FULL DOCUMENTARY - 1964: The Fight for a Right | MPB

the 15th amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America passed by Congress in 1869 the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State or account of race color or previous condition of servitude [Music] during Reconstruction federal troops occupied Mississippi among the laws they enforced was the constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right of all men to vote and the newly freed slaves did vote with blacks and the majority in Mississippi this state sent two black senators and one black congressman to Washington at least 200 other blacks held public office they were Republicans the party of Lincoln they were deeply engaged in the legislative process we had individuals getting elected to office across the state because they understood the value of impact in public policy and being actively engaged they understood the value of coming from a position of slavery and servitude to being for citizens but many white Southerners did not support a black equality even worse they took the law into their own hands it's murder and terror and violence preventing blacks from voting or doing this political work that they have been doing by the mid-1870s reconstruction was over and the federal troops were gone they pull that they are support for the newly freed people so clicker Klan when the right language took over there was mass killing and coup d'etat taking place all across the state of Mississippi reverse in a trend that had begun right after the Civil War of full participation of all of Mississippi citizens and in 1890 Mississippi adopted a new constitution literacy tests and poll taxes which prevented a large number of blacks from voting became law Mississippi reverted back wasn't a system of slavery but it was a system of segregation it made it illegal for blacks and white to marry and it made it illegal for blacks and whites to attend school again there made it illegal for blacks to to vote without passing literacy tests in and having grandfather clauses in poll taxes for the next 75 years it was slavery but by another name Jim Crow the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote went unenforced african-americans in Mississippi were unequaled under the law for most life was little or no better than under slavery people really did live as if that was the Middle Ages they were fiefs on the plantations if they got to go to school they got to go to school for only a few months a year during the wintertime when there was nothing to do otherwise they were just animals for labor on the plantation they were living in virtual slavery man I didn't have the rights they had to get up and go to work when they say it could lead a plantation in order to change their status blacks had to be able to vote but the government and the Klan enforced the poll taxes and literacy laws enacted in 1890 blacks attempting to register had to know the state constitution they hit a oh cigar box or something here all this section of the Constitution shaking everything you pick a number then you had to cite whatever number he pick out this section of the constitution exactly word by word most of the time it was just a farce and that made it worse when they would pick an impossible question white people didn't have to go through all of that and for most blanks the poll taxes were outrageously expensive that poll tax in some areas of the state could equate a month's pay for them it could equate to weeks pay it was a significant amount because African Americans were being exploited for cheap labor they were not paid much for their labor so only those who had a little bit more means could even afford to pay a poll-tax Weiss also threaten the livelihoods and lives of blacks who tried to register many times they talk about litora being shot and killed they talk about how their houses would be from they talk about how they might lose the job that they had how were they gonna feed their families but world war ii veterans returning to mississippi after risking their lives for their country discovered that they were not allowed even the basic right of voting as they began to demand their do the modern civil rights movement began violence increased mississippi had more lynchings than any other state people were getting killed you had to resist until the end the poll taxes that or the literacy test we had this black people voting and in 1619 sixes and we have had a nineteen fifty like Mississippians we're talking about and saying then black people didn't want to vote but not wanting to vote was far from the truth veterans such as mayor Evers and Aaron Henry crusaded for voting rights they want to make sure that that citizens of this country could cast their vote free of intimidation and voter suppression methods such as poll tax those individuals formed the base of the n-double a-c-p across the state they also became a support network for young students and others one of them was Bob Moses a teacher from New York he came to Mississippi and they began to organize across the state so the we actually start the project in this in the southwest corner of the state McComb where less than one percent of eligible blacks were registered to vote statewide the number was closer to five percent Macomb is where Hollis Watkins met Bob Moses he was working on voter registration trying to get black people registered to vote so that they could begin to run an occupier political positions so I told him I definitely would be willing to be a part of that a native of the region Watkins talked with friends neighbors and anyone who would listen what is it that you have to lose five people are killing black people anyway for no reason at all we know that so if by chance you end up losing your life you know for doing something that need to be done that will benefit your people as a whole then you ought to be willing to do that because you don't know whether they are