“UF students travel to interview veterans of 1964 Freedom Summer,” by Jeff Schweers, The Gainesville Sun, June 27, 2014.
The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program returned to the Mississippi Delta and traveled to Natchez for the 50th anniversary reunion of Freedom Summer with the Sunflower County Civil Rights Organization June 23-29, 2014. Students and staff conducted 35+ interviews, a historic record for the program, and reflected in this article about the community organizing lessons relayed to them by civil rights veterans.
For more information about the Mississippi Freedom Project and 2014 research trip:
- Browse the Mississippi Freedom Project oral history archive online at the University of Florida Digital Collections.
- Read the newly-released edited volume of 60+ Mississippi Freedom Project oral histories, “I Never Will Forget,” published for the Freedom Summer reunion with sponsorship from partners at the UF Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research, Center for Undergraduate Research, Center for Humanities and the Public Sphere, Department of History, Milbauer Program in Southern History, African American Studies Program, Phi Alpha Theta chapter, and George A. Smathers Libraries.
- Explore the Mississippi Freedom Project website through the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.
- Check out MFP interviewee and Freedom Summer volunteer Len Edwards’ column in the San Jose Mercury News, “Mississippi Summer of 1964: A Santa Clara County judge recalls voting rights struggle,” from June 2014.
So far, the interviews we’ve conducted have revealed a strong tradition of local organizing and activism that both precedes and transcends the courageous work of those who engaged in Mississippi Freedom Summer.
-Justin Dunnavant