Description
Collection includes newsletters, memoranda, clippings, and press releases related to the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project.
Background
In the summer of 1964, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE),
joined by civil rights activists from around the United States, organized an effort to push back against Mississippi's vigorously
enforced racial segregation. Hundreds of activists, most of them white college students, arrived in Mississippi eager to register
voters and encourage community organizing. Prior to this point, black Southerners' struggle for equality against near-overwhelming
opposition was little reported on in the national media. The Mississippi Freedom Summer Project succeeded in bringing attention
to the disenfranchisement of black Southerners and was a turning point in the fight against institutional racism.
Sources:
Kindig, Jessie. "Freedom Summer (June–August 1964)." Online Encyclopedia of Significant People and Places in African American
History.
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/freedom-summer-june-august-1964 (accessed 13 October 2014)
Ohrenschall, Rachel S. "Freedom Summer campaign for African American voting rights in Mississippi, 1964." Global Nonviolent
Action Database.
http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/freedom-summer-campaign-african-american-voting-rights-mississippi-1964 (accessed
13 October 2014)
Restrictions
All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for permission
to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication
is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not intended to
include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.
Availability
Collection is open for research.