Freedom Summer Participant Shares Her Experience
I’ve been watching an interview of Chude Pam Parker Allen. Chude was a civil rights volunteer in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, 1964. This interview is conducted by Aundrea Self of […]
Tag Archives: Freedom Summer
You Read It Here First: Conversations with Today’s Authors, Part 1
Christina Hamlett conducted this interview with me for You Read It Here First. If you are interested in books and authors please visit http://fromtheauthors.wordpress.com/. Our […]
Book Review at SeniorWomen.com
Book Review: You Came Here to Die, Didn’t You? The Second Freedom Summer A Review by Jo Freeman You Came Here to Die, Didn’t You? Registering Black Voters One Soul at […]
Sam Cook Was Right: A Change Is Gonna Come
I just finished an interview with Jessica Bays. She is a reporter for the “Clarksdale Press Reporter” in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Clarksdale is the Birthplace and World Capital of the Blues in the Mississippi Delta. Lots of Blues musicians have called it home including Sam Cooke, John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner and Muddy Waters.
So why is this interview important? In 1965 the Mississippi Delta was a hell for civil rights workers and the local people who worked with them.
My Inspiration: the “Freedom Riders”
Did you see the “Freedom Riders”? It was extraordinary. Now imagine an eighth grade girl watching it in real time. I was shocked. I didn’t believe this could happen in the United States. But it did and I was watching people being brutalized. But I also saw people who were unwilling to let violence triumph over non-violence. Those people were my heroes and heroines. And, they were not only willing to take chances for what they believed in, they were smart. Alabama was a harsh nightmare, which is all the more poignant when we know that those folks wrote their wills before getting on the bus. Mississippi was a test of the Freedom Rider’s ability to out-think the officials of the state.
