LORAS COLLEGE

“THE POSSIBILITIES OF EDUCATION”: HOW SNCC TRANSFORMED

BLACK IDENTITY THROUGH THE FREEDOM SCHOOLS

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF SOCIAL AND

CULTURAL STUDIES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

BY

JONATHAN P. PEREIRO

DUBUQUE, IOWA

DECEMBER 11th, 2008

 What if we showed what was possible in education? We had already been approaching
this through ‘literacy workshops’ within the context of organizing for voter registration.
And SNCC itself had created a ‘nonviolent high school’ during the 1961 protests in
McComb…But we hadn’t really tackled education as an approach to community
organizing in and out of itself.1

In this reflection concerning the development of the Mississippi Freedom Schools of

1964, Charles Cobb sheds light on one of the primary philosophies of the Student Non-Violent

Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a group at work during the American Civil Rights Movement.

Cobb, a Civil Rights activist and member of SNCC, was instrumental in the transformation of

black identity in the South through education. To activists fighting for freedom and equality in

the 1960s, education and its uses in organizing was ammunition for the fierce battles that took

place.

The summer of 1964 in Mississippi was a momentous occasion for the Civil Rights

Movement. Dubbed Freedom Summer and organized primarily by SNCC, the summer saw a

variety projects installed that attempted to change the power structure of Mississippi. One such

project was the Freedom Schools. Forty-one Freedom Schools opened around Mississippi and

were taught primarily by SNCC volunteers. Often using the shade of trees as classrooms, the

volunteers took on the task of replacing decades of fear and violence with optimism and

organization. Using education, the volunteer teachers looked to change the identity of blacks in

the South.

The Freedom Schools were a highly publicized event during SNCC’s Summer Project.

There were many factors that were necessary for the idea of the Freedom Schools to have been

pushed forward. However, the one critical reason for the implementation of the schools as a

Freedom Summer project was SNCC’s deep-seated emphasis on education that flowered during

1
Charles Cobb, “Organizing the Freedom Schools,” in Freedom is a Constant Struggle: An Anthology of
the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, ed. Susan Ehrenrich (Washington D.C.: Black Belt Press, 1999), 136.
the summer of 1964. To those involved with SNCC from 1960 to the summer of 1964, a major

hurdle was the perceptions of many blacks in the South. The perception that blacks were

subservient to whites was widespread. SNCC members sought to have blacks question their

place in society. However an obstacle that was encountered was the lack of education. Without

the knowledge to apply a questioning attitude, efforts were meaningless. It was a reflection of

this idea that led SNCC to place education at the forefront of community organizing. These

ideals did not solely come from the Freedom Schools; they were inherent within the committee

from its creation.

Scholars over the past half century have created works that offer varying perspectives on

SNCC and its use of education as a primary philosophy. Clayborne Carson provides one such

perspective in his book In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. This source

explores SNCC from its beginning, to times of fiery internal struggles, and ultimately to its

demise. Carson creates an argument that reflects the overall organization. Carson writes,

They [SNCC workers] observed that existing leaders did not initiate the most
significant local struggles; instead, such struggles produced new indigenous
leadership capable of sustaining them. By developing organizing techniques that
made southern blacks more confident of their capacity to overcome oppression,
SNCC workers revived dormant traditions of racial militancy. SNCC’s success in
mobilizing southern black communities encouraged movements elsewhere.2
Within this statement, Carson argues that one of SNCC’s main philosophies is to not have a

highly structured hierarchy. The group wanted to adhere to a grassroots approach to organizing

because they believed that this would influence communities around the nation to mobilize.

Carson continues his argument by saying that it was this basic philosophy that created the

internal struggles that plagued the committee.3 The main dispute was whether or not to develop

an organized and rigid hierarchy. As the years passed, an increasing amount of activists wanted

2
Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1981), 2.
3
Carson, In Struggle, 3.
SNCC to move away from being a group with no central leaders and to create a rigid chain of

command for SNCC. Those calling for individual centered leadership began to win out and

SNCC’s power began to decline.4 In Struggle provides a well thought out overview of the

Mississippi Summer Project and the Freedom Schools. He covers the topic of the Freedom

Schools in his chapter on Freedom Summer. He argues that the objective of the Freedom

Schools was to organize African Americans to achieve social, political, and economic equality.5

Carson also provides dozens of illustrations of SNCC activists utilizing the tool of questioning in

their work. Although failing to tie inquiry back to the groups inherent theme of education,

Carson does succeed in showing how SNCC sought to have Southern blacks question their

society. However, Carson does fail to delve deeply into SNCC’s placement of education at the

forefront of community organizing. The connections between the philosophies embedded in the

Freedom Schools and the theme of education in SNCC in the years prior to 1964 is missing. The

argument within this work looks expand upon these connections as they are crucial to

understanding SNCC’s inner workings and the motivations behind their actions.

In narrowing the historiographical analysis, many perspectives are available that examine

SNCC’s place within Freedom Summer in Mississippi. John Dittmer’s book Local People: The

Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi offers one such perspective. Dittmer’s narrative, as the

title suggests, has its focus on the local, grassroots aspect of the struggle for Civil Rights in

Mississippi. Dittmer goes through the history of the struggles for black equality in the union’s

most racist state from the end of World War II until the late 1960s. Dittmer extensively covered

the topic of Freedom Summer by devoting three chapters to that subject. By providing an in

depth study of the individuals that shaped the movement in Mississippi, Dittmer illustrates his

4
Carson, In Struggle, 306.
5
Carson, In Struggle, 120, 122.
argument of the grassroots movement having played more of a factor within the movement.6 But

while doing this, Dittmer doesn’t totally ignore the events occurring on the national scale; he

makes sure to include these events and explains how these events impacted the individual

activists in Mississippi.7 The only drawback to Dittmer’s work is that he fails to look at how the

activists, both before and during Freedom Summer, looked to change black identity. Specifically,

he is unsuccessful in examining how SNCC used education to promote a positive black identity

in Mississippi. SNCC’s emphasis on education guided their actions during the Civil Rights

Movement. This connection must be examined for a true understanding of the Student

Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Scholars from a variety of specializations have examined the impact of the Mississippi

Freedom Schools on the struggle for equality in the 1960s. Daniel Perlstein is an academic who

provides a focused study of the Freedom Schools in his journal article Teaching Freedom:

SNCC and the Creation of the Mississippi Freedom Schools. Perlstein approaches his writing as

an historian who has devoted much of his career to promoting equal opportunities for schooling.

