Browse Items (12 total)

To become an official Freedom Summer volunteer interested students had to successfully complete a rigorous application and interview process. Participation in this movement was a serious undertaking and not for the faint of heart. This is the…

Three months before the start of Freedom Summer COFO held a conference to introduce the initiative to the leaders of various national organizations. Given the state of race relations in the country in 1964, particularly in the South, Bob Moses and…

In the Freedom Schools African American students could study subjects like government and African American history, which were unavailable to them in the segregated school system. They also were taught the importance of civic engagement, political…

College students were the majority of people recruited to serve as Freedom Summer volunteers. But COFO also reached out to college professors nationwide for support. The intellectual community was asked to help combat racial discrimination by…

The danger awaiting Freedom Summer volunteers was very real. Verbal assaults, bombings, lynchings, shootings, cross burnings and ambushes were all a daily possibility for African Americans and sympathetic Whites in the South. This document was sent…

In order to best serve the needs of the down-trodden African American masses in Mississippi COFO established community centers throughout the state and divided its community programs into two major areas: voter’s activities, and educational and…

One of the main goals of the Freedom School curriculum was to create well rounded, civically engaged African American leaders through education about their past and the social structures that were affecting their future. Supporters nationwide donated…

Agreeing to serve as a Freedom Summer volunteer was a huge commitment. It not only required an acknowledgment of the great dangers to be faced but also the completion of an intense orientation meant to prepare the volunteers for the harsh realities…

Freedom Summer was a far-reaching initiative meant to help disenfranchised African Americans throughout Mississippi. This meant that volunteers were stationed at schools and community centers in cities that differed geographically, socially and…

The COFO-Hattiesburg Project office was located in the Woods Guest House at 507 Mobile Street. The historic two-story hotel built in the 1890's for African American guests but sadly was destroyed by fire on September 17, 1998.