A Different Type of Summer Camp: SNCC, Freedom Summer, Freedom Schools, and the Development of African American Males in Mississippi

Abstract

The civil rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s had a transformational effect on American society and on grassroots movements for social justice at home and abroad during that era and beyond. But much of the history of the push for racial equality in America is often told as if it is on a constant repetitive loop, when other accounts are given less attention. One less talked about story is the innovative way that the youthful Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) carried out major campaigns in the south, and particularly Mississippi, when other groups were hesitant to do so. During and long before the movement, Mississippi was a stronghold of racial prejudice and violence against African Americans. Despite the dangers associated with engaging in civil rights work in Mississippi, the SNCC workers, many of them only college students, planned a massive campaign to confront the system of injustice in the state during the summer of 1964. This undertaking came to be known as the “Freedom Summer.” Significantly, the organization established summer “Freedom Schools” as a compliment to the summer project that would address the severe lack of attention school-aged Black children received as a result of Mississippi's intentional neglect. It is within this story that we find a compelling case for the need to identify alternative means of providing academic support for marginalized youth.