Freedom Summer Events at the Two Museums

Overview

The Mississippi Summer Project of 1964, also known as Freedom Summer, was an initiative undertaken by civil rights groups to bring people from across the nation to Mississippi to join the fight for Black residents’ democratic rights. Organizers invited college students from across the country to spend the summer in Mississippi helping Black citizens register to vote and teaching in Freedom Schools.

Homes, churches and businesses were vandalized, burned and bombed to intimidate the civil rights workers. Civil rights workers were assaulted, and some were murdered during the summer of 1964. Nonetheless, the combined efforts of civil rights groups, college students, and local people—and media coverage of the violence—ultimately led to the passage of the first national legislation that eventually dismantled Jim Crow segregation. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which provided federal oversight and enforcement to facilitate registration and voting in areas of historically low turnout.

Summer 2024 Events:

• Tuesday, July 2, 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. - Themed Tours: Medgar Evers’ Birthday and 60th Anniversary of Civil Rights Act
• Wednesday, July 10 at Noon - History Is Lunch: Leslie-Burl McLemore
• Thursday, July 11 at 5 p.m. - History Happy Hour: Freedom Summer
• Wednesday, July 24, at Noon - History Is Lunch: Bruce Watson
• Thursday, July 25, 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. - Themed Tours: Emmett Till’s Birthday
• Wednesday, August 7 at Noon - History Is Lunch: "Mississippi Burning" case files
• Sunday, August 11, at 2 p.m. - Sunday Screening: "An Ordinary Hero" with Joan Trumpauer Mulholland and her son, filmmaker Loki Mulholland