Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id j2M0s0C10501; Mon, 21 Mar 2005 19:54:00 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 19:54:00 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <4741D690.07CB9871.0A349A3F@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AWilder106@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:3207] Re: message from Andrea X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0 Status: O Content-Length: 3249 Lines: 53 WOW. Daphne wants me to talk about Freedom Summer, probably the most important 3 months in the history of civil rights. 1964. (Feel free to jump in anywhere, folks.) How far back do I have to go... I have a writing project on this, so I can be of a little help. some highlights. Freedom Summer was organized by four civil rights groups, the main one for whites to know about is SNCC. During Freedom Summer mostly white students from the north gathered with black civil rights workers to register voters in Mississippi, the belly of the beast, for some. Freedom Schools were set up for high school students, mostly,along lines of what would be called later "critical thinking." ( I can't remember when Freire started teaching, but his book was translated in the 70's.)(Written in 1968, I just checked.)(SNCC was ahead of him.) It was in either late June or early July that the 3 civil rights workers disappeared. Everyone knew right away they were dead, murdered. This lit up the country, and upped the ante considerably. I have to interject here that there is a considerable distance between the Black people's world and the White person's world, which is why Daphne has to ask me to talk about Freedom Summer. (I'm White but think Black much of the time.) Anyway, getting black people to register to vote in Mississippi was the name of the game, and also having teenagers experience a different type of education. The northern students lived in with local families, and were instructed to bring $500 that they might need for bail money. Out of this came at the end of the summer the Freedom Democratic Party, which went to the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. That part was a bust--but it was Fanny Lou Hamer who spoke for the party and who organized it. She was a Black woman from Sunflower County, Eastland plantation country, who had been severely beaten in jail after trying to register to vote. (Just put her name in a search engine and you will pull up a whole lot.) Bob Moses, who now teaches high school algebra in Lanier Mississippi was one of Freedom Summer organizers. Put his name in a search engine, too. Follow the links and you will find the whole story. I'm trying to think when the last lynching was in Mississippi--probably some time in the 50's--that's 1950's. Also find a book by Hilton Als et al, documenting lynching via photographs--postcards. Check relevant law cases, desegregation of buses, lunch counters, all that, also voting rights. People who romanticize the 60's weren't there. Vietnam was heating up, then Black Power came in. Detroit went up in flames, then there was Watts. A lot of history. I watched the new PBS special on slavery, in February. Kind of gauzy photography, plus resistance of black folks emphasized. Go to ebay and plug in "Colonial Williamsburg paper dolls," and you will probably pull up a colonial williamsburg white family,and a black couple who were their slaves. I think the originals date to 1940--kind of recent. This was NORMAL, ORDIN ARY, until quite recently--really. There is a lot more, but I think students with computers can put together the facts. That's it for now unless Daphne wants to cue me on more.... Andrea
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