| Label | Information |
|---|---|
| Dates & times |
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| Category | Living Well, Local Interest |
| Age Groups | All ages/special |
View the Finding Freedom Summer Exhibit at Wright Library during the month of October.
Originally known as the Mississippi Summer Project, Freedom Summer took place on Oxford, Ohio’s, Western College campus in June 1964. Its participants, about 800 northern college students, learned about history and politics in the South while preparing to register African Americans to vote and to encourage a new political party. At the time, Black Mississippians were barred from Democratic party primaries and caucuses, and the movement sought to challenge the party’s all-white delegation at the Democratic National Convention that August.
Three of those trainees, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman would be murdered by the Ku Klux Klan after beginning their work in Mississippi. These murders focused national and international attention on the efforts of Freedom Summer, serving as a turning point for the civil rights movement.
RELATED EVENTS
Voting Rights of Black Americans: A History - 7pm Wed. October 18
Freedom Summer for Tweens - 10:30am Sat. October 21
Freedom Summer for Teens - 1:30pm Sat. October 21
This traveling exhibit was created by an interdisciplinary team of Miami University faculty and staff and is on loan from Miami University