The article uses Charles Cobb as a springboard into the subject of the Freedom Schools. Cobb

proposed the creation of the Freedom Schools and said that “SNCC’s Freedom Schools would

include academic subjects, a cultural program, and political and social studies. Students would

also work on projects such as a newspaper and a statewide student conference, and participate in

local organizing.”8 According to Perlstein, Cobb believed that it was important for the students

attending the Freedom Schools to receive an education that they were not receiving in

6
John Dittmer, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1994), 432.
7
Dittmer, Local People, 144, 153, 180, 194-195.
8
Daniel Perlstein, "Teaching Freedom: SNCC and the Creation of the Mississippi Freedom Schools,"
History of Education Quaterly 30, no. 3 (1990): 303.
Mississippi’s failing schools. Although placing an emphasis on freedom and equality, the

schools would not overlook the other, more academic subjects. Cobb knew that these other areas

were equally important.9 Perlstein also outlines the Freedom School curriculum that was created

by Noel Day. Throughout the article, Perlstein illustrates a divergence of SNCC activists from

the normal school curriculum of the time period. One such way this was accomplished,

according to Perlstein, was by encouraging active participation and questioning attitudes.10

Although mostly commonplace in today’s schools, this was quite unheard of during the 1960s

and earlier. Perlstein illustrates this by stating, “Florence Howe, who taught in a Jackson

Freedom School, depicts how teachers faced with large numbers of students worked to

encourage active participation and questioning: ‘In your class, your teacher sat with you in a

circle, and soon you got the idea that you could say what you thought and that no-one would

laugh at you or strike you.”11 This kind of teaching was markedly different from the standard

teacher-based teaching philosophy of the time period. It placed the students at the center of the

learning. Perlstein is also able to broach the topic of SNCC’s emphasis on education. He states

that “the creation of the Freedom Schools reflected a deep-rooted faith in education among

Movement activists and black Americans. In the words of a 1963 SNCC report which shaped

the proposal to establish the Freedom Schools, ‘education-facts to use and freedom to use them-

is the basis of democracy.’”12 The author is able to allude to this deep-rooted faith in education

in the statement above, yet he does not fully extrapolate on key issues. The dilemma with

Perlstein’s assessment of SNCC’s emphasis of education is that he fails to give any concrete

evidence of this theme in action in the organization before Freedom Summer to bolster this

9
Perlstein, Teaching Freedom, 303-304.
10
Perlstein, Teaching Freedom, 312.
11
Perlstein, Teaching Freedom, 317.
12
Perlstein, Teaching Freedom, 326.
claim. He also fails to accurately illustrate how it was within the Freedom Schools that SNCC’s

emphasis on education flowered into the realm of community organizing. A thoughtful

examination of these missing portions is essential for a meaningful understanding of SNCC as an

organization.

In taking a step back and looking at the historiography of the Civil Rights Movement as a

whole, there is a heated debate occurring over the past forty years between scholars. This

dialogue is outlined in the book Debating the Civil Rights Movement 1945-1968. In this book

two authors, Steven Lawson and Charles Payne, offer essays that illustrate the two stances on the

civil rights movement. Lawson argues that the Civil Rights Movement should be viewed from a

“top down” approach. He states that, “Throughout the history of the Civil Rights struggle, the

national state played a key role in determining its outcome…Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy,

and Johnson flexed their federal muscles at key moments to smash southern white resistance to

court-ordered desegregation.”13 Payne expands on the other side of this historiographical

argument in his essay Debating the Civil Rights Movement: The View From the Trenches.

Within his essay, Payne challenges Lawson by arguing that the most important Civil Rights

actions were occurring on grassroots levels. He states that, “It is not a history that can be

comprehended in terms of a couple of dominant figures or any one form of politic, and it is not at

all clear that it can be well understood in terms of ‘civil rights.’”14 Payne contends that it was not

the Presidents, or even the dominant Civil Rights leaders that made the biggest difference. It was

the local groups who toiled tirelessly that made the most difference. From the perspective of this

13
Steven Lawson, “Debating the Civil Rights Movement: The View from the Nation,” in Debating the
Civil Rights Movement: 1945-1968, by Charles Payne and Steven Lawson, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Rowman and
Littlefield Publishing, 2006), 3.
14
Charles Payne, “Debating the Civil Rights Movement: The View from the Trenches ,” in Debating the
Civil Rights Movement: 1945-1968, by Charles Payne and Steven Lawson, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Rowman and
Littlefield Publishing, 2006), 108.
general Civil Rights Movement historiographical dialogue, SNCC’s attempts to use education as

a community organizing tool sets this argument squarely with Charles Payne’s argument that the

smaller local movements were the most important to the struggle for Civil Rights. One big

premise behind the Freedom Schools was to educate children to work to change the attitudes of

blacks in the South. This work at the local levels would multiply exponentially as those who

benefitted from the knowledge passed to them would strive toward the goal of equality as well.

This was the power of the grass-roots movement.

