 400 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:52,560 Speaker 1: Democratic Party held its state convention and Jackson, Mississippi, to 401 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:55,639 Speaker 1: elect a delegation that would travel to the Democratic National 402 00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:59,840 Speaker 1: Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey later that month. Through 403 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,240 Speaker 1: at the national Convention, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party also 404 00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:06,200 Speaker 1: maintained a twenty four hour vigil for the three men 405 00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:10,680 Speaker 1: and a protest which included signs bearing slogans like one Man, 406 00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,040 Speaker 1: One Vote. As we noted earlier, by this point the 407 00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:18,159 Speaker 1: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party had about eighty thousand members, and 408 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:22,000 Speaker 1: the party's goal was to represent Mississippi at the Democratic 409 00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:26,600 Speaker 1: National Convention rather than the Democratic Party's all light delegation. 410 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:31,119 Speaker 1: And their case for this was really clear cut. The 411 00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:35,240 Speaker 1: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party had followed all of the Democratic 412 00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:38,840 Speaker 1: Party's rules and procedures about its own convention and its 413 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:46,160 Speaker 1: own delegate selection. Meanwhile, Mississippi's Democratic Party had systematically excluded 414 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:49,840 Speaker 1: black participants, and many of its members had orchestrated a 415 00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:54,600 Speaker 1: campaign of racist terror against the state's black population. Multiple 416 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,920 Speaker 1: people testified on behalf of the m f DP before 417 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:02,800 Speaker 1: the Democratic National Convention Credentials Committee, including Rita Schwerner, Martin 418 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:07,040 Speaker 1: Luther King Jr. And Fannie lou Hamer. Hamer's testimony was 419 00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:11,360 Speaker 1: particularly damning and compelling. She talked about her own experience 420 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,439 Speaker 1: trying to register to vote after which the owner of 421 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:16,960 Speaker 1: the plantation where she worked and lived had told her 422 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:20,800 Speaker 1: to withdraw her registration or leave. She also talked about 423 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:24,919 Speaker 1: being in a house that someone fired sixteen bullets into, 424 00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:28,080 Speaker 1: and she talked about her arrest while returning from a 425 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:33,080 Speaker 1: voter registration workshop on June nineteenth, nineteen sixty three. While 426 00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:36,640 Speaker 1: in jail after that arrest, she could hear officers beating 427 00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:39,959 Speaker 1: and shouting racist slurs at other people who had been 428 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:45,159 Speaker 1: arrested with her. Then officers forced two black prisoners to 429 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:48,440 Speaker 1: come into her cell and to beat her so badly 430 00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:53,200 Speaker 1: that she had permanent kidney damage. Hamer ended by saying, quote, 431 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:55,879 Speaker 1: all of this is on account of we want to 432 00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:00,000 Speaker 1: register to become first class citizens. And if the Freedom 433 00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:04,879 Speaker 1: Democratic Party is not seated, now I question America. Is 434 00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:07,720 Speaker 1: this America, the land of the free and the home 435 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:10,440 Speaker 1: of the brave, where we have to sleep with our 436 00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:14,000 Speaker 1: telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, 437 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:18,000 Speaker 1: because we want to live as a decent human beings 438 00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:22,080 Speaker 1: in America. During all of this, President Lyndon Johnson was 439 00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:24,639 Speaker 1: worried that he was going to lose the support of 440 00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:27,760 Speaker 1: white Southern Democrats if he showed too much sympathy towards 441 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:32,480 Speaker 1: Mississippi's black population. He was also generally fearful that something 442 00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:34,760 Speaker 1: was going to go wrong at the convention and he'd 443 00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:38,440 Speaker 1: wind up losing the nomination, so he held an impromptu 444 00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:42,280 Speaker 1: press conference while Hammer was speaking, one that people thought 445 00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:44,760 Speaker 1: was going to include the announcement of his running mate, 446 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,119 Speaker 1: but which instead announced that it had been nine months 447 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:49,639 Speaker 1: to the day since his predecessor, John F. Kennedy had 448 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:54,320 Speaker 1: been assassinated. This strategy on Johnson's part did not work out, though, 449 00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,560 Speaker 1: the fact that he had preempted Hammer's testimony became its 450 00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:01,000 Speaker 1: own story, and many news programs played in its entirety 451 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:06,560 Speaker 1: during their next evening broadcasts. So Johnson instructed Hubert Humphrey 452 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,239 