In 1964, the segregationist white establishment in Mississippi was prepared to use any means necessary to keep African Americans away from the polls and out of elected office.
Freedom Summer volunteers were aware of the danger involved in going to Mississippi—a danger confirmed early in the summer when three volunteers went missing.
For ten weeks in 1964, student volunteers joined local organizers in Mississippi in a historic effort to shatter the foundations of white supremacy in what was one of the nation’s most segregated and racist states.
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.
