An article from Memphis World about the Mississippi Freedom Summer and the Freedom Drive, September 5, 1964.
Transcript:
Mississippi Summer Project Ends; Mississippi Freedom Drive Begins
GREENWOOD, Miss.
—The Mississippi Summer Project has ended and the Mississippi Freedom Project has begun.
The summer-long drive - involving over 900 college students, doctors, nurses, lawyers and ministers began June 21 and ended this week. The Mississippi Freedom Project, a continuation of the summer's work, began immediately.
Over 200 of the summer workers will stay in Mississippi. They join the 83 permanent staff members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) who have been working in Mississippi for the last three years.
The SNCC national office, located here through the summer, will move back to Atlanta, Ga. The summer's four main thrusts
- voter registration, Freedom Schools, Community Centers and political action - will continue. By the summer's end, there were 41 Freedom Schools in 20 communities throughout the state. Total enrollment was 2,165. There were 175 full-time Freedom School teachers.
Summer workers established 13 Community Centers, staffed by 61 workers, offering literacy classes, art, music, drama, recreation, health and children care programs, and libraries. Two centers - in Harmony and Mileston - are being built from the ground up by local people and volunteers.
Over 55,000 Negroes registered on "Freedom Registration" forms for the Freedom Democratic, the group that successfully challenged Mississippi's all-white regular Democratic Party at, the National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. Regular voter registration efforts were not as successful. For instance, only 2 of the 123 Leflore County Negroes who took Mississippi's tortuous registration test between June and July became registered voters. In contrast, 3,384 Leflore County Negroes registered, on Freedom Registration forms.
SNCC workers hope to spread "Summer Project" activities through out other deep South states, also, especially in Eastern Arkansas, Central Alabama and Southwest Georgia were SNCC drives have been underway for several years.