Speaker 1: to negotiate with the MFDP, suggesting that he would be 453 00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:15,080 Speaker 1: selected as his running mate if Humphrey was successful. Humphrey 454 00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:18,919 Speaker 1: tasked Walter Mondale with working out a plan, and that plan, 455 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:23,400 Speaker 1: which Mondale was the one to announce, was for two 456 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:27,000 Speaker 1: members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, one black and 457 00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:30,800 Speaker 1: one white, to be seated as delegates at large, while 458 00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:34,199 Speaker 1: the all white Democratic delegation would be seated as normal 459 00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:39,080 Speaker 1: if they would support Johnson for president. The National Democratic 460 00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:43,840 Speaker 1: leadership also promised not to seat any segregated delegations in 461 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:47,880 Speaker 1: the future. Although this was framed like it was a compromise, 462 00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,360 Speaker 1: the m f DP did not see it that way 463 00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,800 Speaker 1: at all and refused to accept it, a decision that 464 00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,480 Speaker 1: divided the movement as a whole. Many of the all 465 00:28:57,480 --> 00:29:00,840 Speaker 1: white Democratic delegation from Mississippi also so withdrew from the 466 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:06,200 Speaker 1: convention rather than promising to support the Democratic candidates. Afterward, 467 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:09,480 Speaker 1: many of the MDFPS delegates were able to get badges 468 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:12,600 Speaker 1: from delegates from other states who were sympathetic to what 469 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:15,160 Speaker 1: they were doing, so they could enter the convention hall, 470 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:20,239 Speaker 1: but the chairs for the Mississippi delegation were removed. There 471 00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:23,360 Speaker 1: were people, mostly people from outside Mississippi who were involved 472 00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,440 Speaker 1: in the civil rights movement, who were like, you got something, 473 00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:31,680 Speaker 1: you should take it. But the delegation from Mississippi was like, 474 00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:36,080 Speaker 1: it is not enough and it is unacceptable. So this 475 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: attempt to appease racist white people did not really work 476 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,280 Speaker 1: out for Johnson. Although he did win the presidential election, 477 00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:45,680 Speaker 1: most of the southern states he was trying to hang 478 00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:50,240 Speaker 1: on to, including Mississippi, went for Republican candidate Barry Goldwater, 479 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:55,880 Speaker 1: and after another tumultuous Democratic National Convention in nineteen sixty eight, 480 00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,080 Speaker 1: which came up in our two parter on Cohen's hel 481 00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:03,520 Speaker 1: pro in, the Democratic National Committee established the McGovern Frasier 482 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:08,240 Speaker 1: Commission to try to reform their entire nomination process. So, 483 00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:11,960 Speaker 1: as we said earlier, although seventeen thousand black people tried 484 00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:15,600 Speaker 1: to register to vote during Freedom Summer, only about sixteen 485 00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,760 Speaker 1: hundred were approved by county registrars, and the Mississippi Freedom 486 00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:23,080 Speaker 1: Democratic Party was not seated at the Democratic National Convention 487 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:26,160 Speaker 1: as they had hoped and overall had thought that they 488 00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,920 Speaker 1: would be. So. In terms of the three initial projects 489 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:35,280 Speaker 1: of Freedom Summer, the Freedom Schools were the most outwardly successful. However, 490 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:39,520 Speaker 1: for a bigger picture look at things, Aaron Henry, who 491 00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,240 Speaker 1: was president of the Mississippi State Conference of the n 492 00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:45,960 Speaker 1: double a CP during the nineteen sixties, described one of 493 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:50,080 Speaker 1: the biggest positive outcomes of Freedom Summer as quote the 494 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:54,680 Speaker 1: human relations aspect, or in the words of Finny lou 495 00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:58,920 Speaker 1: Hamer quote before the N four Summer project, there were 496 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:02,200 Speaker 1: people that want had changed, but they hadn't dared to 497 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:06,760 Speaker 1: come out. After nineteen sixty four people began moving to me. 498 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,480 Speaker 1: It's one of the greatest things that ever happened in Mississippi. 