Freedom Summer: The 1964 Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi

With meticulous research and documentation, Rubin focuses broadly on Freedom Summer: the organizers, the volunteers, the voter registration drives, etc. She conducted many interviews, in person, by telephone, and by email, with people who were directly involved, and their firsthand accounts--along with copious archival black-and-white photographs--bring the events to life. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind.

Provides a detailed account of the Mississippi Summer Project, which was a major contributing factor in Mississippi’s remarkable increase of eligible black voters from 6.4 percent registered in 1964 to nearly 60 percent in 1966. Numerous primary quotes provide immediacy and illustrate the energy of Freedom Summer. When he volunteered to help disenfranchised African Americans, Andrew Goodman—who was one of three workers murdered by Ku Klux Klansmen—said to his parents, “We’re living in what is supposed to be a democracy, and they’re not allowed to vote. If someone says he cares about people, how can he not be concerned about this?” Emphasizes the clash between Mississippi Summer Project idealism and the state’s deep-rooted racism in 1964. For example, in training, Freedom Summer workers coming from the North were taught that “police were not their friends as they had been taught as children.” Visuals such as captioned historical photographs, documents, and Project sketches provide insight into both daily life and dramatic moments of the era.

With the fiftieth anniversary of Freedom Summer this year, we are bound to see books on the subject (see Deborah Wiles's Revolution, p. 108), and these two volumes -- both meticulously researched and well documented -- provide excellent introductions. Rubin focuses more broadly on Freedom Summer itself: the organizers, the volunteers, the voter registration drives, etc. She conducted many interviews, in person, by telephone, and by e-mail, with people who were directly involved, and their firsthand accounts -- along with copious archival black-and-white photographs -- bring the events to life. The murders of three young civil rights workers -- James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner -- are included, but they're not the central focus as they are in Mitchell's absorbing book. Like Rubin, he conducted a number of interviews, most with close friends and family members of the men. He provides a fascinating biographical sketch of each, based on these interviews, which gives readers insight into the men's deep commitment to social justice. Mitchell also gives a thorough account of the search for their bodies, and of the years of investigation that culminated in the 2005 trial of one of the murderers, who was at that time eighty years old. Both volumes are useful; the design and content of Rubin's book will be more accessible to younger teens, while The Freedom Summer Murders is more compelling. It will grab you from its opening paragraphs and won't let go until justice is served. kathleen t. horning