In June of 1964, a campaign to register African-American voters in Mississippi was launched. This initiative is known as the Freedom Summer.
Ambition aside, what stands out about the project fifty years later are the murders of activists Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney in Philadelphia, Miss. at the hands of the Mississippi White Knights of the KKK, the Philadelphia Police Department and the Neshoba County Sheriff's Office. These events, which were the basis for Alan Parker's 1988 film Mississippi Burning, also fueled the passage of both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner's murders, so Tufts University professor and author Peniel Joseph and Goodman's brother, David, joined The Brian Lehrer Show to talk about the Freedom Summer this morning.
[via WNYC]
RELATED: Then & Now: 50 Key Cites of the Civil Rights Movement
Send tips, photos and news developments to cityguidetips@complex.com.
