National Civil Rights Museum hosts symposium on the 60th anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project
July 15 2024 - 7:00AM
The National Civil Rights Museum will host a community symposium on
the “
60th Anniversary of Freedom Summer” on Saturday, July
27, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at the museum. During this hybrid
event, courageous activists from the iconic Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) will share experiences of their
grassroots efforts to help register Black American voters in
Mississippi 60 years ago.
This symposium will feature authors, historians, and filmmakers
who will highlight incidents from the pivotal summer of 1964.
Co-moderated by Dr. Robert Luckett, author, professor,
and Director of the Margaret Walker Center and COFO Center at
Jackson State University, and Dory Lerner, the museum’s
Education Manager, a panel of surviving SNCC Freedom Summer
activists will kick off the event. Panelists include:
- Judy Richardson, an author and filmmaker who from
1963-1966 served on staff in SNCC’s national office in Atlanta, in
Mississippi during Freedom Summer, in Southwest Georgia, and in
Lowndes County, AL;
- Charlie Cobb, Jr., a journalist, author and SNCC veteran
who proposed the Freedom School project and organized for voting
rights in Mississippi from 1962-1967;
- Courtland Cox, who served as the SNCC executive
committee member, a representative on the Steering Committee for
the 1963 March on Washington, and organizer for Freedom
Summer;
- Dorothy Zellner, an author/editor who from 1962-67
worked for SNCC in Atlanta, GA, Danville, VA, Greenwood, MS (during
Freedom Summer of 1964), and ran the northeast office of SNCC in
Cambridge, MA;
- Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter and author
whose research has successfully help convict four Ku Klux Klansmen
of civil rights cold cases.
A book talk discussion with authors Davis Houck and
Devery Anderson will provide a segue to other violent events
during Freedom Summer. Houck is the author of Black Bodies in
the River: Searching for Freedom Summer, whose 2022 release
uncovers the claim that dozens of unidentified Black bodies were
discovered in the June 1964 search for civil rights workers Andrew
Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner. Anderson is the
author of A Slow, Calculated Lynching: The Story of Clyde Kennard
which resurrects the story of a Hattiesburg civil rights worker who
attempted to enroll in University of Southern Mississippi and
became victim of an extensive plot to frame, imprison, and
ultimately torture and kill him through the denial of health care
while incarcerated.
A documentary screening of “Dying to Vote” will be followed by a
discussion with filmmakers Loki Mulholland, civil
rights icon Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, and Dennis
Dahmer, son of the film’s protagonist. The 30-minute
presentation tells the story of Vernon Dahmer, a civil rights
activist in 1966 Hattiesburg who died of smoke inhalation after his
family’s home was firebombed. Dahmer led an effective campaign to
register Black residents of Forrest and Lamar Counties,
volunteering to even pay potential registrants’ poll taxes.
The community symposium will conclude with a panel on
Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a nefarious member group of
white supremacists established in 1956 after the Brown v. Board
Supreme Court decision to counteract gains in racial equality in
Mississippi and other southern states. Their clandestine tactics
included surveillance and investigating civil rights activists,
undermining efforts to register Black voters, and financially
supporting racial terrorist groups through state tax dollars.
Panelists include Houck, Mitchell, and Luckett and is moderated by
Ryan Jones, the museum’s Associate Curator.
The event includes lunch for onsite, registered attendees.
General admission tickets are $15 for in-person or virtual guests
and free for educators. For tickets and more information, visit
civilrightsmuseum.org.
About the National Civil Rights Museum
The NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM, located at the historic
Lorraine Motel where civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. was assassinated, gives a comprehensive overview of the
American Civil Rights Movement from slavery to the present. Since
the Museum opened in 1991, millions of visitors from around the
world have come, including more than 90,000 student visits
annually. The Museum is steadfast in its mission to chronicle the
American civil rights movement and tell the story of the ongoing
struggle for human rights. It educates and serves as a
catalyst to inspire action to create positive social change.
A Smithsonian Affiliate and an internationally acclaimed cultural
institution, the Museum is recognized as a 2019 National Medal
Award recipient by the Institute of Museums and Library Services
(IMLS), the top national honor for museums and libraries.
– civilrightsmuseum.org
–
Connie Dyson
National Civil Rights Museum
901-527-1225
cdyson@civilrightsmuseum.org