coming to take your life later on today or tomorrow for no reason at all other than you just being black understandably though people were reluctant to register they looked at that as being something that was against the status quo it was something that would bring about serious harm possibly death to them if they attempted to register to vote still people understood the need for the ballot people want work they want employment they want to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps this kind of thing and not be knocked down every time you try to make change education was the key to employment to jobs to security you had no access to education if you didn't have a vote so the cycle continued by the early 1960s civil rights protests in Mississippi or gaining momentum and attention the Freedom Rides had ended in Jackson James Murden had entered the University of Mississippi and in 1963 n-double-a-cp field secretary Medgar Evers was murdered Megas assassination really shifted the consciousness as some people in the country and began the path where the action in Mississippi began to take on national importance nonetheless black voter registration was still quite low by the fall of 1963 we had had a 90 percent failure rate and we had probably brought ninety to a hundred thousand black people to take the test and only a few thousand ever passed it then it becomes clear to us well this road into voter registration has sort of come to an end it's at that point that we think about running people we had run people four of us but now we're thinking let's let's do that on a bigger scale they design mark elections to teach people how to vote and they moved to Greenwood Greenland was chosen not because it would be any easier than the cold if anything the Delta was going to be much harder but we might as well send people into the most difficult place of all and use Greenwood as an anchor and build out from there we set up our own parallel machinery so people could register to vote if they couldn't register at the courthouse Aaron Henry ran for governor ed King was the candidate for lieutenant governor Bob Moses came to me and said we want to make this an interracial ticket and we need to show that black people are willing to vote for a white candidate who supports their same goals so candidates of both colors talked about the issues pertinent to the disenfranchise better education employment and job training for rural workers black or whites as the plantations were mechanic we would set up ballot boxes in churches in pool halls in juke joints and let the people have a real ballot tomorrow we knew we wouldn't be elected because we weren't on the real ballot but the feel was that of a real election then in November 1963 they held the freedom vote when we had the freedom vote you know we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 or 4,000 people that participated in that that proved that if this thing is open and fair black people were definitely register and they will definitely participate on Election Day through the process of voting outsiders came to help with this freedom vote one of them was al Lowenstein people who run Mississippi today can only do so by force they cannot allow free election in Mississippi because if they did they wouldn't run Mississippi al brings students from Yale and Stanford down to participate in those elections with the white students involved the violence against blacks decreased drastically an idea emerged bring white students to Mississippi for summer long voter registration project not everyone thought this was a good idea I was opposed to a large number of people coming down from the north but in 1964 some reprising it was my feeling that to bring all of these young people from the north they would take over and begin to do everything that needed to be done taking the initiative that we had worked so hard to bring about taking that away from the local community people but after a few months they gonna be gone and they're now others who felt that this was very dangerous but what I thought was if we did not get American attention those 30 or 40 low people are going to lose their jobs one or two are going to be killed in each county and we're not going to be able to even do the grassroots work so that was that was the debate the discussion continued until they received a critical phone call Louis Allen was a black activist in a Mid County who had witnessed a racial murder and later talked to the FBI now Louis Allen had been murdered I think that was really the turning point in this is they're probably regarded more together around that you're gonna have to do something else because we're dying I put my weight behind the idea of the summer project and we move forward from there we hope to descend into Mississippi this summer upwards of 1000 teachers ministers lawyers and students from all around the country when we announced that we were going to have this summer project and Mississippi went bonkers and they started forming the League of white racists whatever they call themselves right you got editorials in the national paper you know attacking us as wanting to start another Civil War because in one sense is you can say is we were actually in a war this really strategic things said that one camp was on all except in terms of ideas and commitment and wilbear and that was another camp that was on and the organizers began recruiting volunteers the initial recruitment was done through the contacts that al Lowenstein had at both Yale and Stanford and so that happened in the spring of 1964 across the college campuses the recruitment the screening and beginning of the volunteers to come down so we felt that you got the it will be called the children of the Constitution which were the white kids to come in to bring more attention as people don't be concerned about their children our recruited students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison this kind of