Interestingly, in another historiographical essay of Steven Lawson entitled Freedom

Then, Freedom Now: The Historiography of the Civil Rights Movement, the topic of the

philosophy of the Freedom Schools finds a home. This essay looks to examine all the

historiography surrounding the Civil Rights Movement and Lawson rightly includes a section

concerning the importance of the grassroots movements which looks like Charles Payne’s

argument illustrated previously. Lawson states,

By aiming their sights at the grassroots level, where detailed examination of the
culture of black communities is possible, scholars can address not only the legacy
of black radicalism but also the larger and equally critical issue of whether the
freedom movement of the 1950s and 1960s continued a previous protest tradition
or started a new one...But the distinguishing feature of the freedom struggle
emerging was the use of direct action techniques in villages, towns, and cities
throughout the south. New organizations or rejuvenated chapters of old ones
guided these assaults on the racial status quo in their local areas, apparently
signaling a distinct break with the past.15
The topic of the Freedom Schools and their defining philosophies fits well within this

explanation. The Freedom Schools aimed to end inequality by working to change the attitudes of

Southern blacks. SNCC was an example of an organization attempting to change the status quo

and the organization’s emphasis on education was a means to this end.

15
Steven Lawson, “Freedom Then, Freedom Now” in Civil Rights Crossroads: Nation, Community, and
the Black Freedom Struggle (Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press, 2003), 49.
 The Freedom Schools were essential to the success of Freedom Summer. Of course, the

teaching of those who had no other means of gaining knowledge was a goal of the Freedom

Schools. Yet there was a deep-rooted emphasis on education that flowered during the summer of

1964. To the activists in SNCC, the questioning of society by individuals was extremely

important; however without the knowledge to apply this questioning attitude, efforts were

meaningless. These ideals did not solely come from the Freedom Schools. Within the years

leading up to Freedom Summer, education was a major premise in the actions of the

organization. It took SNCC some time, but by the Summer Project SNCC had placed education

at the forefront of their actions. SNCC modified their tactic of community organizing by heavily

incorporating education and they used this to in their work to change the attitudes of Southern

blacks. It was through the Freedom Schools that education came to the forefront of community

organizing. This is established by exploring how the ideal of education was underlying in

SNCC’s early years, by examining the programs that the organization created for students that

were displaced from their opportunities for education, and by analyzing how the theme of

education came to the forefront in SNCC within the Summer Project’s Freedom Schools. These

three areas, when looked at holistically, form the basis for the emergence of a different type of

community organizing; one that involved the questioning of 1964 society.

The Importance of Education in SNCC’s Early Years: 1960-1963

The men and women who struggled for freedom within SNCC during the early years of

the Civil Rights Movement shared many characteristics. They were all fiercely loyal to the cause

of freedom and to their brothers and sisters. All the activists persevered for the causes of

equality and justice. Every activist was deeply committed to the struggle. Yet for all these well-
documented similarities, education is one major principle that was shared by many in SNCC that

is often overlooked. Education was an ideal that permeated many of the actions of the Student

Non-violent Coordinating Committee. Education manifested itself as a questioning attitude and

it was this attitude which influenced the Mississippi Freedom Schools. To gain an accurate

understanding of SNCC’s emphasis on education, it is necessary to examine instances where

education was stressed by SNCC activists and to look at examples when activists in the field

wrestled with the prevailing attitudes of Southern blacks. The attitude of many Southern blacks

was lacking in intellectual curiosity and held indifference to what could be. SNCC believed that

education was one way to cultivate a positive identity for Southern blacks.

Education was a central focus in many of SNCC’s operations. There are a variety of

instances where this ideal is mentioned as a focal point for actions taken by the organization. In

a letter from Betty Garman to Ralph Rappaport, both Northern coordinators of SNCC, Garman

states that, “It is to be responsible to the Northern Coordinator (and through that the SNCC exec

[sic]) for running and carrying out a three-pronged program—fund-raising, education, and

recruitment.”16 This statement by Garman shows that education was just as important to SNCC

executives as fund-raising and recruitment, two areas that were undoubtedly essential for the

continuation of SNCC. Combining these three areas shows the stress that was placed on

education. This idea is continued in a SNCC text entitled “Proposal for Scholarship Program.”

The document states, “The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee realizes the importance

of both practical training and formal education in the total learning experience of those who must

direct and carry out the programs for a better society in the South.”17 It is apparent that the
16
Betty Garman to Ralph Rappaport, 23 September 1961, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Papers 1959-1972 (Sanford, NC: Microfilming Corporation of America, 1981) microfilm,A:IX:5, 0057.
[Hereafter cited The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, Subgroup: series: file, frame.]
17
“SNCC Proposal for Scholarship Program,” [1960], The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Papers, A:X:5, 0038.
education of activists was essential for the success of the movement in the South. Without both

formal and informal education, the movement would have stalled. This fact is also elaborated

within a letter written by Howard Zinn, an historian and activist with extensive knowledge of

SNCC. Zinn writes,

We must also understand that these young people in the field are sacrificing important
elements of education which are available in a formal academic setting: intensive
reading, exchanges of information and opinions with others of the same intellectual
interests, consultation with teachers and others having special knowledge. . . But to be
involved in social action, without utilizing its stimulation, is to leave unrealized a great
potential, for the individual and for society.18
Once again, the importance of education is emphasized and is even stated to be a necessity for an

equal society. It also seems as though Zinn places a special importance on the tool of

questioning because of the examples provides in the excerpt. Education was a strong force in the

actions of SNCC. It was with this theme that SNCC began to wage their battle against the norms

of Southern culture.

