This is season four, episode seven in our series on democracy in america. We took apart the radio documentary i made in the nineties and up dated it for this season. Using the interviews that my co producer, kate cavitt, and i corded back then, deep into the twentieth century,. The struggle was still very much on for something resembling a multi racial democracy in the usa. Struggle led by black Americaans and their accomplices of all shades. What did those young people accomplish that summer? And in what they failed to achieve? What hard truths about the united states did they uncover? Yet again, get on bordon? Nobody called it freedom summer until after it
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.