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  • On a Hair Trigger poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-summer-trigger-poster.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Summer | Clip

    On a Hair Trigger

    Local Mississippi leadership prepared themselves psychologically and militarily for Freedom Summer.

  • Freedom Schools poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-summer-schools-poster.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Summer | Clip

    Freedom Schools

    In Freedom Schools across Mississippi, Freedom Summer workers and volunteers taught subjects that were not allowed in the standard public schools.

  • The Eulogy poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-summer-eulogy-poster.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Summer | Clip

    The Eulogy

    When Dave Dennis gave the eulogy at the funeral of James Chaney—who was killed along with two other civil rights workers in the summer of 1964—he offered an emotional plea.

  • How Many Beatings Have You Taken? poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-summer-beatings-poster.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Summer | Clip

    How Many Beatings Have You Taken?

    Fannie Lou Hamer helped fight for better representation among Mississippi Democrats in 1964. 

  • Fannie Lou Hamer's Testimony poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-summer-hamer-poster.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Summer | Clip

    Fannie Lou Hamer's Testimony

    Former sharecropper Fannie Lou Hamer's Congressional testimony is so powerful that President Johnson calls an impromptu press conference to get her off the air.

  • The Risk poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-summer-risk-poster.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Summer | Clip

    The Risk

    Civil rights work in Mississippi in 1964 was dangerous. Those who had been on the ground in the state for decades knew that well, but some were less aware of what they'd face. 

  • Three Missing Workers poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-summer-workers-poster.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Summer | Clip

    Three Missing Workers

    Volunteer Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons recalls hearing that fellow volunteers James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were missing.

  • The Movement poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-riders-movement-poster.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Riders | Clip

    The Movement

    The Freedom Riders represented a cross-section of America – black and white, young and old, religious and secular.

  • The Pioneers poster image canonical_images/feature/Mezzanine_048.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Riders | Clip

    The Pioneers

    In 1947, 16 men—eight black and eight white—boarded a bus to test compliance with a recent Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregation on interstate bus travel.

  • The Student Leader poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-riders-student-leader.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Riders | Clip

    The Student Leader

    A student at Fisk University in Tennessee, Diane Nash became the leader of the Nashville Student Movement.

  • The Governor poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-riders-governor.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Riders | Clip

    The Governor

    John Patterson, Alabama's governor from 1958 to 1963, discusses his decision to refuse a phone call from President Kennedy when the Freedom Riders encountered mob violence in Birmingham.

  • The Strategy poster image canonical_images/feature/freedom-riders-strategy.jpg XXX Clip
    Freedom Riders | Clip

    The Strategy

    In the decades after WWII, civil rights leaders relied on legal and legislative challenges to dismantle segregation.