Freedom 55 -Mini Conference

The 1950s saw the rebirth of the Civil Rights Movement. One of the first victories was Brown V. the Board of Education (1954, 1955) - the name given to five separate cases heard by the U.S. Supreme court. Social scientist Kenneth Clark, argued that segregated schools negatively impacted upon black children by fostering a feeling of inferiority. Thurgood Marshall took a radically different approach. Recognizing that the High Court had repeatedly rejected the idea that racially segregated schools violated the “equal protection clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment; Marshall argued that if indeed “separate but equal” was the law of the land, then he urged the Court to order the Southern State Boards of Education to indeed make all schools, black and white, equal. That means, spending the same amount on black education as white, where there was a white school of medicine the state had to create a black one, and etc. Southern School Board Lawyers adamantly rejected this as it would bankrupt the state in short measure. Chief Justice Earl Warren, responded, that since the southern states could not make separate schools equal, then they must be unconstitutional. Later, in 1955, the Court ruled that in order to make this happen, schools must desegregate “with all deliberate speed”.

On August 28, 1955, 14-year old Emmitt Till spoke to a white cashier in Money, Mississippi. The cashier lied, claiming that he grabbed her, whistled at her, and made crude comments. Four days later, her husband and another white male kidnapped him, tortured him beyond recognition and later shot him in the head. Using barbed wire to tie his body to a cotton gin fan, they threw his body into the Tallahatchie River. His killers were acquitted by an all-white jury. His murder sparked the emergence of the Modern Civil Rights Movement that changed the face, heart, and soul of America.   

Murder and activism went hand and hand as the Civil Rights Movement came into being. Freedom Summer, one of the moments in the movement, was a 1964 voter registration drive across Mississippi led by the Congress on Racial Equality (“CORE) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). It aimed to increase black voter registration in Mississippi. Local blacks as well as more than 1,000 out-of-state (both black and white) volunteers trained in non-violence descended upon Mississippi. They were met by the Ku Klux Klan, state and local police which carried out a series of well-orchestrated attacks, including arson, beatings, false arrests and the murder of at least 3 people.

An estimated 800 volunteers went through orientation training June 14-27, 1964 at the Western College for Women, now a part of Miami University’s Western Campus. Among those in attendance were, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. They were murdered in Mississippi shortly after leaving Oxford. Their charred bodies were found in a torched station wagon on June 23. The Freedom Summer murders brought home the harsh reality of racial hatred, intimidation, and bigotry that was so much a part of our Nation. The State of Mississippi refused to prosecute the 7 known perpetrators. The United States federal government stepped in and charged 18 individuals with civil rights violation. Only seven were convicted, receiving minor sentences for their actions. Outraged, activists pressured Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And 41 years later, one perpetrator, Edgar Ray Killen, was charged and convicted of manslaughter. He alone was sentenced and given a 60 year sentence. No further prosecutions are expected as both the federal and state authorities have closed the case.

Today, 55 years later, we stand in memory and agreement with the spirit, the pain, and the dream. We gather to celebrate, contemplate, and elucidate – Freedom Summer, Then, Now and the Future.  Joining us will be actual eye witnesses and participants such as Joyce Ladner, Jonnie Frazier, and Clarence Bozeman. Those personally touched by the death of parents and family, Reena Evers Everette and Lisa McNair.  Scholars and contemporary activists in the struggle for freedom to include Clarence Lange (Penn State) and Hasan Kwame Jeffries (Ohio State) and Derrick Johnson (President and CEO of NAACP). Distinguished Miami Alums to include Yvette Simpson (Democracy Now, ABC News, Former Cincinnati Council Member), Veronica Sanders (D.A., Houston Texas), Erica Bland-Durosinmi (VP of Politics, SEIU-Healthcare), Imokhai Okolu (Law Student, Editor Law Journal Akron School of Law), and Sheryl Long (Assistant City Manager, Cincinnati). And Current Students to include Jazz Bennett and Lauryn Poythress.

Why should you attend? Good question. Why should you care? Equally good question. Perhaps you should not. Only those who have benefited from these histories/events/sacrifices can appreciate the journey through fire. Only those who understand that to ignore the past means that you are doomed to repeat them. And only those who understand that only through their blood, tears, and travails do we stand right now on this mountain. If this does not include you -then please ignore the mini-conference –Freedom Summer-Then, Now and in the Future. Happening, Nov. 1 and 2, at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Links to the event, registering for the buses are below. Thanks.. Rodney D. Coates, Professor

Everything is set..,now we need to get folks out, Saturday..at 8:30 am buses will leave from Armstrong..we have two buses ordered, and can do meals, for 94 students ..if we need more we need to know..but we need them to register..

Could you help kick out the word. ...and help to make this happen..

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Please forward this email to your faculty and students!

On November 1-2, Miami University is co-sponsoring the Freedom 55 Mini-Conference: Freedom Summer, Then, Now and the Future. The event takes place at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in downtown Cincinnati.

Admission is free...for more information

·  Sign up for bus transportation (Saturday only)

·  Visit the event page on the Freedom Center website

·  Contact Professor Rodney Coates for more information