thing and I was in touch with some college chaplains so I always felt like do they really realize what we're asking them to do but basically we're asking them to come and die with us because we were going to have a showdown we were going to bring everything to a head that we could in freedom someone these young people believed in democracy and I think that they were volunteering because they were like two Americans and what they were saying is I'm here to right wrong that's being done to this country and democracy thing they saw these people suffer while people suffering I mean just this is a basic right the right to vote I think a lot of people didn't understand this and through the National Council of Churches organizers set up training sessions at what was thin Weston college for women in Oxford Ohio very little of it was actually classroom people sat out on the grass around you know in the shade of a tree and sat in a circle and talked as it was both to get to know the volunteers to get a sense of who they were and what they were about and let them get a sense of of us to talk about specific programs that were going on in different parts of the state there was a good deal of role-playing and discussion about what they might face in the state when they when they came to the state a minister from Iowa and summer volunteer Rams barber stayed with a local family in Canton they were sticking their necks out you know I mean the people who who housed us the white folks knew who was doing it the police rode by and knew where you stayed and who was keeping you and all that sort of thing so it was dangerous for them but the main message was just being in Mississippi being part of the black community if you just go and you actually figure out how you can just be a person who is living in this family in this black community and getting to know the people that you are living with because with you comes the country and the country will see through your eyes and so all you have to do is be there and survive and they meant survive in the Ohio training sessions organizers emphasize the risks we have to make sure we say to everyone and be very specific and clear and that is if you come into Mississippi you must know that you should be prepared to be beaten to go to jail and to be killed and if you're not prepared for all three of those we suggest that you go back home and do whatever you can to aid an assistant movement from them President Johnson has ordered 200 Marines and eight helicopters to join in the search for three civil rights workers in Mississippi in the first days of the Mississippi summer project three volunteers went missing the whole state is poised around these people who are coming that they think of as invaders and here comes a small party right an advanced guard so to speak one of the volunteers was Mickey Schwerner he and his wife Rita had arrived at Meridian in January James Chaney was a native Mississippian and Andrew Goodman had been in Mississippi just over 24 hours the three headed to Neshoba County to investigate a church that had been burned and to support the parishioners America learned much later that all three had been murdered by local law enforcement but first they searched we had checked every jail every hospital for four or five counties and figured they hadn't been on a car wreck or the hospital would you know admit to having them we didn't believe the jailers although the three were classified as missing Moses was certain they were dead at the Ohio training session he spoke to the volunteers about to leave for Mississippi my concern is that they really understand now in a deeper level what they have gotten themselves into that you live in a country where law enforcement officers will murder students now because they are doing something that they think is contrary to their beliefs about what how this country should run itself my whole point was to make clear to them then those young people who were dead and they should not go down unless they were willing to face that when the word was announced to me I saw a certain degree of disbelief I saw expressions of sadness I saw expressions of indecisiveness and after a song or so was saying then I saw a collectiveness process began to take place where people kind of collected themselves and began to say I'm going on to Mississippi the federal government offered a $25,000 reward for information but FBI director J Edgar Hoover was saying they've been seen in Brazil and all this stuff here they're not really missing this is a ploy and a part of the civil rights workers to get attention you know and all the time they knew where the bodies were at Tougaloo college ed King was receiving information from two women near the scene of the murders they disappeared on Sunday I was told by Thursday that the bodies were in a new dam under construction the search for the missing volunteers continued for 44 days they were finding bodies from the time of June when me the kids were missing chaining them of missing to that period of time as they were finding bodies it also opened up the reality this was not an anomaly this was not an exception this was the step the way in which Mississippi operated and that those black bodies did not have the same value as those two individuals who happen to be from New York I will never forget the night of August the second we were at Mount Olive Baptist Church folk singer Pete Seeger was in the middle of a concert I remember someone whispered to you and he before he song this next song he said I have something to announce to you they have found the bodies then all of a sudden we stood up and we joined hand and we started singing we shall overcome [Music] we would determine them they shall not have died in vain so instead of intimidating us it had the opposite effect on us and I think the deaths of Chaney Goodman Schwerner only accelerated the realities of the terror that Mississippians will live living in my fellow