Freedom Summer was a civil rights campaign that took place in Mississippi during the summer of 1964. Hundreds of civil rights activists and volunteers, most of them college students, went to Mississippi. There, they worked with local activists to create Freedom Schools to educate Black children, register Black voters, and challenge the segregationist Democratic Party in Mississippi with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. In many cases, activists were met with violence, threats, and intimidation, including the murder of three volunteers. In the end, the Freedom Summer brought national attention to racial discrimination.
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Freedom Summer was a civil rights campaign that took place in Mississippi during the summer of 1964. Hundreds of civil rights activists and volunteers, most of them college students, went to Mississippi. There, they worked with local activists to create Freedom Schools to educate Black children, register Black voters, and challenge the segregationist Democratic Party…
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On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 people attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Participants gathered peacefully in Washington, D.C., to call for an end to racial discrimination and greater economic justice. Today, the event is best remembered for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech and for…
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The Greensboro sit-ins began on February 1, 1960, when four African American college students sat at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and politely refused to leave after being denied service. Sit-ins quickly spread across the South. Sit-ins became an important strategy during the Civil Rights Movement because they challenged segregation through nonviolent…
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Civil rights activists used boycotts, a type of non-violent direct action, to push local businesses to desegregate. By refusing to spend money on segregated public transportation or at businesses that treated African Americans unfairly, protesters put economic pressure on those businesses to change their policies. Boycotts helped inspire more civil rights campaigns and contributed to…