Freedom Schools

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article (or section) may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article, especially its section layout, and relevant internal links. (help)
This article has been tagged since December 2006.

In late 1963, Charles Cobb, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activists proposed the organization sponsor a network of 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 Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision or, in the case of Boston, as acts of protest against discriminatory 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. In 1964 the Congress of Racial Equity, the student of Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People opened thirty freedom schools in the towns throughout Mississippi. The purpose of the freedom schools was to try to put an end to political displacement of the African Americans by encouraging students to become active citizens and socially involved within the community. Over 3,000 African American students attended these schools in the summer of 1964. Students of the freedom schools were usually around the age of 15 but the schools also consisted of toddlers and grown adults. Teachers of these schools were volunteers who where usually still students themselves. The curriculum revolved around The Curriculum Conference, which consisted of teachers and directors discussing the type of education that would be taught at the freedom schools. The teachers were to write an outline for their curriculum planning. They were told to keep in mind what life was like in Mississippi and the short amount of time that they had for teaching the material. The curriculum had to be teacher friendly and immediately useful to the students, while being based around questions and activities. Due to the fact that the curriculum conference brought together citizens of different backgrounds and origins, the final curriculum outline was based around material from different origins and consisted of three different sections. The Academic Curriculum, the Citizenship Curriculum, and the Recreational Curriculum were the three sections of the freedom school curriculum. The purpose of these sections was to teach students social change within the school, the students history, the students experience, how to answer open-ended questions and the development of academic skills. The Academic Curriculum consisted of reading, writing, and verbal activities that were based on the student’s own experiences. The Citizenship Curriculum was to encourage the students to ask questions about the society. Last, the Recreational Curriculum requires the student to be physically active. The Freedom Schools were inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and was designed to motivate each young African American

1 The Mississippi Freedom Schools
2 Political and Educational Objectives
3 The First Year
4 Legacy
5 External Links

[edit] 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 (COFO), an umbrella civil rights organization comprised of activists and funds drawn from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and SNCC, among other organizations, coordinated the Freedom Summer project. The project was essentially a statewide voter registration campaign and the framers called for one thousand volunteers to assist in the undertaking. Activists made plans to conduct a parallel Democratic primary election in order to elect a separate delegation that would challenge the traditional Mississippi Democratic delegation sent to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. These efforts culminated in the creation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Activists contended that an illegal electoral process that systematically excluded black participation elected this all-white delegation.

In December 1963, during planning for the upcoming Freedom Summer project, 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.

[edit] Political and Educational Objectives

At this point in 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 that 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 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 was 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.

[edit] The First Year

Freedom Schools opened during the first week of July 1964, after approximately two hundred and fifty Freedom School volunteers attended one-week training sessions at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. The original plans had anticipated twenty-five Freedom Schools and 1000 students, yet by the end of the summer, forty-one schools had been opened to over 2000 students. Freedom Schools were established with the help and commitment of local communities, who provided various buildings for schools and houses for activist housing needs. The schools were held in untraditional locations: parks, kitchens, residential homes, but most classes were usually held in churches or church basements. Attendance varied throughout the summer; some schools experienced consistent attendance, but usually attendance was haphazard. Due to the voluntary basis for attendance, there were many reports that the primary obstacle was recruiting and maintaining a constant student body. In Clarksdale, Mississippi, for instance, the average student attendance during the first week was fifteen, the second week was eight, but at any point during the summer the school may have had in attendance as many as thirty-five students. In some schools it was not uncommon for teachers to report that community adults would be also attend class regularly. Instruction was conditional and varied from school to school. In rural communities where students were expected to work during the school day, classes were only held at night. In schools that maintained traditional school hours, most often in urban areas, traditional academic courses were offered in the morning and special classes such as music, drama, and typing were offered in the afternoon. In many instances throughout the summer, entire school days would be devoted to demonstration or voter registration efforts. It was imperative for SNCC activists that students would be invested in civil rights activity, as this cadre of students was expected to remain in the state to enact social change.

At the conclusion of the Freedom School term in August, activists and students organized a student-led conference in Meridian, Mississippi. Each Freedom School sent three representatives to the conference to form a youth platform for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), the separate delegation that would challenge the all-white delegation in Atlantic City. The student delegates discussed issues related to jobs, schools, foreign affairs, and public accommodations and proffered recommendations for the state party. By the end of the conference, students prepared a statement that demanded access to public accommodations, building codes for each home, integrated schools, a public works program, and the appointment of qualified blacks to state positions.

Freedom School teachers and students remained committed to the Freedom School concept. In early August 1964, plans were being made to continue the Freedom Schools during the upcoming school year, as some volunteer teachers had already agreed to stay. Students decided, however, during the Freedom School Conference in early August to not continue the schools. Yet students implemented the leadership and activism experienced during the summer in their own schools. Some students returned to school and demanded better facilities and more courses. Students in Philadelphia, MS, returned to school wear SNCC “One Man, One Vote” buttons for which they were expelled.

[edit] Legacy

The phrase has inspired some legacy today, which can be noted in the dozens of schools that hold the name today. The term “Freedom School” is used extensively today: Akwesasne Freedom School on a Western Indian reservation; The Freedom School in St. Louis, Missouri; Paulo Freire Freedom School in Tucson, AZ; Saint Paul Freedom School, in St. Paul, MN; and in Michigan the Black Radical Congress in Detroit decided to launch a campaign to create a model based on the Freedom Schools. All are contemporary examples of schools that cite the influence of the 1964 Freedom Schools in mission statements. But again, the degree to which they emulated or evolved from the schools in 1964 needs to be examined. The Children’s Defense Fund also operates a modern Freedom School program. This program is coordinated jointly with the Black Community Crusade for Children® (BCCC) program and local school movements.