Mississippi Freedom Movement

During 1963 and 1964 the Ku Klux Klan was unleashing a rage of hatred across the state of Mississippi. The blacks answered with the Mississippi Freedom Summer. The Mississippi Freedom Summer marked a turning point in the national acknowledgement of the despair going on with the civil rights movement. Many civil rights activists in Mississippi were opposed to certain decisions that should have been made during this time in 1964. Many were conflicting on their thoughts about the white college northerners coming down to help gain national attention towards the movement. Also, during this time frame the slaughtering of three men unfortunately but ultimately helped direct the American public’s eye towards the misery of the African Americans in
Although many were into the idea of having that whites participate in the movement, many were not feeling that same way as the others felt. They felt like that they should do this movement on their own. They felt that college kids would hurt more than they could help. The thought was that the Students would come in and ruin the relationships they took so long to build also that they feared the thought of their black Southerners going towards the leadership of whites instead of their local black activist. The thought of one thousand Northern white college students in the rural areas of the south for the span of two months is a scary and haunting thought during this time and age. The argument for the ones who supported the thought of so many students coming to the south was that if a white college student was killed in the rural areas of Mississippi fighting for the rights of another race that it would have to gain tremendous nation attention. This of course would have an upheaval with the public, and leave them to wonder why they have not gained equality