Social History for Every Classroom

Search

Social History for Every Classroom

menuAmerican Social History Project  ·    Center for Media and Learning

Chart of Votes for Freedom Candidates in Official Elections

A coalition of activists led by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) initiated a statewide direct-action voter registration and education campaign in Mississippi. Although most remembered for 1964's Freedom Summer, when black and white college students traveled south to participate, SNCC's campaign started in 1961. Organizers held workshops and classes around the state to teach african Americans how to read and interpret the state constitution, which was a required part of the notorious "literacy tests" designed to keep black citizens from voting. The activists also organized the Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to challenge the all-white delegation that represented Mississippi at the Democratic National Convention in 1964. The MFDP's candidates for other local and state elections included women like Fannie Lou Hamer, Victoria Jackson Gray and Annie Devine.

Source | "Votes for Freedom Candidates in Official Elections," (Mississippi, 1966), from Tougaloo College Archives, Freedom Now! An Archival Project of Tougaloo College and Brown University, http://stg.brown.edu/projects/FreedomNow/do_search_single.php?searchid=112&x=19&y=40.
Creator | Unknown
Item Type | Quantitative Data
Cite This document | Unknown, “Chart of Votes for Freedom Candidates in Official Elections,” SHEC: Resources for Teachers, accessed March 19, 2024, https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1348.

Print and Share