Ohio

 

 Freedom Summer Training

June 1964

Initially known as The Mississippi Summer Project, a group of seven to eight hundred volunteers, including teenagers, participated in training for a summer trip to Mississippi where they would face off against racism and violence while attempting to register African Americans to vote. 1 The training, initially intended to take place in Kentucky; however, the training was relocated to the safer venue of Oxford, Ohio's Western College for women in an attempt to train the volunteers away from areas of conflict. 2 The significance of the Freedom Summer training and its volunteers was the fact that the majority were youth and white. However, in terms of research on Freedom Summer, which is significant in quantity, focuses on the work in Mississippi rather than motives to volunteer or reactions to the announcement of the murder of their fellow volunteers. 3


Image Credit in Order of Appearance
Hoxie, George R. "Freedom Summer Volunteers at Western College." Digital image. USA Today via the Associated Press. June 196. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/09/freedom-summer-ohio/17002665/.
Schapiro, Steve. "Freedom Summer Volunteers." Digital image. PBS: American Experience. June 14, 1964. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedomsummer-project/.
Schapiro, Steve. "Group of Freedom Summer Volunteers." Digital image. PBS: American Experience. June 1964. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedomsummer-project/.
Polumbaum, Ted. "Freedom Summer Volunteers Leave Ohio for Mississippi." Digital image. PBS: American Experience. June 21, 1964. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedomsummer-project/.

Videos

The following videos will provide you with the voices of those involved in events of the Civil Rights Movement in Ohio.

This clip includes two brief comments from the directors of the Freedom Summer training in Oxford, Ohio, regarding the need to inform the young volunteers of the murder of three volunteers.

Audio

The following videos will provide you with the voices of those involved in events of the Civil Rights Movement in Ohio.

Featured Image Credit
Schapiro, Steve. "Freedom Summer Volunteers." Digital image. PBS: American Experience. June 14, 1964. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedomsummer-project/.
  1. "The Mississippi Summer Project." PBS: American Experience. June 24, 2014. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedomsummer-project/.
  2. Wang, Hansi Lo, performer. 50 Years Ago, Freedom Summer Began By Training For Battle. Recorded June 14, 2014. NPR. http://www.wnyc.org/story/50-years-ago-freedom-summer-began-by-training-for-battle/.
  3. Some sources, particularly given the recent fiftieth anniversary of Freedom Summer are more detailed and significant than prior sources. However, like most of the information on youth in the Civil Rights Movement, it is scattered and requires thorough reading to determine its value. Though, this could be an additional facet to a lesson plan, to have the students understand a reliable versus and unreliable source.; Fisher, Marc. "When Freedom Summer Game to Town." Moment, July 1, 2014, 32-63. Humanities International Complete.

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