MS + MA "Inside/Out: Lessons of Freedom Summer"

Mass Humanities

MS + MAMS + MA is a joint project of the Mississippi Humanities Council and Mass Humanities. We’re bringing together people from our respective states for six interactive, online programs to facilitate conversation and connection. By reflecting on our states’ histories in relationship to each other, this series aims to build understanding and offer new perspectives. At a time when the pandemic has created a greater sense of isolation, we hope to forge connections. Session 2: Inside/Out: Lessons of Freedom SummerJanuary 14, 2021: 6pm-7:30pm Central Time Inside/Out: Lessons of Freedom Summer will explore the Civil Rights Movement from the perspectives of Mississippi organizers and Massachusetts volunteers who took part in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. These civil rights veterans will reflect on their experiences working for racial justice and the crucial relationship between local Mississippians and outside activists. The program will also explore the legacy of this alliance and its lessons for activists today. MS + MA attendees will have the opportunity to take part in small group discussions about how the lessons of Freedom Summer and the Civil Rights Movement help us understand the ongoing struggle for racial justice. Speakers will include Freedom Summer participants, Roy DeBerry, Elaine DeLott Baker, and Charles Cobb, as well as contemporary community organizer Albert Sykes.The program will be moderated by Dr. Daphne Chamberlain, Associate Professor of History, Tougaloo College. Speakers:A native of Holly Springs, Mississippi, Roy DeBerry is the co-founder of the Hill Country Project, which documents the history of the Civil Rights Movement in north Mississippi. He was active as a high school student in the movement during Freedom Summer. Roy earned his Bachelor's degree in Sociology at Brandeis University in 1970 and later earned a Doctorate in Political Science from Brandeis. A retired college administrator, he is the co-author of the recently published book Voices from the Hill Country: The Benton County Civil Rights Movement.Raised in Winthrop, Massachusetts, Elaine DeLott Baker came to Mississippi in 1964 as part of a teaching exchange program with Tougaloo College. She stayed to work on election monitoring and later became a field organizer with Black farmers, creating a model for rural co-operatives. In September, Elaine was added to CORE staff, where she worked in federal programs for the next ten months. Her essay appears in “Deep in Our Hearts: Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement (UGA Press).” Now living in Colorado, she has remained an organizer for rural communities and an education advocate.Charles Cobb was raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. When traveling from Howard University to Houston, Texas he stopped in Mississippi and decided to stay. As a SNCC field secretary, he proposed the creation of Freedom Schools to empower Mississippians to “articulate their own desires, demands, and questions.” Cobb became a journalist, author, and educator. He is the author of, This Non-Violent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible (Duke University Press) and On the Road to Freedom: a Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail (Algonquin Press).Albert Sykes grew up in Jackson Mississippi’s Shady Oaks community, around the corner from where NAACP member and civil rights activist Medgar Evers lived and died. A student of SNCC leader Bob Moses’s Algebra Project, Sykes has worked as the policy and advocacy director of the Young People's Project. He is now the Executive Director of IDEA, the Institute for Democratic Education in America.Moderator:A native of Columbus, Mississippi, Dr. Daphne Chamberlain is associate professor of history and the associate provost and vice president for academic affairs at Tougaloo College. A historian of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Chamberlain was also the founding director of the COFO Civil Rights Education Center at Jackson State University.To register: Click on the green button on the upper-right above to register for the January 14th event. We will release the Zoom link to registrants a few days ahead of the event.Questions? Please contact Molly McMillan, Administrative Assistant, Mississippi Humanities, mmcmillan@mhc.state.ms.us

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MS + MA "Inside/Out: Lessons of Freedom Summer"

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MS + MA "Inside/Out: Lessons of Freedom Summer"

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