Why happened in the freedom summer of 1964

Additionally, the nonviolent Civil Rights movement as a whole was being ideologically challenged by the more militant, anti-assimilation Black Power movement that was emerging at the time. Despite these internal and external pressures, the Freedom Summer program brought about some change that reduced the extreme marginalization of African Americans.

Volunteers organized a massive state-wide campaign endorsing black suffrage participation. Their efforts were successful in encouraging 17, blacks to register to vote, though due to legislative restrictions only 1, of these registrations were approved.

Furthermore, through the efforts of the Freedom Summer activists, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party gained more than 60, supporters. The MFDP helped increase the national recognition of the movement when it challenged the standing Democratic delegation from Mississippi at the Democratic National Convention.

The Freedom Summer was also successful in establishing a potent community connection within the black population. The goals were to develop black-owned institutions and coalitions, as well as to organize a new educational option for all African Americans. These facilities provided African Americans of all ages instruction without any racial bias.

Freedom school students were taught the basic curriculum of math, science, and English as well as a review in literacy. They were also exposed to the philosophy of the Civil Rights Movement, African-American history, and skills needed for leadership. The original hope was to enroll more than 1, African Americans who could be trained through this system to continue the program once the northern volunteers returned home. That summer, the freedom schools educated more than 3, African Americans.

Voter registration was the cornerstone of the summer project. Although approximately 17, black residents of Mississippi attempted to register to vote in the summer of , only 1, of the completed applications were accepted by local registrars.

Highlighting the need for federal voting rights legislation, these efforts created political momentum for the Voting Rights Act of In addition to math, reading, and other traditional courses, students were also taught black history, the philosophy of the civil rights movement, and leadership skills that provided them with the intellectual and practical tools to carry on the struggle after the summer volunteers departed.

While the MFDP was initially unsuccessful, some of its members were seated at the convention. Freedom Summer marked one of the last major interracial civil rights efforts of the s, as the movement entered a period of divisive conflict that would draw even sharper lines between the goals of King and those of the younger, more militant faction of the black freedom struggle.

Document Research Requests. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. Skip to content Skip to navigation. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Nearly one thousand five hundred volunteers worked in project offices scattered across Mississippi.

Most volunteers were white students from northern colleges, but were clergy sponsored by the National Council of Churches, were attorneys recruited by the National Lawyers Guild and the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee, and 50 were medical professionals from the Medical Committee for Human Rights. Julian Bond and Mary King ran the SNCC Communications Section, making sure that the national media was available to cover events and that project staff stayed informed and in touch about the constant dangers.

Business leaders banded together in white Citizens Councils to coordinate punishment of African-Americans who participated in Freedom Summer. And white supremacy groups such as the Ku Klux Klan inflicted violence on black residents and civil rights workers. There were also twenty-nine shootings, fifty bombings, more than sixty beatings, and over four hundred arrests of project workers and local residents.