Freedom Summer

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A blackboard during the Freedom Summer campaign

Freedom Summer was a campaign in the United States launched during the summer of 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in the Southern United States. Organized by the Council of Federated Organizations (NAACP, Congress of Racial Equality, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), they decided that this campaign would continue the interest in civil rights and the precedents set by the Freedom Riders. Over 1,000 volunteers helped meet at Western College in Oxford, Ohio (Merged with Miami University) from organizations such as the Congress on Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Most of the volunteers were Northern whites interested in helping out the civil rights cause. The program was aimed at Mississippi, where the African American population exceeded 45%, and only 5% voted. It registered 1,600 more blacks. The program also established many summer schools in Mississippi in an attempt to counteract the state's inequitably-funded school system and to educate African Americans in their rights.

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A white woman and voting activist tries to help a black woman vote in the South

Violence quickly hindered the campaign, however. On June 21, 1964, James Chaney, a black Mississippian, and Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, two Northern white volunteers from New York were abducted and killed. Their bodies were found in a dam. Seven men in total were convicted for the civil rights deaths. This and other violence such as church burnings reinforced local black fear that they would be victims of violence if they registered. In time, however, this proved to be a major turning point in the American civil rights movement.