Event Title
How the Freedom Summer Students Changed Mississippi
Location
Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum (Rm. 101)
Start Date
29-9-2014 2:00 PM
End Date
29-9-2014 2:50 PM
Description
James P. Marshall, Independent Researcher. The author of Student Activism and Civil Rights in Mississippi: Protest Politics in Mississippi: Protest Politics and the Struggle for Racial Justice, 1960‐1965 (2013) assesses the success of the civil rights movement in Mississippi by describing changes in the state among the indigenous black leadership before and after 1965. Before 1965, the prevailing strategy sought to empower the indigenous African leaders and high school and college students of Mississippi to join forces with the civil rights organizations and the volunteering college students to confront the white power structure. It was asserted that black citizens were entitled to civil rights under the framework of the U. S. Constitution and federal law. After 1965, some felt that the time had come to realign goals. It was assumed that a national consensus for change in the South had emerged. Voter registration had mushroomed from less than 7% to nearly 60%. Empowerment of local individuals became the mantra. In many respects, the resistance of local whites was underestimated.
How the Freedom Summer Students Changed Mississippi
Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum (Rm. 101)
James P. Marshall, Independent Researcher. The author of Student Activism and Civil Rights in Mississippi: Protest Politics in Mississippi: Protest Politics and the Struggle for Racial Justice, 1960‐1965 (2013) assesses the success of the civil rights movement in Mississippi by describing changes in the state among the indigenous black leadership before and after 1965. Before 1965, the prevailing strategy sought to empower the indigenous African leaders and high school and college students of Mississippi to join forces with the civil rights organizations and the volunteering college students to confront the white power structure. It was asserted that black citizens were entitled to civil rights under the framework of the U. S. Constitution and federal law. After 1965, some felt that the time had come to realign goals. It was assumed that a national consensus for change in the South had emerged. Voter registration had mushroomed from less than 7% to nearly 60%. Empowerment of local individuals became the mantra. In many respects, the resistance of local whites was underestimated.