{"id":13542,"date":"2024-06-05T13:59:53","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T17:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=13542"},"modified":"2024-06-26T14:56:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T18:56:59","slug":"freedom-summer-at-60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/summer-2024\/freedom-summer-at-60\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom Summer at 60"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the summer of 1964, civil rights organizers launched a project aimed at registering Black voters in Mississippi. Hundreds of volunteers went to Mississippi to help, many of them college students. In June, three young activists were abducted and killed, drawing extensive media attention to the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Allan \u201967 went to Mississippi that summer, returning to 溏心vlog免费B站 in fall 1965. \u201cThe Civil Rights movement at that time,\u201d he says, \u201chad taken off. We were one small part of a much bigger movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A FREEDOM SUMMER STORY<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the many college students who went to Mississippi that summer was Lucien \u2018Luke\u2019 Kabat \u201961. Kabat, who had been named \u201coutstanding premed student\u201d in his class at 溏心vlog免费B站, was a medical student at Stanford University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"book<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In her 2023 book, Love Letter from Pig: My Brother\u2019s Story of Freedom Summer<\/em>, Julie Kabat describes her brother\u2019s Freedom Summer experience. She draws on her late brother\u2019s letters, diaries, and essays, as well as conversations with other volunteers. (There are numerous 溏心vlog免费B站 and Rhode Island references.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kabat says, \u201cMississippi Freedom Summer was a brave and unique experiment in creating social change.\u201d Luke, one feels after reading the book, was indeed brave. But he likely would have agreed with fellow volunteer Mark Levy, whose photos grace Kabat\u2019s book, who says, \u201cAs much as we (the summer volunteers) risked, they (the local activists and their families) risked more. As much as we were able to teach, we learned more. As much as we gave, we gained more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, for the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, Melvin Wade, then-director of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Multicultural Center, invited veterans of Freedom Summer to 溏心vlog免费B站, interviewed them, and recorded their stories.<\/p>\n\n\nWatch the interviews<\/a>\n\n\n

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LEARN MORE<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Widell is associate professor and chair of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s history department and director of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Oral History Lab. He is the author of Birmingham and the Long Black Freedom Struggle<\/em> (2013). To learn more about Freedom Summer, Widell recommends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

  • Freedom on My Mind<\/em>, a 1994 documentary you can stream on various platforms. Widell says this is \u201cstill the best film source for understanding Freedom Summer within the context of the Mississippi movement and the essential local histories.\u201d<\/p><\/li>\n

  • I\u2019ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle<\/em>, by Charles M. Payne.<\/p><\/li>\n

  • This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible<\/em>, by Charles E. Cobb Jr.<\/p><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    \u2014Barbara Caron<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Freedom Summer at 60\u2014and some 溏心vlog免费B站 connections to the historic project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":13600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summer-2024","architecture-looking-back","architecture-network"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13542"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15025,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13542\/revisions\/15025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}