This episode includes descriptions of intense violence and the use of a racial slur. A content warning. John: Sometimes i start to get tempted to make really sloppy historical comparisons yet, because that's easy to do. And as we're talking here in 20 20, there's an intense struggle within the democratic party in particular. You know, do you reach toward the middle, or even to the right, to form a coalition with people who you know only kind of sort of agree with you on some things? Or do you push, in the case of the democrats, a more sharply progressive agenda?"
In the summer of 1964, about a thousand young Americans, black and white, came together in Mississippi to place themselves in the path of white supremacist power and violence. They issued a bold pro-democracy challenge to the nation and the Democratic Party.
Produced by John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with John Lewis, Bob Moses, Unita Blackwell, Hollis Watkins, Dorie Ladner, and many others.
The series editor is Loretta Williams. Freedom song recordings courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways. Other music by Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.
Photo: A Freedom Summer worker in Mississippi, 1964. Photo by Steve Schapiro.