One major area of Southern society that SNCC was looking to combat was the effects of

formal education on Southern blacks. Instead of benefitting from education, blacks who

attended the public schools in the South were often placed at a disadvantage. In Liz Fusco’s

essay, “To Blur the Focus of What You Came Here to Know,” this point is expanded upon. She

writes,

Jerome Smith pointed to a brick school in New Orleans once and said to me, “That’s
where they crippled me.” It seems almost proportional here in Mississippi that the longer
time a person spends in one of these schools the more rigid, less creative, more cowed he
is. We find very few of the “educated” Mississippi Negroes rebelling. Because what
they learn in their schools is to be alert to what the authority (teacher) wants. . . . so you
learn not to think, you learn no [sic] to ask a question that you don’t already know the
answer to or that you’re not sure she [teacher] knows the answer to.19

18
Howard Zinn to Ella Baker, Bob Moses, Jim Forman, John Lewis, “Proposed Educational Programs,”
n.d., The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:X:14, 0223.
19
Liz Fusco, “To Blur the Focus of What You Came Here to Know,” [1965], The Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee Papers, A:VIII:122, 0047.
This excerpt points out two issues that were of importance to SNCC. The first is that the school

system in Mississippi “cripples” the students that they are supposed to teach. Activists in SNCC

began to see this as a common problem in Southern schools. It was from this type of education

that a positive black identity was stifled. The second issue deals with the fact that the longer a

student was exposed to the educational system in Mississippi, the more likely student would not

join the movement. This directly relates to one of SNCC’s main tactics. A questioning attitude

was central to refuting the societal norms in the South. Students who were exposed to the

handicapping education that was consistent in black schools were stripped of their ability to

question the society they lived in. This point is reflected in Charlie Cobb’s “Prospectus for a

Summer Freedom School.” Cobb writes, “The result of this education is that it teaches people in

this country to accept things as they are.”20 Cobb and the rest of SNCC knew the dangers of

keeping the education of black youths as it was, yet the organization did not quite know how to

use their ideal of education as a solution to this problem. Other SNCC activists saw similar

problems with the perceptions of Southern blacks.

Many SNCC activists were witness to attitudes that reflected the norms of the Southern

states. The perception that blacks were inferior to whites was rampant in the South and SNCC

activists strove to challenge this false perception. However, many blacks lacked the skills

needed to question this norm. This lack of questioning was one area that SNCC activists strove

to change with education. Charles Sherrod relates a first-hand account of this attitude in his

recounting of his experiences in Albany, Georgia in 1961. He wrote his account a year later.

Sherrod states,

The first obstacle to remove was the mental block in the minds of those who wanted to
move but were unable for fear…We explained to them that we had stopped school
20
Charles Cobb, “Prospectus for a Summer Freedom School Program,” December 1963, Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:XV:165, 0075.
 because we felt compelled to do so since so many of us were in chains. We explained
further that there were worse chains than jail and prison. We referred to the system that
imprisons men’s minds and robs them of creativity. We mocked the system that teaches
men to be good Negroes instead of good men.21
SNCC was looking to battle and change the attitudes illustrated in this account. As shown by

Sherrod, the most telling orthodox that was fought was the system that tought black men to

become “good negroes” instead of good men. Charles Cobb’s “Prospectus for a Summer

Freedom School,” written in 1963, furthers examines this problem of blacks in the South lacking

the ability to “think”, especially within the Mississippi schools.

Mississippi’s impoverished educational system is also burdened with virtually a complete

absence of academic freedom, and students are forced to live in an environment that it
geared to squashing intellectual curiosity, and different thinking. University of
Mississippi professor James Silver, in a recent speech, talked of ‘social paralysis…where
non-conformity is forbidden.’…Negro teachers have been fired for saying the wrong
thing. The state of Mississippi destroys ‘smart n----s’ and its classrooms remain
intellectual waste lands.22
With this condemnation of the Mississippi school system, Cobb is pointing to a lack of a

questioning as a norm for students. He, like other SNCC activists, believed that education

should promote critical thinking, or questioning, and this attribute would aid blacks of the South

in seeing and striving to change the problems of society. As Sherrod continues in the previous

document, the ammunition that fueled this battle was often education. He writes, “We gave an

account of the many resistances to injustice in the courts, in employment, registration, and

voting. The people knew that such evils existed but when we pointed them out time and time

again and emphasized the need for concerted action against them, the people began to think.”23

Here, Sherrod is explaining the point of success that all SNCC activists were striving for; the

moment where people began to “think.”

21
Interview with Charles Sherrod, in The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches,
and First-Hand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle, Clayborne Carson, David J. Garrow, Gerald Gill, and
Vincent Harding (New York: Viking Press, 1991), 139.
22
Charles Cobb, “Prospectus for a Summer Freedom School Program,” December 1963, Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:XV:165, 0075.
23
Sherrod, The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader, 139.
 In order for SNCC activists to work toward their overall goals for the Civil Rights

Movement, the organization made sure that they had clear and focused ideals. Along with

grassroots organization, non-violence, and civil disobedience, the SNCC activists identified

education as a value that deserved emphasis. From the early days of the organization, education

was a strong ideal and helped to focus many of its actions. The importance placed on education

was evident in an examination of correspondence between SNCC members and documents that

SNCC created. It was within these documents that the groundwork for education as a valued

ideal was laid. This was SNCC’s first step toward its ultimate goal of using education in the

forefront of community organizing.

Manifestations of the Ideal of Education

The underlying philosophies of education and questioning as a tool of social change were

apparent in SNCC’s approach before the summer of 1964. This blossoming pedagogy is

definitely apparent when examining how the values of education were applied in SNCC before

the creation of the Freedom Schools. In other words, how SNCC acted on the philosophies they

placed importance on illustrate the importance placed on education. One such area that

education and questioning is blindingly apparent is with students who were forced to forfeit

traditional classroom settings. SNCC’s belief in education led to the organization installing

programs in which to aid these students. The implementation and successes of these programs

were apparent and illustrate the value placed on education by SNCC.

Sacrifices were made by all those involved with the Civil Rights movement, and for

some, the sacrificing of their own education was needed. Many students that were affiliated with

SNCC were either forced out of traditional schooling institutions, or they sacrificed formal
schooling for field work with SNCC. Hundreds of instances such as this were reported and

documented. All of these cases can be separated into two areas. The first area involves cases

that occurred within the realm of secondary level students. In his book SNCC: The New

Abolitionists, Howard Zinn illustrates an example of this sacrifice at the high school level that

occurred in October of 1961. Zinn writes,

Over a hundred high school students in McComb, in response to their principal’s demand
that they pledge not to participate in demonstrations, stayed out of school. The principal
gave them an ultimatum; return to school by 3:00 pm on Oct. 16th [three days later] or be
expelled. At a quarter of three on that day, 103 students returned to school, turned in
their books, and walked out.24
Although the point that these students were attempting to further was meaningful, the fact still

remained that these students had no way to continue their formal education because they made

the decision to follow their beliefs and fight for equality and justice. Another example of high

school students sacrificing their education for the cause is illustrated within Eric R. Burner’s

biography of Bob Moses. In the book, Burner states that “Moses, returning to McComb in early

October 1961 after Lee’s death, learned that the principal of the local black high school had

refused to readmit two other students involved in the Greyhound bus station sit-in.”25 This is

another example of high school age students sacrificing their education, a major necessity for

their lives, for freedom. Although there were many more examples of high school age students

forgoing education for the cause, there was also the problem of college students being forced

from the classroom and into the struggle headlong.

