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Freedom Summer: The Savage Season of 1964 That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy [2011, PDF/EPUB, ENG]

by Bruce Watson

(215 ratings)
Book cover
A riveting account of one of the most remarkable episodes in American history.

In his critically acclaimed history Freedom Summer, award- winning author Bruce Watson presents powerful testimony about a crucial episode in the American civil rights movement. During the sweltering summer of 1964, more than seven hundred American college students descended upon segregated, reactionary Mississippi to register black voters and educate black children. On the night of their arrival, the worst fears of a race-torn nation were realized when three young men disappeared, thought to have been murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. Taking readers into the heart of these remarkable months, Freedom Summer shines new light on a critical moment of nascent change in America.

'Recreates the texture of that terrible yet rewarding summer with impressive verisimilitude.' -Washington Post.
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Book details


  • Author : Bruce Watson
  • Publisher : Penguin Books; Reprint edition
  • Published : 05-30-2011
  • Language : English
  • Pages : 392
  • ISBN-10 : 0143119435
  • ISBN-13 : 978-0143119432
  • Reader Reviews : 215 (4.6)
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About the Author


Bruce Watson


Bruce Watson is 'a writer with a most inquiring mind' (Washington Times). From the corners American history to the whims of light in the cosmos and in human culture, his books offer not just narrative but inspiration. His 'biography' of light, though nominated for an L.A. Times Book Prize in science, is not just a science book but a journey through millennia in pursuit of the elusive mysteries of light. His narratives of Freedom Summer and the Sacco and Vanzetti case went beyond familiar stories to discover new facts, new letters, new insights. His brief bios of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert dug up archived moments from their careers while putting them into the context of American comedy. And his book on the 1912 Bread and Roses textile strike remains the only full narrative of that heart-breaking and hopeful moment in time.

When not writing books, Watson writes an online magazine, The Attic, featuring 'true stories for a kinder, cooler America.' www.theattic.space.

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Reader Reviews

J
David H. (Austin)
A book for anyone who believes in justice
Reviewed in the United States on 05-09-2020
This grim relation of the 1964 Mississippi Project to enfranchise African-Americans is straightforward in its depiction of the horrific course of that summer; but it is ultimately hopeful and inspiring. Residing temporarily in Illinois, I was barely in my teens when these events took place, but all I had heard of was the murder of three young men who were murdered by a motley band of sheriffs/deputies, Klansmen, and ne’er do wells. Over the years, reading almost weekly accounts of African-Americans being arrested and mistreated by police, lynched, beaten, and otherwise discriminated against by society in general, I finally realized how difficult it have been just surviving in this by and large inimical polity.

Reading this book was necessary, for me, and the author did not disappoint me. One reviewer complained that the book was “melo-dramatic” (sic). Not so: it is harrowing, frightening, and eye-opening. The Northern college volunteers were met by non-black denizens seemingly from another, darker, era. However, despite some distrust of these students by the black community, the reader will be inspired by the quest to register black voters, to learn of the schools set up for children, most often in appalling settings, beset by arson, drive by shootings, and any number of perilous indignities. The stories of the African-Americans who hosted the students when their own needs were deferred, who worked in offices set up by the Project, who braved the bigots, and who set up their own organizations, are beyond inspiring, heroic, and instructive. Melodramatic is not the word to use here.

Beyond this the author tells the shameful story of the 1964 Democratic presidential convention, where a delegation of mostly African-Americans chosen by the newly enfranchised voters contested the sitting of the official Mississippi delegation. Sad, depressing, and outrageous was the result. He closes with a number of stories about the post-Project careers of prominent actors.

The author has a gift for setting the scene in Mississippi: the heat and humidity, the poverty, the malevolence of many of its citizens. Just remember though, Mississippi has itself come a long way since 1964; however, in 2020, everywhere there are still nooses hanging in trees, the KKK is still with us, African-Americans are disproportionately arrested by police in every part of this country (and too many still die in custody), and sometimes it seems like we’re going backwards, despite the seeming progress. BTW I’m not a bleeding heart Liberal; I’m guilty of being a believer in justice in all cases..
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J
Bill Emblom
A Powerful Reminder of Those Hate-Filled Years
Reviewed in the United States on 07-05-2010
This is a powerful book, and reminds me of the excellent book written a few years ago entitled We Are Not Afraid. If you are a volunteer in any capacity don't ever say you are JUST a volunteer. The fact that you are working without pay aptly illustrates you are dedicated to doing a good job. The individuals involved in this 1964 Freedom Summer program in Mississippi are not widely remembered today for their efforts. That distinction goes to Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. However, these young individuals, many of them college students, who chose to spend their summer helping those who never had others who thought of them as anything worthy of a human being left their positive mark on history in an environment that looked upon them as interlopers to say the least.

Mississippi was filled with domestic terrorists with names such as Rainey, Price, Killen, Roberts, and several others who would stop at nothing, including murder, to preserve their bigoted way of life. Judges and juries were such that justice was a farce in regard to matters regarding civil rights. Even though he masterminded the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, Edgar Ray Killen enjoyed several years of freedom because one of the jurors in his trial stated she could 'never convict a preacher.' You have to wonder why she was on the jury in the first place with that attitude. Several others eventually got off with light sentences several years later with some of them still out and about.

These volunteers literally took their lives in their hands to correct the indignities that were taking place in the police state that was Mississippi. Young people today have a hard time believing that blacks and whites were not allowed to marry, attend school together, eat in the same restaurants, or having to duck down to prevent law officers from seeing mixed races riding in an automobile together.

We have come a long way since those terror-filled years of the 1960s, but we still have a long way to go since bigotry still raises its ugly head when we turn on the news. We need to be vigilant to prevent returning to those days when an individual was judged by the color of their skin rather than by their character.

This is an important book to remind us what others have gone through to achieve the gains that have been made in the area of civil rights. An outstanding DVD you may want to buy on this subject is entitled Murder in Mississippi. It is available here on Amazon..
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J
jo
Loved this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 08-31-2014
Loved this book, really captured the atmosphere of the times and what went on. I knew the story but this is so much more with first hand accounts. Couldn't put it down.
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