Z 1946.000 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project Collection

During the summer of 1964, Mississippi was the site of a massive civil rights campaign known as the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. It focused on securing the vote for African Americans and was spearheaded by the Council of Federated Organizations. COFO consisted of the Mississippi chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Freedom Summer was a direct result of the Freedom Vote campaign of 1963. During this campaign, thousands of volunteers from Stanford and Yale came to Mississippi to help register African Americans for a mock election for governor and lieutenant governor. The regular Democratic candidate for governor was Paul B. Johnson, Jr., the Republican candidate was Rubel Phillips, and the Freedom Democratic candidate was Aaron Henry. The Reverend Ed King was the Freedom Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. During the Freedom Vote campaign, 70,000 individuals were registered.

At the conclusion of Freedom Summer, the Freedom Democratic Party made national headlines when it challenged the regular delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The major item in this collection is a prospectus on the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. The prospectus outlines the entire project. It discusses the purpose of Freedom Summer and provides supporting information on how to achieve this purpose. There are copies of the Mississippi Free Press newspaper and other civil rights movement publications in this collection. Also included are letters from P. S. Bowles, a former president of Alcorn State University, to the Reverend Ed King. One letter contains a biographical sketch of Bowles, and the other compliments King on his campaign for lieutenant governor during the Freedom Vote campaign. There is also a newsclipping announcing the death of Bowles. Other items of interest include boycott flyers and posters.

1. Prospectus. n.d. 0.10 c.f.
2. Ephemera. 1962-1963; n.d. 0.10 c.f.
3. Correspondence. 1963. 0.10 c.f.
4. Newspapers; Newsclipping. 1962-1964. 0.10 c.f.