The other group that was similarly effected was post-secondary students. Many of these

young adults sacrificed their continued education, either willfully or otherwise, to strive for

equality. SNCC was primarily made up of students who questioned the world they lived in.

Howard Zinn, SNCC, The New Abolitionists (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1965), 75-76.
24

Eric R. Burner, And Gently He Shall Lead Them: Robert Parris Moses and Civil Rights in Mississippi
25

(New York: New York University Press, 1994), 59.

They were not looking for the same answers that forced blacks into subservient positions, but for

answers that included equality and justice. But what happens when the pursuit of this goal

conflicts with the formal education that influenced this questioning attitude? One such example

that was documented by SNCC concerned Joe Louis Reed, a student at Alabama State College.

Reed illustrates his troubles in a letter addressed to the Chairmen of SNCC on June 29th of 1960.

He writes,

On February 25, 1960, I took part with thirty-four other students from the Alabama State
College in a “sit-in” demonstration…On March 2, Governor John Patterson
recommended to the State Board of Education that nine of the thirty-five be expelled and
twenty be put on probation…During the last month of school, the President of the college
informed me that I would not be permitted to re-enter in that institution to complete my
education.26
The direct cause of Reed’s expulsion from school was his decision to act on what his beliefs

were and participate in a demonstration in the Montgomery Courthouse snack-bar. Having

nowhere else to turn, he writes a letter to SNCC looking for hope. J.D. Detwyler, a college

student in New York, was in much the same predicament. In his letter to Jane Stembridge,

SNCC secretary, Detwyler affirms that he was expelled in response to his endorsement of SNCC

and that he “is in desperate need of assistance to continue my education. With this expulsion, I

do not have the means to fund myself in school.”27 There were hundreds of cases similar to

Reed’s and Detwyler’s.28 Students from many different areas made the decision to publicly

support the fight for freedom and were removed, whether voluntarily or not, from essential

learning environments.

26
Joe Louis Reed to SNCC Chairman [Marion Barry], 8 July 1960, The Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee Papers, A:X:15, 0237.
27
J.D. Detwyler to Jane Stembridge [SNCC Secretary], 4 June 1960, The Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee Papers, A:X:15, 0104.
28
For other examples look at: The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:X:15, 0127;
A:X:15, 0134; A:X:15, 0098.
 All of these students looked to SNCC for help. As previously stated, one of SNCC’s

primary goals was to endorse the education of blacks in order to promote a questioning attitude

towards the inequalities present within the Southern culture of the time. SNCC also refused to

let students, who were practicing the questioning attitude that was advocated, be punished. This

loss of a formal education was not acceptable to SNCC. In keeping with this emphasis, SNCC

provided solutions to these problems that included the creation of a alternative high school

setting and the creation of a scholarship program.

The dilemma of having high school age students not receiving their education was not

acceptable to SNCC. In response to this, SNCC created Nonviolent High for the students of

McComb in October of 1961. Nonviolent High was created to give the one hundred or so

students that were asked to leave their high school an environment that was as close to a

traditional learning setting as possible. Bob Moses was one of the architects of Nonviolent High

and was instrumental in providing these children with essential instruction. Moses elaborates on

the creation of this program while recalling his early days in the Civil Rights struggle. He

writes,

We finally decided to set up make-shift classes for them. We opened up Nonviolent High
in McComb. That was pretty funny. We had about fifty to seventy-five kids in a large
room trying to break them down with the elements of algebra and geometry, a little
English, and even a little French, a little history, I think Deon taught physics and
chemistry, and [Charles] McDew took charge of history, and I did something with
math…And we carried on our classes for two weeks, until finally we got word from
Campbell College in Jackson that they would accept them all and that they would make
provisions for them immediately.29
Moses’ explanation of Nonviolent High not only illustrates the creation of the solution to issue of

students not able to receive education, but it also demonstrates the influence of education on

SNCC. Howard Zinn also discusses the topic of Nonviolent High in The New Abolitionists. He

Robert Moses, “In Mississippi,” in The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and
29

First-Hand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle, Clayborne Carson, David J. Garrow, Gerald Gill, and
Vincent Harding (New York: Viking Press, 1991), 175.
states, “Nonviolent High opened up in Pike county to take care of their educating…Moses placed

a great deal of faith in these students for the future.”30 Zinn illustrates the relationship between

education and the movement, and the importance that SNCC placed on education. Nonviolent

High served to alleviate the problem of education to high school students.

