Freedom+Summer

__ **VOCABULARY**: __

**Disenfranchised -** deprive (someone) of the right to vote

**Climax -** the most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a culmination or apex

**Conspiracy -** a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful

**Literacy -** the ability to read and write.

**Segregation -** the action or state of setting someone or something apart from other people or things or being set apart

**Eulogy -** a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly, typically someone who has just died

**Painstaking -** done with or employing great care and thoroughness

**Rhetoric -** the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, esp. the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.

**Reputed -** the opinion generally held of someone or something; the state of being generally regarded in a particular way

**Racism -** the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

**Civil Rights -** the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality.

**Integrate -** combine (one thing) with another so that they become a whole

**Jim Crow Laws -** state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans.

**Poll Tax -** a tax levied on every adult, without reference to their income or resources.

**Literacy Tests -** the government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level, and potential voters at the state level.

**Black Muslims -** has been specifically used to refer to African-American organizations that describe themselves as Muslim.

**BPP (Black Panther Party) -** was an African-American revolutionary leftist organization

**CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) -** a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement.

**NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) -** an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination".

**NUL (National Urban League) -** a nonpartisan civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States.

**SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) -** an American civil rights organization that was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

**SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) -** one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

**Stokely Carmichael -** a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement.

**James Farmer -** one of the leaders of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

**Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -** an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement.

**Elijah Muhammed -** an African American religious leader, and led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975.

**Bobby Seale -** an African-American civil rights activist, who along with Huey P. Newton, co-founded the Black Panthers on October 15, 1966.

**Roy Wilkins -** U.S. civil rights leader. He edited the NAACP's magazine, The Crisis, from 1934 until 1949 and then served as executive secretary of the NAACP 1955–77.

**Sit-ins -** a form of protest in which demonstrators occupy a place, refusing to leave until their demands are met.

**Freedom Rides -** civil rights activists that rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia (of 1960).

**Rioting -** take part in a violent public disturbance

**Law Suits -** is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy.

**Writing -** the activity or skill of marking coherent words on paper and composing text

**Marching -** walk in a military manner with a regular measured tread

**Boycotts -** withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.

__ **DISCUSSION QUESTIONS**: __

1. Freedom Summer was part of the larger Civil Rights Movement of the mid- twentieth century. Why do you think this movement necessary? I think this movement was necessary because it helped shift the Racial movement. The people didn't agree with segregation, and they got fed up with it.

2. Describe and define Freedom Summer. Why do you think activists decided to focus on registering voters? What other issues could they have chosen to highlight?

3. Mississippi was called the “last frontier” of the Civil Rights Movement. Why? Why do you think it was chosen as the focus of Freedom Summer? I believe that Mississippi was called the "last frontier" because it was the only state that didnt let the majority of the black people vote.

4. One of the aims of the Civil Rights Movement was to overturn the Jim Crow system of the South. What were Jim Crow Laws? The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages.

5. Civil Rights workers tried to help African-Americans in the South register to vote. What were some of the obstacles African-Americans faced when trying to register to vote? Some obstacles that African Americans faced were, Blacks while free, continued to be subjugated by what were known as "Jim Crow" laws and the "separate but equal" status they had to put up with from 1865-all the way to the mid 20th century. Southerners discouraged free blacks from voting, organizations like the Klu Klux Klan founded shortly after the end of the war tortured and murdered free blacks well into the 20th century.

6. Who was Medgar Evers? Why was he assassinated? Medgar Evers was an African American civil rights activist who lived in Mississippi. He was shot right outside his home by Byron De La Beckwith because he was a civil rights activist..

7. Although white students helped to bring media attention to the Civil Rights Movement, there were some complications. Discuss the pros and cons of white students going down South to be a part of Freedom Summer. The local field works had issues with the whites coming in with larger numbers of people compared to the African Americans.

8. The Ku Klux Klan targeted Michael Schwerner for assassination. Why? What did Schwerner do to upset the Klan? Michael Schwerner was targeted for assassination because he helped The Freedom summer group and that upset that Klan.

9. Lyndon B. Johnson was president of the United States during Freedom Summer. How did Johnson deal with the events of Freedom Summer? Lyndon B. Johnson said that the FBI should most definitely become involved in it.

10. Were you surprised by the violence the Civil Rights Movement provoked? Why do you think the KKK and others reacted so violently? Discuss. I was surprised that they acted the way the did, because it seemed like they didn't have very many fillings for people.

11. Discuss the legacy of Freedom Summer. What were its consequences for American society overall? It ripped aside the relations of the W hites and the African Americans. There were a 1000 arrests, 100 people were killed, and 60 buildings were burnt to the ground.