About the Digital Collection
The Freedom Summer Digital Archive includes over 1,100 primary sources relating to the Mississippi Summer Project, the 1964 African American voter registration drive later known as Freedom Summer.
The digital collection brings together digitized material from several Freedom Summer collections in the United States, such as the Mark Levy Collection at the Queens College Special Collections and Archives, City University of New York and the Freedom Summer Archive at the Walter Havighurst Special Collections & University Archives at Miami University, originally part of the Western College Memorial Archives.
The Freedom Summer Digital Archive was funded by the Ohio Humanities Council, Miami University Libraries, and through the generous support of Catherine Ross-Loveland, a 1952 graduate of the Western College for Women.
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Statements
- Pages
- 844
- Photographs
- 212
- Videos
- 59
- Sound Recordings
- 11
Related Resources
Background
History of Freedom Summer
Mississippi Summer Project took place on Oxford, Ohio’s, Western College campus in June 1964. Its participants, about 800 northern college students, learned about history and politics in the South while preparing to register African Americans to vote and to encourage a new political party.
"Bring the nation's children, and the parents will have to focus on Mississippi"
At the time, Black Mississippians were barred from Democratic party primaries and caucuses, and the movement sought to challenge the party’s all-white delegation at the Democratic National Convention that August.
Three of those trainees, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman would be murdered by the Ku Klux Klan after beginning their work in Mississippi. These murders focused national and international attention on the efforts of Freedom Summer, serving as a turning point for the civil rights movement.
Support
The Freedom Summer Digital Archive began in 2009 with a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council, the Miami University Libraries, and through the generous support of Catherine Ross-Loveland, a 1952 graduate of the Western College for Women. Additional support was provided by a Miami University Libraries’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion grant in 2021 and funding from the Boldly Creative Initiative in 2023, sponsored by the Offices of the President and the Provost at Miami University.
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