Along with the Nonviolent High program for high school students in McComb, SNCC

also provided extensive programs for college students to continue their education. These

programs manifested themselves in the form of a scholarship program. The idea for the

implementation of this scholarship program is elaborated in many sources. In SNCC’s “Proposal

for Scholarship Program,” written circa 1960, the problem of students losing their opportunities

for formal education is expanded and a solution is outlined. The document states,

SNCC feels responsible in helping to provide and insure educational opportunities for
those who have committed themselves actively to civil rights work in the South. A
program is needed, therefore, that would provide encouragement and financial assistance
to help such students take advantage of college opportunities.31
This excerpt serves to illustrate the fact that SNCC did realize that programs were needed in

order to aid students that were not able to attend college. The selected portion also points to the

value SNCC placed on education with the statement that college provides advantageous

opportunities to the future of these students. Also stated within the proposal is a statement of

structure for the scholarship program. The document states,

IV. The Scholarship Program

The program will be directed towards southern Negro students, SNCC staff members,
and the placement of Negro students in newly desegregated colleges…First, the program
should recruit or identify those students in local protest movements in the South, who
should be attending college. Secondly, a comprehensive counseling and referral program
would provide information on opportunities for college admission and financial aid…
Thirdly, a fund would provide scholarships for these students who, because of their poor
academic training and cultural deprivation, are not able to compete for scholarship aid.32

30
Zinn, SNCC: The New Abolitionists, 75,77.
31
“SNCC Proposal for Scholarship Program,” [1960], The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Papers, A:X:5, 0038.
This statement of structure serves to show how the scholarship program was implemented. An

understanding of this aids in the understanding of the focus of this scholarship program. The

beginnings of this scholarship program are also illustrated in a letter written by Howard Zinn

entitled “Proposed Educational Programs.” This letter was addressed to the high level

administrators of SNCC including Bob Moses, Jim Forman, John Lewis, and Ella Baker. Zinn

examines the problem facing college students, with a focus on SNCC field workers, and states a

need for this scholarship program to off-set these issues. Zinn writes,

We are proposing, for field workers in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee,
a program that is specifically designed for civil rights activists, with the same broad goals
of combining education and social concern…[The plan is] to set up an educational
system for the several hundred full-time field workers in the Southern civil rights
movement, which will continue their educational development.33
From this letter, Zinn is playing on the ideals of education in order to institute a scholarship

program for field workers in SNCC. To Zinn, this program would “stimulate intellectual

growth” in order to encourage the questioning ideal that is an undercurrent of all SNCC

proceedings. This scholarship program was put into place and was very successful for

Southerners who wanted to grow intellectually.

The success of the scholarship programs was documented very heavily within the SNCC

files. An example of a success story for the scholarship program was J.D. Detwyler, the student

examined previously who was struggling because of his expulsion from college for his

association with SNCC. After his letter to Jane Stembridge, a SNCC official replied with

information pertaining to the scholarship program. Detwyler answered back in a letter on June

29th of 1960 stating that “I received the application and have filled all the information that was

necessary. Also, I was contacted by the National Scholarship Service and Fund for Negro
32
“SNCC Proposal for Scholarship Program,” [1960], The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Papers, A:X:5, 0038.
33
Howard Zinn to Ella Baker, Bob Moses, Jim Forman, John Lewis, “Proposed Educational Programs”
n.d., The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:X:14, 0223.
Students…I do appreciate your help in trying to help relocate me so that I can finish my

education.”34 After more letters were passed between the two parties, Jane Stembridge wrote to

Detwyler in August. She states,

It is our hope now that the accepted application which you await will be forthcoming
either from Central State College or Indiana University. Please notify us we you hear
[sic]. In the meantime, if there is anything at all which we can do, please do not hesitate
to write us. We wish that our budget was such that we could help all students who have
been expelled or who are not able to continue their education at present; however, we,
too, are struggling financially and are dependent on the assistance of supporting groups
all over America.35
Detwyler’s experience provides just one example of a student who had success because of the

scholarship program instituted by SNCC administrators. SNCC’s creation of the program, which

stemmed from SNCC reliance on education, created success for many students. It is proven that

there were many more students impacted by this program because of a memo that was repeated

within the SNCC papers. Addressed “Dear Freedom Fighter”, this memo provides instructions

for students who wish to apply for the scholarship program. This memo seems to be the standard

response for any questions concerning the scholarship program. For a standard response to be

created, there must have a high interest in the scholarship program, which in turn points to the

success of the program.36

To the students involved in the movement with SNCC, the forfeit of formal education

was one of the easier sacrifices. SNCC activists did not share in their views. To SNCC, formal

education was as important to the movement as funding and recruitment. The loss of these

students’ opportunity for a formal education was unacceptable to the SNCC members who had

placed such a high value on education. In order to alleviate this, SNCC installed a variety of
34
J.D. Detwyler to SNCC Chairman, 29 June 1960, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Papers, A:X:15, 0240.
35
Jane Stembridge to J.D. Detwyler, 17 August 1960, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Papers, A:X:15 0242.
36
“Dear Freedom Fighter,” memo, n.d., The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:X:15,
0248,A:X:15 0265, A:X:15 0279.
programs that were successful in providing students with a formal education. This was SNCC’s

next step in its development of education into its philosophies for community organizing. The

next step that the organization took thrust education to the forefront of SNCC action.

Education as a Main Tenet of Community Organizing

The planning for Freedom Summer began long before the summer of 1964. The main

goals for the three month long program were to fight for integration and to battle institutional

racism by attempting to register as many black voters as possible. The summer of 1964 was a

massive juncture for SNCC for both the people at work in SNCC and for the organization itself.

It was within the Summer Project that the fight for freedom was redefined by SNCC by clearly

focusing their actions. This was also true for SNCC’s ideal of education. It was within the

Freedom Schools during Freedom Summer that education burst to the forefront in SNCC’s

actions and paved the way for the future of the movement. It was within the Freedom Schools

that SNCC put education to the forefront of consideration. Although always at work in the

majority of SNCC actions, it was within the Freedom Schools that SNCC whole-heartedly

committed to the ideal in an effort to change the norms of black identity. The Freedom Schools

worked to influence positive black identity in lessons that directly addressed the topic, engaged

students in lessons that dealt with black history, and developed a questioning attitude in students

through lessons. These areas are vividly displayed when examining the work of students who

participated in the Freedom Schools. The volunteers who taught in the Freedom Schools under

the direction of SNCC field workers, developed many projects and assignments for the Freedom

School students. These artifacts serve as a type of authentic assessment that exhibited the ways

SNCC attempted to change black identity in the South. It is within these projects that SNCC’s

ideal of education at the forefront of consideration is illustrated. The students were often asked
to create original work that would illustrate the lessons that were conducted. These projects took

many forms. One type of project that most volunteer Freedom School teachers put in place was

to have the students create newspapers that were published and given out to those who followed

the movement. The newspapers included student written articles that covered a variety of topics.