Americans I'm about to sign into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 although Mississippi senators fought against the bill the state watched as President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act on July 2nd we believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty yet millions are being deprived of those blessings not because of their own failures but because of the color of their skin when a Civil Rights Act had been passed you know to me it says finally at least the federal government seemed as if it is listening and looking at the atrocities and things that we as black people have had to go through and still going through and it's going to at least get one of the defeat that's on us and our necks we're gonna get it off where we can breathe catch some fresh air and do something that we've had a right to do but in spite of all his promise the Civil Rights Act did not contain any voting provisions we wanted to keep the focus on voting rights and did not want people celebrating a victory over a lunch counter and a cup of coffee as if we had reached you know the greatest achievement that could happen the Mississippi summer project volunteers dug in they canvass from door to door sit around the kitchen table and talk about what they wanted in life and how they'd like to see their community changed for the better we use school boards as examples in the voter registration drives and people would say well what difference does it make why should I risk my job or risk my life or risk my home being burned just to try to register to vote and then we could talk about not who you might elect from governor or senator but what about the local school board and then we'd move on to and what if there was a difference in the local sheriff but an example that plane I think shows how a little opportunity people had at the grassroots level to work for their own change in their own survival accountant police would follow us and park their car out in the street when we went up to a door people have people out the window and say go away come back some other time I can't talk to when the cops got there so they were effective at intimidating some people so they wouldn't talk to us we had other people who were still afraid to try to register to vote that they'd lose their job but who said I will feed people I'll bring food down to the church three nights a week volunteers faced even bigger challenges in the Delta we had to sleep on the plantations and work just to talk to people because she couldn't you can you know just drive up there they wore overalls it was made into a fare but it really wasn't that every hour we are not being identified say we could we could walk among the people and you know we couldn't they couldn't rigidly identify us and listen they had other ways although the focus was on voter registration Freedom Summer organizers realized other areas needed attention so we brought in issues focus around health care a medical group that came in education went to development of freedom schools in others so we tried to touch on all of those particularly issues that were confronted to people in the state and around the countries medical was the medical committee for Human Rights the few physicians here and I'm when I say the few physicians here dr. Britton and Anderson and myself found that the summer project was coming that was supposed to bring thousands of volunteers to the state of Mississippi we said was my guy who's gonna take care of all these people at least the southern branch the medical community for Human Rights was began in my office that you know week before the summer project began education became freedom schools now the Freedom Schools were were different the citizenship education piece was was basically about preparing people to be able to to read and write to be able to pass that Lewis attests that was given but the freedom school was about academics it was about getting people to understand their duties and their rights it was about getting them to overcome fear as a part of that it was it was more so as I look at it about leadership development freedom schools were a huge success thousands of students both young and old attended but the focus remained on voting rights we had to be people that any time the state intervened and arrested us or did something to us then prima facie the reason is because they are doing voter registration work and through the long hot Mississippi summer voter registration continued I'm here to mobilize support for the freedom Democratic Party and to support the tremendous quest for the right to vote on the part of the people of the state of Mississippi and the midst of bombings murders and many of the other difficult experiences that the Negro people are facing here along with our allies in the white community just as the violence against blacks had its roots in reconstruction so did the Mississippi freedom Democratic Party after the federal troops pulled out in blunts who were Republican were prevented from voting the Mississippi State Legislature became solidly Democratic in 1964 every state senator our representative was a white Democrat a Dixiecrat White's ran under the Democratic banner because it was the Republican president that they fail took their way of life and so you fast forward some hundred plus years you have a state political party that decided that that the political platform of the state party for individuals to participate will be a segregated platform we had attempted to go to precinct caucus meetings a regular Democratic Party and they closed the door I mean in our faces in some cases they see us coming when it was on the two or three of them they get in a vehicle and drive all we wanted to exchange a corrupt system a system or a party that was discriminatory to one that was open and free for all people to come and be a part of so we try to talk about heigen back to and that's to replicate the democratic