A civil rights worker who traveled there later said he felt as if he had checked his constitutional rights at the Mason-Dixon line. Another activist was arrested there over forty times. Three civil rights workers were murdered there. The place: Mississippi. The time: the "Freedom Summer" of 1964, an often overlooked legacy of the civil rights era. During that fateful summer courageous and committed civil rights workers and lawyers fanned out across the state with the goal of registering blacks to vote. Mississippi had a long record of state run racism. The political, judiciary, and law enforcement system worked together to exclude blacks from voting by a complex web of poll taxes and literacy tests. State sanctioned violence was common against anyone who dared challenge the status quo. Although the rights workers succeeded in establishing a record of discrimination which helped pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, blacks weren't fully empowered in the state until the 1980's. Using archival footage and interviews with survivors of the struggle like James Farmer and the late William Kunstler, the video discusses Freedom Summer's strategy, process, and legacy. In the end, the program helped open doors to political change across America. Although the video gets a bit bogged down in detail towards the end, it's a good addition to civil rights collections. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)
Mississippi, America
(1995) 60 min. $19.98 ($59.95 w/PPR). PBS Video. PPR. Color cover. Closed captioned. Vol. 11, Issue 5
Mississippi, America
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