The themes that SNCC worked to establish in the schools are evident within these examples of

student work.

In the Freedom Schools, the identity of blacks in Mississippi was a topic that was covered

in great detail. Freedom School teachers strove to help their students understand that the

prevailing norms for black identity in Mississippi were neither right nor enduring. The lessons

that Freedom School students were exposed to are illustrated when examining the student created

Freedom School newspapers. The Press of Freedom was a newspaper published on July 23rd by

students in the Gulfport, Mississippi Freedom School. In the newspaper, Retha Barnes, a student

at the school, writes a short article entitled “The Negro.” Barnes writes,

The Negro is a dark color person who tries to get his freedom. He wants a chance to
walk down the streets and do as he pleases. The Negro tries hard to get his vote in every
country. But he can’t because of his color. You see, I know because I am a Negro. I
don’t have the right to sit to eat in the stores downtown. But I am proud that I am a
Negro.37
This identification of what a black person was shows how Freedom School teachers had students

reflect on what it meant to be black at the time. It was with this type of reflection that students

began to really believe that there was more for them than what reality in Mississippi was. Linda

Potts, a seventh grade student at the New Evening Star Baptist Church Freedom School, furthers

this idea. In the school’s student publication published during the Summer Project, Potts writes a

short essay titled “Negro in Mississippi.” 38 She writes, “The Negroes are persons who don’t

37
Retha Barnes, “The Negro”, in The Press of Freedom, student newspaper, 27 July 1964, The Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:XV:166, 0134.
38
The title of this school’s publication is undecipherable from the microfilm.
have their rights. The Negroes want to vote and the white people do not want them to

vote. . . .We should have the right to vote like the white people do. If they don’t like us to, we

are going to anyway. If I was old enough I would vote.”39 Potts furthers the fact that the

Freedom School teachers attempted to teach students to question their society. When Potts, a

child, saw the flaws in the voting laws at the time and commented that voting should be allowed

for all, she created a new identity for herself. Through these teacher led reflections on identity,

the identities of students changed.

The change in black identity that SNCC sought also manifested itself in lessons

concerning black history that were taught during the summer. These lessons on black history

served to influence students to question the “white” version of history that they were learning in

the formal Mississippi schools. The implications of the lessons on black history were definitely

apparent in the student created newspapers. In another excerpt from The Press of Freedom,

Freedom School student Ernest Crosby writes a short article that touches on a variety of themes,

including that of black history. Crosby writes, “At the Freedom School they have, or we have,

Negro history and many things. Did you know that the colored race was the first to use tools and

grow things? If you did not know come to the Freedom School. Come every week day.”40 As

Crosby shows, the black history was a major part of the Freedom School curriculum and was

well received by students. Students were hungry to learn their own place in history. Another

example of a Freedom School newspaper, entitled Freedom News, was written by students in the

Palmer’s Crossing Freedom School in Priest’s Creek, Mississippi. In the July 23rd edition, there

are student written articles that cover events such as Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

(MFDP) meetings, an article that illustrates what it was like at Palmer’s Crossing, and an article
39
Linda Potts, “Negro in Mississippi”, in an untitled student newspaper, [Summer 1964], The Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:XV:166, 0108.
40
Ernest Crosby, “The Civil Rights Worker” in The Press of Freedom, student newspaper, 27 July 1964,
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:XV:166, 0134.
that illustrates to the reader what the students did in the school that week. Within one editorial in

the paper, a student establishes that black history was indeed taught within the Palmer Crossing

Freedom School. With this teaching of black history, it was clear that there was one main goal

pushed. SNCC and the volunteers who taught the Freedom School classes wanted the students to

take the knowledge they learned and use it to question the society they lived in. In an excerpt

from the Freedom News newspaper, student Alberta McC. 41 writes an editorial that illustrates the

application of the knowledge she gained. She writes,

The negro [sic] all his life has been considered nobody. Thanks to the movement that has
taken place here, some of the Negroes have begun to see the light. . . .In freedom school I
have learned about my race, and how we once were. I have lived here seventeen years,
which is all my life, and I wasn’t taught the truth until someone taught me . . . Thank God
and thank these people for waking up the Negroes in America.42
This evidence illustrates one student who was positively affected by the black history lessons

that were taught in the Freedom Schools. In her reference to the history of her race, and how

they once were, Alberta is acknowledging the lessons that she has learned concerning black

history and she has begun to apply those lessons in her questioning of society. In the student

newspaper The Freedom Carrier, Freedom School student Lynda C. takes the application of the

black history lessons she took part in of a step further. The Freedom Carrier newspaper was

written by students in the Greenwood, Mississippi Freedom School and the edition with the

highlighted article was written on July 16th. Lynda C.’s article is entitled “The Darkness of

Negro Students.” She writes,

They only teach us what the white man wants us to hear. We have been taught that the
white man was responsible for the abolishing of slavery, but that is false. What about the
Negro abolitionists? We have been taught that when the Negroes were free they were
helpless. But this is false because they helped themselves by building house and raising
crops. The reason for my coming out of darkness is by attending Freedom Schools.43
41
Often the full names of students were not used in the Freedom School newspapers.
42
Alberta McC. [Freedom School student] , in Freedom News [student newspaper], 23 July 1964, The
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:XV:166, 0129.
43
Lynda C., “The Darkness of the Negro Students,” in the Freedom Carrier, student newspaper, 16 July
1964, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:XV:166, 0127.
From this evidence, it is apparent that the student has learned a great deal about black history

from the Freedom Schools. This student has taken the lessons learned a step further. The

student is applying her knowledge on black history to the society that she lives in. The student

has learned to question what she was taught in the formal schools she attended and in doing this,

Lynda C. is recreating her black identity. This re-creation of black identity is what SNCC sought

in the Freedom Schools. For SNCC, attempting to change social norms surrounding black

identity was a monumental task at times. Yet within the Freedom Schools, students were eager

to absorb lessons on black history and apply those lessons to their lives in Mississippi. With

these positive influences on black identity, the Freedom Schools also influenced an attitude that

questioned the society that suppressed blacks in Mississippi.