party process with the exceptions of factors you didn't have to go through all the testing that they had is even have to count the number of peas in the job but had to estimate voter registration during Freedom Summer took a two-fold approach there was the legal registration with the state and there were freedom registrations with the new Democratic Party they demonstrated that people wanted to participate to vote we were attempting to prove that people were able to be involved and could run their own County conventions and that sort of thing and so we had lots of people thousands of people register with the freedom Democratic Party organizers wanted a political system that was free and open to all to open up the state the new Mississippi freedom Democratic nationally the initial idea came from a volunteer Lawrence team suggested that we go to the Democratic convention and not just do things within the state and we decided oh that's crazy but that's a good idea and we begin the process of thinking about challenging the Mississippi State Democratic Party at the national convention every delegate representing Mississippi at that national convention would be white and these Democrats openly and defiantly supported the Republican Party's nominee Barry Goldwater in order to effectively challenge the Mississippi delegation and be seated at the convention everyone in the freedom Democratic Party has to follow exactly the established procedures and bylaws of the National Democratic Party we were developing the mfdp Mississippi freedom Democratic Party and so the local people learned and we followed the rules of the state on how to organize a party and a delegation to a national convention we had hundreds of these local precinct meetings around the state then had to move to a County meeting then to a congressional district the last step was the state convention they convened on August 6 at the Masonic Temple in Jackson they elected 68 delegates to the Democratic National Convention the delegates who came through were gonna be people who could stand up would not be afraid in the kind of intense scrutiny and you know the political atmosphere of a convention that they were going to be people who could look you straight in the eye and say what they thought so we were excited because they had violated all of the rules and we had followed all of the rules and we're going into an annex a parallel to the lead-up and state convention organizers were also working outside of Mississippi we had pledges of support from Michigan to New England to California where the people had said we want to support the Mississippi fight when we got to the convention some people thought our cause was so pure that we would win totally and who was almost like a guarantee that we were gonna receive but other forces were at work Lyndon Johnson who had become president after John Kennedy was assassinated wanted to receive this official nomination at a non-contentious convention Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota was the frontrunner for Vice President to get the the price presidency he would have to bring a resolution to the freedom Democratic Party's challenge right he would have to figure out how to resolve that so it didn't split the party apart some in the traditional Democratic Party worked to erode the support their challengers had gathered the freedom Democrats first step was to present their case to the credentials committee we expected to lose at the credentials committee but that what we would then force was a vote and open vote at the convention itself and get a Minority Report and we had the votes to do that and that would have met a discussion on national television of racism at the heart of American political institutions in 1964 all aspects of the convention were televised Fannie Lou Hamer was one of the freedom Democrats who was scheduled to speak in front of the credentials committee when she got ready to testify Johnson went on national TV to obliterate her testimony but they replayed it that night and flooded the convention with telegrams testimony really moved people [Music] without telephone capital because I live daily because we want to live it's a human being in America and you got the world seeing this on TV you got to do something that so President Johnson's people offered a compromise the Mississippi freedom Democratic Party could attend the convention but not vote the delegation rejected this what we wanted was a traditional political settlement that you would split the votes and the seats between two rival parties you didn't want to send any of them home but if they only had half a vote then you could add 50 new people from a rival delegation and let them be part of it although this compromise was presidented the White House rejected this offer and Johnson didn't want the challenge to reach the floor of the convention Humphrey knew the consequences of continuing discord Humphrey outlined that the president has said he understands the South if we hold through the election the white South is going to become solidly Republican because of what you people in the mfdp are doing moreover if he became vice president Humphrey would bring the disenfranchised people better medical care and if we elect Johnson will get socialized medicine and we will get better and welfare we will get better education in the schools we'll work to support labor unions which the south needs we will do better things for senior citizens Social Security will be improved and if you understand all of that you may not understand what a terrible war we're having in Vietnam and the peace of the world is at stake but the freedom delegates still thought they should be seated when Humphrey refused mrs. Hamer spoke directly to him she said senator Humphrey if you take this job this way with this kind of compromise you will never be able to do anything for world peace for education for old Americans you will never be able senator Humphrey