The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Mississippi Freedom Summer Project 1964 digital collection

Repository: Miami University. Western College Memorial Archives

Collection Description (Extant): In 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project was a key initiative within the Civil Rights Movement. Organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) recruited college students from across the United States to travel to Mississippi, shining a national spotlight on conditions there while registering voters, building community centers and teaching at "freedom schools" in that state. Three college students, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, were brutally murdered for their activism as they pursued the goals of Freedom Summer in Mississippi. Before going to Mississippi, these students trained in Oxford, Ohio, at Western College for Women for three weeks. The campus of Western College is now part of Miami University.

The primary materials from the Mississippi Summer Project that comprise the digital collection--videotaped oral history presentations and interviews--were taped at the 2004 Voices of Freedom Summer National Conference and Reunion. Collection materials also include journals, photographs, newsletters, pamphlets, diaries, and letters written by the college students and civil rights participants who trained in Oxford, Ohio; these are housed in the Western College Memorial Archives.

Topics include oral history recollections or presentations by activists and educators such as Jane Adams, Chude Allen, Hardy Frye, Jim Kates, Chuck Mandue, Rick Momeyer, Representative John Lewis, Bob Moses and others. Interviewees also recall the events of Freedom Summer, discuss the relationship between religion and social activism, the struggle for social justice, Freedom Schools, civil rights in Cincinnati, OH, the history of SNCC, the roles of women and the arts in the movement, and non-violent philosophies and practices. Individual interviews with are also available on the site.

Access Copy Note: Access to audio, video, and transcripts of interviews is available at collection URL. Contact Western College Memorial Archives Archivist to learn more about access to other materials in this collection.

Collection URL: http://digital.lib.muohio.edu/fs/

Date(s): 2004

Digital Status: Yes

Extent: 756 digitized documents; 27 videotaped interviews or presentations (14 DVDs + digital file copies)

Language: English

Related Archival Items: A finding aid for photographs and documents associated with this collection is available at http://westernarchives.lib.muohio.edu/show_content.php?unique_id=73.

Interviewees: Jane Adams, Chude Allen, Hardy Frye, Jim Kates, Chuck Mandue, Rick Momeyer, John Lewis, Bob Moses, Ben Chaney, John Steele, Joe Keesecker, Fran O'Brien, Jerry Lignon, George Chilcoat, Nancy Samstein, Kathy Emery, David Dennis, Ed Dubinsky, Cheryl Johnson, Debra L. Schultz, Zohara Simmons

Rights (Extant): Some interviews restricted due to copyright.

Subjects:

Black Arts movement
Civil rights movements--Mississippi
Civil rights movements--Ohio
Congress of Racial Equality
Mississippi Freedom Project
Mississippi Freedom Schools
Mississippi--Race relations
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Nonviolence
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
Voter registration--Mississippi
Western College for Women
Women civil rights workers

Genres:

Interviews
Manuscripts
Photographs
Transcripts
Videorecordings