499 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:13,800 Speaker 1: In addition, the Freedom School served as a model for 500 00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:17,920 Speaker 1: the federal head Start program, which provides early childhood education 501 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:21,520 Speaker 1: and health and nutrition support for low income families, as 502 00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:23,760 Speaker 1: well as various programs that were part of the War 503 00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:28,040 Speaker 1: on Poverty and on a national level, Johnson signed the 504 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:31,520 Speaker 1: Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four on July two 505 00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:35,840 Speaker 1: of that year during Freedom Summer, and on August six 506 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:39,280 Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty five he signed the Voting Rights Act, 507 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:43,520 Speaker 1: which outlawed things like poll taxes and literacy tests, as 508 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:46,960 Speaker 1: well as harassment and intimidation when people tried to register 509 00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:50,960 Speaker 1: to vote. It also specified that jurisdictions that had a 510 00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:55,120 Speaker 1: history of this kind of discrimination had to have preclearance 511 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:57,840 Speaker 1: from the District Court for the District of Columbia or 512 00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:01,120 Speaker 1: from the U. S. Attorney General any time they tried 513 00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 1: to change their voting laws and policies. Freedom Summer's work 514 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:09,320 Speaker 1: raising awareness about conditions in Mississippi contributed to the passage 515 00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:12,320 Speaker 1: of both of these laws, particularly the Voting Rights Act 516 00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:15,800 Speaker 1: and the Voting Rights Act, in turn dramatically affected voting 517 00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:19,880 Speaker 1: access in Mississippi. By nineteen sixty nine, more than sixty 518 00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:23,400 Speaker 1: six percent of eligible black voters in Mississippi were registered, 519 00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:28,200 Speaker 1: which was more than five percent above the national average. However, 520 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:32,360 Speaker 1: in the U. S Supreme Court issued its ruling in 521 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:37,600 Speaker 1: Shelby County versus Holder, which invalidated that preclearance requirement and 522 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,920 Speaker 1: the Voting Rights Act, and this has led to an 523 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:45,760 Speaker 1: increase in voter suppression efforts. They're often not as obvious 524 00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,760 Speaker 1: as they were in Mississippi in the nineteen sixties, so 525 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:54,280 Speaker 1: today they are things like disproportionately purging black, indigenous, and 526 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:58,200 Speaker 1: people of color from the voting roles, or shutting down 527 00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:01,800 Speaker 1: the polling places in the those communities while keeping them 528 00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:06,640 Speaker 1: open in predominantly white communities, or passing voter ide laws 529 00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:11,560 Speaker 1: that disproportionately target people of color, cutting polling hours to 530 00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:14,560 Speaker 1: make it harder for people who don't have flexible work 531 00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:18,840 Speaker 1: schedules to vote. And then signature matching requirements, which are 532 00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:23,479 Speaker 1: often really subjective and they disproportionately affect older voters and 533 00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:27,920 Speaker 1: voters of color, whose signatures and thus votes are thrown 534 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:31,640 Speaker 1: out if they don't exactly match. Yeah, that's signature match 535 00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:35,920 Speaker 1: thing who among us can replicate their signature, particularly if 536 00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:39,040 Speaker 1: one of them is on like a digital screen versus 537 00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:42,160 Speaker 1: yen and paper. It's so hard. And then also, like 538 00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:49,560 Speaker 1: my mother physically cannot sign anything, my my father's uh 539 00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:57,320 Speaker 1: signature has looked like an an indistinguishable scrawl. The first 540 00:33:57,440 --> 00:33:59,800 Speaker 1: letter of his first and last name is like is 541 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:01,920 Speaker 1: as a discreet thing, but the rest of it is 542 00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:05,720 Speaker 1: just kind of a wavy line. Somebody's comparing those two 543 00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,239 Speaker 1: things by subjective criteria, and you know, they were both 544 00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:11,960 Speaker 1: seventy five years old. There in the categories of people 545 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:16,359 Speaker 1: who are likely to be thrown out under those kinds 546 00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:20,360 Speaker 1: of requirements. Once again, before we wrap up this episode, 547 00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:23,640 Speaker 1: the Whole The Land That Has Never Been Yet series 548 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:27,400 Speaker 1: from CNN Radio is highly recommended. The Freedom Summer episode 549 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:30,839 Speaker 1: includes interviews that host John Bewen conducted with people who 550 00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:33,520 Speaker 1: were part of Freedom Summer, So that is another great 551 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,399 Speaker 1: way to get additional context on this whole topic. Yeah, 552 00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:39,400 Speaker 1: I um, part of me doesn't want to describe it 553 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,680 Speaker 1: because that, like having the experience of listening to it 554 00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,480 Speaker 1: myself was so marvelous. But a lot of the people 555 00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:49,360 Speaker 1: that he has interviewed are are people who uh, I 556 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,080 Speaker 1: love to hear speaking. Many of them are no longer 557 00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:55,680 Speaker 1: with us, and they're they're from a documentary he had 558 00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:58,359 Speaker 1: done some years before, so more of the people that 559 00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:02,680 Speaker 1: he was interviewing were still i've then than are now. Um. 560 