I'm gonna have to pray to Jesus for you he would not meet with her after that finally on Wednesday five full days after arriving in Atlantic City some of the freedom Democrats were called to a meeting at Humphreys hotel they were told to accept a compromise the regular Democratic delegates will be required to pledge support for President Johnson there will be new rules guaranteeing blacks participation for future conventions Aaron Henry and Ed King would be seated as at-large delegates the rest of the Mississippi freedom Democratic Party could attend but not vote ed King offered to give up his seat so mrs. Hamer could be seated instead and then we were told absolutely no because mrs. Hamer cannot be in this that's really not as we saw it a compromise and then on top of that they wanted to name the two people that was to be seated so that's kind of like saying turn over to us all of that which you have and we will examine it and tell you which of it is legitimate and to me that was a huge slap in the face the president was naming four black Mississippians who their leaders would be and even Aaron said that's too much like the plantation everybody know just like we know the Democratic Party did not follow its own rules and processes to get people to this point and we went exactly according to the process we still have been showed that we say pushed to the curb others thought to cease was show progress the freedom Democrats meeting with Humphrey said that the entire delegation had to decide on this latest offer about that time one of Humphreys aides came in and said the television has just announced that the mfdp has accepted this all the TV cameras outside because unbeknownst to us the credentials committee has also agreed to this so they had worked out this deal the credentials committee was going to announce it and then we were going to announce it right so that didn't happen what we did instead was a protest after the fact the entire delegation met at Union Baptist Church the delegation said no and they said it with pride and it was a powerful decision they would not play by the ordinary rules if the ordinary rules meant something as conniving and twisted as that that Wednesday evening the Mississippi freedom Democratic convention the white regular Democrats had already gone home in their seats had been removed the freedom Democrats watched as Lyndon Johnson was nominated by acclamation their voices were never heard the next day they went home seeing some of the accomplishments that was made you felt good about that but at the same time we knew that the things that we stood for the things that we were fighting for that fight still had to continue we still hadn't resolved the problem of human being being considered human enforced the nation to face the fact that that african-americans in Mississippi were not being treated with equal protection under the law that is to be afforded to all citizens it changed the course of history not only for Mississippi not only for the south but for the nation with even the Democratic governor voting Republican Mississippi party politics shifted away from its solidly Democratic base the very notion that African Americans are equal to whites in this state is something that many whites could not they could not take and so we seen from that point a mass exodus of whites in Mississippi leaving the Democratic Party caught to the Republican Party but the freedom Democrats who had been rebuffed by President Johnson actually campaign for him in his run against Republican Barry Goldwater from that moment on here and in other southern states there was an effort to get a new black leadership from an upper-middle class group who could play by traditional rules Humphrey came in with the war on poverty and openly saying that that would be a way to build a new interracial Democratic Party but it still wasn't egalitarian whoever the black leaders were that emerged would have to be acceptable in the months following Freedom Summer black voter registration remained low six point seven percent of the eligible under the Fifteenth Amendment eligible African American population in Mississippi was registered to vote which was even compared to other southern states was remarkably then on August 6 1965 President Lyndon Johnson signed another piece of landmark legislation the Voting Rights Act we then began to see a tremendous increase in participation of African Americans in the electoral process they wanted to have a voice that in the democracy public policies developed and and determined at the polling place Robert chin saw the impact in Canton he hey fellow registrar's to come in they set up office down on peach Creek and man we get folks registered we get thousands no folks we're thrilled in Madison County there year by 1968 the next presidential election close to 60% of Mississippi African Americans were registered which was the highest in the region but what was not accounted for was this think our redistricting the largely black Mississippi Delta had long been the second congressional district when the Voting Rights Act became law Mississippi read through the boundary lines so that the black population fell into four separate congressional districts essence they nullified that which the Voting Rights Act was supposed to have given us divided in the Delta area of between four different congressional districts made sure that black people in Mississippi would not be able to elect a representative of their choosing or if voters did he like the black official his authority would be benig aided by the majority whites so it's like you celebrate this victory and you won and what is happening to you later you find out but you've been tricked sidestepped again it's a state senator Henry Kirksey 14 years in nine trips to the United States Supreme Court to get more equitable district lines strong well I feel this is a great step this will open the door up for other people of my race and I