In the summer of 1964, over 1,000 activists (mostly young, white Northerners) came to Mississippi, a state “sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression” as Martin Luther King observed the previous year. Under the aegis of the Council of Federated Organizations (a coalition of civil rights advocacy groups including the NAACP, CORE, SCLC, and, most important, SNCC), the activists aimed to register to vote thousands of African Americans who were excluded from the franchise by law and custom in the Magnolia State. Despite violent resistance by segregationists (including the infamous murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner), COFO's efforts resulted in the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which presented a challenge to the segregated state Democratic Party at the national convention in Atlantic City, and later successfully desegregated the state party.
Alongside registering voters, “Freedom Summer” volunteers also created temporary community centers offering schooling...
