The Freedom Summer of 1964

After the failure of Mississippi voter registration drives in 1962, activists converged on the state to register black voters during the 1964 Freedom Summer. That July, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted, officially banning discrimination based on race, sex, religion or national origin. But behind the headline victories racial violence showed no sign of abating. Days after King's triumphant speech in Washington, a bomb in Birmingham killed four little black girls.