This was a civil rights movement in the southern parts of the United States. It was a very interesting move since the whites were involved in the struggle for African American liberation (American Experience, 2009). The movement involved over 1000 white college students who decided to involve themselves in educating the blacks and also advocating for African Americans to be allowed to vote.
Before analyzing this case, I had a very different opinion on the contribution of the whites in this movement. I realized that the whites were major players who helped the civil rights movements to succeed (Congress of Racial Equality, 2011).
It was not a fight between the blacks and the whites at all. It was a struggle against the oppressed and the poor systems that had been put in place to ensure that the oppressed continued to be segregated and mistreated. It was an American fight for equality.
The key goals of the Mississippi freedom summer of 1964 were to ensure that the African Americans were registered as voters in Mississippi. This was one of the regions where Africans had been oppressed and denied their democratic right.
Also, several freedom community centers, houses, and schools were built in several towns in Mississippi to ensure that black Americans had access to these services (The Library of Congress, 2012). Furthermore, several civil rights movements were united under the council of federated organizations to ensure that the financing of the civil rights movements was successful.
This project was initiated by preparing a mock voter registration and election among the African American population. It was conducted by the civil rights volunteers and white students from Yale and Stanford universities. These students went further and initiated the public accommodation integrations, voter registration as well as uniting the local civil rights movements’ leadership (American Experience, 2009).
These students organized several peaceful demonstrations that helped the African Americans to enhance their fight for civil rights as American citizens. This was a significant search for civil rights since it involved local blacks and volunteer whites from several parts of the country (The Library of Congress, 2012).
The resolution to set up freedom schools was taken after the voter registration activity recorded low turnouts. The schools were initiated to ensure that African Americans were able to tackle the difficult questions that were to be answered before being allowed to register as voters (The Library of Congress, 2012). These schools received volunteer white teachers who ensured that all genders were represented in the schools.
Although the Mississippi summer project failed to register a substantial number of African Americans as voters, it was a major instrument that helped to stop the Jim Crow scheme of segregating African Americans (The Library of Congress, 2012). This movement was also very important since it recorded the highest number of active white participation in the civil rights movement (Congress of Racial Equality, 2011).
After these movements, the blacks realized that some whites had noticed their tribulations and thus started engaging them in their struggle. Through this initiative, the civil rights movements were enhanced. Eventually, the federal and local governments were compelled to initiate constitutional and policy changes which ensured that the African Americans were treated fairly (American Experience, 2009).
I chose to analyze the Mississippi freedom summer project because the notion in most people’s minds was that the whites never joined forces against the civil rights violations in the U.S. From the analysis, it is obvious that the whites played an important role in ensuring that the civil rights violations and black segregation were eliminated.
References
American Experience. (2009). The Story of The movement: Freedom Summer 1964. Web.
Congress of Racial Equality (2011). Freedom Summer: Three CORE Members murdered in Mississippi. Web.
The Library of Congress. (2012). The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories Mississippi Freedom Summer Project 1964 digital collection.