19.1.11

Freedom Summer & Mississippi Murders

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The Freedom Summer and the Mississippi Murders

Between 1962 and 1964 huge efforts were made to get black Americans registered to vote. Many volunteer activists were targeted by racist groups as a result, some of whom were murdered.

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Freedom Summer 1964

  • Between 1962 and 1964, 700,000 black Americans had registered to vote in the South, but this was still not very many compared to the number of black people who lived there.
  • The SNCC and CORE sent 1000 volunteers to Mississippi to increase black voter registration.
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KKK opposition

  • Many volunteers were white middle class college students who taught people how to pass the voter registration tests.
  • They faced huge opposition from the KKK who burnt 37 black churches and 30 homes.
  • Only 1,600 out of the 17,000 black people who tried to register to vote were successful.
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The Mississippi Murders

  • Two CORE activists (one white and one black) and a white volunteer were arrested on 21st June 1964 and murdered on their way home by the KKK.
  • Their bodies weren’t found until the 4th August, and the bodies of eight other black men were also found, three of which were CORE workers.
  • It was a national scandal.

Jump to other topics

1The Medieval World: 450-1450 AD

1.1Anglo-Saxon England

1.2The Contest for the English Throne

1.3Conquering the Holy Land, 10-96-1396 AD

1.4King John

1.5The Magna Carta & Parliament

1.6The Black Death

2Worldviews

3The Empire of Mali

4The Renaissance & Reformations, 1500-1598 AD

5The British Empire, 1583-1960 AD

6The Peasants' Revolt

7Religion in the Middle Ages

8Slavery, 1619-1833 AD

9The English Civil War, 1642-1660

10The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1840

11US Independence, 1775-1783

12The French Revolution, 1789-1815

13The British Empire, 1857–1930

14Suffrage

15World War 1, 1914-1918

16The Inter-War Years, 1919-1939

17World War 2, 1939-1945

18The Cold War, 1947-1962

19Civil Rights in the USA, 1954-1975

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