Mississippi Freedom Schools

The concept of freedom schools had been utilized by educators and activists prior to the summer of 1964 in, for instance, Boston, New York, and Prince Edward County, Virginia, where public schools were closed in reaction to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision or, in the case of Boston, as acts of protest against detrimental school conditions. The concept of freedom schools was used after 1964 as well, but no such schools matched the number or duration of the Mississippi freedom schools.

The Mississippi freedom schools were developed as part of the 1964 Freedom Summer civil rights project, a massive effort that focused upon voter registration drives and educating Mississippi students for social change. The Council of Federated Organizations, an umbrella civil rights organization composed of activists and funding drawn from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), among other organizations, coordinated the Freedom Summer project. The project was a statewide voter registration campaign, and the framers called for 1,000 volunteers to assist in the undertaking. Activists made plans to conduct a parallel election in order to elect a separate delegation that would challenge the traditional delegation sent to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. Activists contended that it was an illegal electoral process that systematically excluded black participation and elected the all-white delegation that would represent Mississippi.

In December 1963, during a meeting to plan the upcoming Freedom Summer project, SNCC activist Charles Cobb proposed a network of freedom schools that would foster political participation among Mississippi elementary and high school students, in addition to offering academic courses and discussions. Activists organizing the Freedom Summer project accepted Cobb's proposal and soon organized a curriculum-planning conference for the freedom schools in New York in March 1964. At this time, the freedom schools were conceptualized with both political and educational objectives. Freedom school teachers would educate elementary and high school students to become social change agents who would participate in the ongoing civil rights movement, most often in voter registration efforts. The curriculum adopted was divided into seven core areas that analyzed the social, political, and economic context of precarious race relations and the civil rights movement. Issues such as leadership development, remedial academics, contemporary issues, and nonacademic courses were also incorporated, which included a foreign language, black history, typing, and drama, in addition to basic academic courses. The education at freedom schools was student-centered and socially relevant. Curriculum and instruction were based on the needs of the students, discussion among students and teachers (rather than lecturing) was encouraged, and curriculum planners encouraged teachers to base instruction on the experiences of their students.

Freedom schools opened during the first week of July 1964, after approximately 250 freedom school volunteers attended one-week training sessions at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. The original plans had anticipated 25 freedom schools and 1,000 students, yet by the end of the summer, 41 schools had been opened to more than 2,000 students. Freedom schools were established with the help and commitment of local communities, which provided buildings for schools and housing for the activists. The schools were held in untraditional locations—parks, kitchens, residential homes—but most classes were held in churches or church basements. Attendance varied throughout the summer; some schools experienced consistent attendance, but usually attendance was haphazard. Because attendance was voluntary, the primary obstacle was recruiting and maintaining a constant student body, according to many reports. In [Page 966]Clarksdale, Mississippi, for instance, the average student attendance during the first week was 15 and the second week was 8, but at any point during the summer the school might have had in attendance as many as 35 students. In some schools, teachers reported, it was not uncommon for community adults to attend class regularly.

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