think this is going to change the thinking of some of our people who have been reluctant about using the ballot 1967 marked another voting milestone in Mississippi Robert G Clarke was elected to the Statehouse he was the first black legislator since reconstruction perhaps more significant than than his election to the legislature was that on the municipal level you had a number of African Americans who were elected in that time but it was in in majority black counties and in cities that you really saw the exercise of african-american voting power by the summer of 1968 four years had passed since the Mississippi freedom Democratic Party had challenged at the National Democratic convention we had won a ruling that at the next democratic convention 1968 and forever after you could not exclude any group and mother Sam of 68 that meant women and it meant college students and over the next 30 years had been Hispanics and American Indians or any kind of a subgroup which could prove that they were denied their rights as Americans the Mississippi freedom Democratic Party was once again headed to the National Convention and they were seated at least some the delegates included members from the n-double-a-cp the freedom Democrats as well as Young Democrats it was a loyalist delegation people that identified with the National Democratic Party the 70s most Mississippi schools desegregated William Waller and later William winter were elected governor they were men who were progressive on race and the increased black vote helped put them in office and while there was still a dearth on the statewide level by the middle of the 1970s Mississippi had more black elected officials than any other southern state in our election 2014 coverage Mississippi voters will have to follow new voter ID laws when they go to the polls for their primaries tomorrow we're still fighting 1960 fights voter ID is the one that we're facing of right now every study that's been done shows that it will have a disparate impact on african-americans on poor on the elderly how are you going to do is a dismount I discourage ten or fifteen percent and the whole complexion of any election changes why should we have early voting why should we have same-day registration we have the systems in place you show up you present your information you can rest you and you can vote on the spot that's the free open democracy and today activists are also concerned about the recent Supreme Court changes in the Voting Rights Act they removed the preclearance provision for the old segregationist states essentially the state of Mississippi any other state it really is unfettered in the way in which they change election laws and if we don't do something about those then it's going to be some more sad days in Mississippi and this country has all but evolving demographics also hold potential for change Mississippi in in 20 years is not going to look like Mississippi of today and it's certainly not going to look like Mississippi of 20 years ago older voters people who went to segregated schools tend to vote along racial lines once they leave the electorate they're going to be replaced by voters that are not nearly as conservative as they are the stasis that has persisted through Mississippi politics for a long time may well reach a pretty radical breaking point in the next 10 to 20 years so today is we could figure it out how did you get the students to make that same stand I think their young people have to be at the forefront of combatting the things that discriminate against people they live in this country and they also have to be at the forefront of providing solutions that open this country up to everybody that's here and then what can we do to change the things that have have deprived a lot of Mississippians of the quality of life and the respect the rights that they deserve and look around where you live and if you do that you will find a lot of things that need to be done away with a lot of things that need to be changed for the better if there are organizations that are already working on those see about joining us if there are not organization then look at started but the civil rights veterans aren't resting either the struggle continues and you know there's no you know no stopping place arrest you can retreat for a minute but the struggle goes on for people to brush off their hands and say it's done it's not done it's almost just begun with all of what is going on with all of the things that need to be done as long as I have some strength and energy to do something to make that better I want to be found doing it [Music] you can find out more information about the many aspects of Freedom Summer and take a simple literacy test at our website at mpbonline.org slash in 1964 the real heroes of the movement in Mao pain were the local people still the people lived in the backwoods and stuff like that we still don't know what happened to out of them you know and they had to face this by themselves on the day to day basis so they have the willingness to stand up and go to the polls and to go to Atlantic City I mean took much much more courage than a lot of us who were not from Mississippi many people that we know nothing about we don't talk about that D is so made just to make it possible that you know I could do the little idea you know so I'm always honored by the thought of what they went through [Music]

Channel: Mississippi Public Broadcasting

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Keywords: mpb, mississippi, mississippi public broadcasting, etv, MPBOnline, MPBTV, MPB TV, Missippi, Mississippi PBS, NPR, Television, movements for civil rights, william winter (politician), segregation, desegragation, freedom summer, summer project, african american history, 1964, bob moses, robert p moses, david dennis, dave dennis, hollis watkins, reverend ed king

Id: ZOX36uYgMys

Length: 56min 46sec (3406 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 04 2018