00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:05,520 Speaker 1: But that whole series I listened to as it came out, 561 00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:07,719 Speaker 1: and it is is extremely worth listening to you, as 562 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,879 Speaker 1: are there other they've done other they did Seeing White, 563 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,120 Speaker 1: which is about the history of the idea of race 564 00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,640 Speaker 1: and racism, and there's one called Men that's the history 565 00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:18,759 Speaker 1: of patriarchy. They're all very very good. Do you have 566 00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:21,920 Speaker 1: very very good listener mail? This is from April an 567 00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:25,560 Speaker 1: April and says a good evening, Tracy and Holly. Before 568 00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:27,400 Speaker 1: I begin, I just wanted to say thank you for 569 00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:30,360 Speaker 1: continuing your work throughout the current madness that we have 570 00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:33,960 Speaker 1: found ourselves in. Your podcast is a much welcomed and 571 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,320 Speaker 1: informative distraction. I recently listened to your Unearthed You're in 572 00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:42,239 Speaker 1: episode at least on I think January one. I can't 573 00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:43,960 Speaker 1: remember if it was part one or two, but you 574 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:48,759 Speaker 1: both mentioned the recent discovery of a thermopolium and Pompeii. 575 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,400 Speaker 1: You describe the beautiful imagery on it some that possibly 576 00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:55,359 Speaker 1: describe the menu items like the rooster and fish, and 577 00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:57,800 Speaker 1: others that were more decorative, like the water nymph. You 578 00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,600 Speaker 1: also described the somewhat odd inclusion of a dog, Holly, 579 00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:04,080 Speaker 1: I believe you said your husband was particularly concerned about 580 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:06,399 Speaker 1: the fate of the dog. Well, he might not need 581 00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:08,759 Speaker 1: to fear. I'm not sure if the two of you 582 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,840 Speaker 1: are aware, but there is a precedent of canine imagery 583 00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:15,120 Speaker 1: and Pompeii and artwork. Below you should find the link 584 00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:17,560 Speaker 1: to a BBC article which shows a picture of a 585 00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:21,799 Speaker 1: mosaic depiction of a guard dog. It's literally a centuries 586 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:25,200 Speaker 1: old version of a beware of the dog sign based 587 00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:27,680 Speaker 1: upon the Fresco. It may have served the same purpose 588 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:29,880 Speaker 1: as the mosaic, although I'm not quite sure why a 589 00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:31,799 Speaker 1: guard dog would need to be at a food cart. 590 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:35,560 Speaker 1: But hey, ancient Rome was a lively place. Obviously, this 591 00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:38,360 Speaker 1: is merely a conjecture. Although I have studied art history, 592 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:40,239 Speaker 1: I do not claim to be an art historian or 593 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:43,440 Speaker 1: an archaeologist. Thanks again for your work. I really love 594 00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:46,000 Speaker 1: your podcast. It is a nice balance of instruction and laughter, 595 00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:48,800 Speaker 1: which as a teacher I can appreciate. Sincerely, April and 596 00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:52,560 Speaker 1: thank you April Land for this email about the dogs, 597 00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:56,600 Speaker 1: and both because of the like providing possible context for 598 00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,360 Speaker 1: why the picture of the dog is there, but also 599 00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:03,160 Speaker 1: it just made me imagine a food stall whose clients 600 00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:05,960 Speaker 1: hell are so unruly that they just got to have 601 00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:10,479 Speaker 1: a dog on hand. I presume it's so people don't 602 00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:13,799 Speaker 1: sieve directly from the things. Um. The good news is 603 00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:18,240 Speaker 1: my husband, because he was very worried about this ancient dog, 604 00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:25,680 Speaker 1: found that same bbcr uh. So yeah, but I super 605 00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:28,319 Speaker 1: appreciate it and it's um. It is one of those 606 00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,440 Speaker 1: funny things, you know, you get fixated on something and 607 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:35,880 Speaker 1: here you are looking up ancient dog imagery and POMPEII. 608 00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:41,920 Speaker 1: So thank you again for emailing us, April Land. If 609 00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:43,680 Speaker 1: you would like to email us about this or any 610 00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:47,479 Speaker 1: other podcast or history podcast at i heeart radio dot com. 611 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:50,160 Speaker 1: And we are also all over social media at missed 612 00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:52,759 Speaker 1: in History, so you'll find our Facebook and Twitter and 613 00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:56,560 Speaker 1: interest and Instagram. You can also subscribe to our show 614 00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:00,239 Speaker 1: on the I heart radio app and Apple podcast isn't 615 00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:08,120 Speaker 1: anywhere else can you get your podcasts. 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