SNCC believed that the next logical step in changing an unjust society was to question

why it was so. The Freedom Schools instilled a questioning attitude in its students to attempt to

change that society. As the Freedom Schools equipped students with knowledge, the students

were influenced to apply that knowledge to the society that surrounded them. Instances of this

questioning attitude put to work are plentiful in the student produced newspapers from Freedom

Summer. In the Greenwood Freedom School newspaper The Freedom Carrier, this questioning

attitude is illustrated in a column entitled “Speaking of Freedom.” Written by student C.T., the

column questions what freedom should look like for those fighting in Mississippi. The author

begins the article by illustrating how all things, birds, dogs, and zoo animals, crave freedom

blindly. The author continues,

The Negroes in Mississippi are fed up with the life here. We feel that it is time
something was done to stop the killings or murders, the prejudice, the mistreatment of
Negroes here. Freedom is a very precious thing to any race of people, but in a nation that
is supposed to be free and where oppression still exists, something really has to be done.
 As our forefathers fought for this nation to be free, we also say to our oppressors “Give
us freedom, or give us death.”44
As seen, C.T. applied the knowledge gained within the Freedom Schools by questioning the

society of Mississippi. He realized that the culture in the time period was wrong and that change

was necessary. In this realization, the author has applied the knowledge gained to an attitude of

questioning. Building upon this, New Evening Star Freedom School student Vivian Bulford

echoes this questioning attitude in her article “What Freedom Means to Me.” Bulford writes,

Do you think it’s right for the Negroes to get $2 for a day’s work while a white person
doing the same thing gets $10? Do you think it’s right for the white people to go in the
front, and the Negroes to go around the back? Do you think i [sic] right for them to make
us go all the way to Pass Christian to the beach, when some of us can walk from our
homes to the beach? Do you think it’s right that we should always e [sic] the underdog?45
This blatant questioning of injustices that had occurred in the community is exactly the approach

that SNCC looked for and what SNCC had hoped the students of its Freedom Schools were

learning. From these student created documents, the Freedom Schools were successful in

instilling this theme in its students. Yet there still remains the question of whether these students

were able to put all these theme to work. Were the Freedom School students able to influence

changes to the norms of society in their communities?

A main tenet of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was to influence the

communities in which they were active in to become a part of the Civil Rights Movement

themselves. This principle was illustrated in the Freedom Schools as well. The Freedom School

students brought together all the themes that were taught in the Freedom Schools by engaging in

the protest movement. There were three culminating documents that served as a sort of authentic

assessment for the Freedom School students. Although not actually being tested on the viability

of these documents, the fact that the students who created these three documents put together the

44
C.T. [Freedom School student], “Speaking of Freedom”, in The Freedom Carrier, student newspaper, 27
July 1964, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:XV:166, 0135.
45
Vivian Bulford, “What Freedom Means to Me”, in an untitled student newspaper, [Summer 1964], The
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:XV:166, 0109.
ideas that were permeating the movement to fight the injustices that were evident in their

communities is remarkable. The first document is entitled “Declaration of Independence:

Palmer’s Crossing, Hattiesburg, Mississippi.” The children of the Palmer’s Crossing Freedom

School created an entire document illustrating their “break from the customs which have made it

very difficult for the Negro to get his God-given rights.” The document continues by outlining

the various grievances that the students had with the government, the white people, and the

voting processes in Mississippi. The document ends with the statement, “We, therefore, the

Negroes of Mississippi, assembled, appeal to the government of the State, that no man is free

until all men are free. We do hereby declare Independence from the unjust laws of Mississippi

which conflict with the United States constitution.”46 This document represents a leap forward

for all the students in Palmer’s Crossing Freedom School. The students at this school put

together all the lessons that they had learned and created this document that looked to fight the

wrongs of the society they lived in.

The students who attended Central High School in Liberty, Mississippi also created an

essay that assembled the themes that they learned in the Freedom School they attended.47 These

students produced the essay entitled “The Illegal School System of Liberty, Mississippi.” The

document is a list of grievances directed at the high schools these students attend. The document

begins, “We, students of Central High School, Liberty, Mississippi, have met and agreed upon

the following list of grievances. We believe however, there are several things which would help

solve these problems.” The document continues with headings such as “Negro Citizens on the

School Board,” “Student and Parent Opinion in Operation of School,” and “Integration of Amite

46
“Declaration of Independence: Palmer’s Crossing, Hattiesburg, Mississippi” Freedom School student
created document, [summer of 1964], The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:X:14, 0223.
47
Although no specific Freedom School is stated, these students do allude to a Freedom School numerous
times in the document.
County Public Schools.” The list of grievances include “books, library, principal, teachers,

courses, science lab, first aid, janitors, and restrooms.” The students put together an amazingly

well thought out argument in order to create a more beneficial learning environment for

themselves.48 With this type of community protest, the authors of this document put the ideals of

SNCC and the Freedom Schools into action. The students, bolstered by a strong sense of their

identities as blacks in Mississippi, used the education in the Freedom Schools they had gained in

order to question their society. In this case, the society in question was the school district the

students attended. The students that lived in that community worked to change their society.

Perhaps the most impressive student created document was the “1964 Platform of the

Mississippi Freedom School Convention.” During August 6th, 7th, and 8th many of the Freedom

Schools gathered in Meridian, Mississippi for an event that mirrored the MFDP convention in

Jackson, Mississippi. Although planned by SNCC members, after the first day of the convention

the students took over the proceedings and directed the discussions into areas that needed

resolutions. SNCC workers and Freedom School volunteers believed that having the students

mirror the real political convention with their own gathering would offer valuable experiences.

From the student created document, it is obvious that none of the activists could have imagined

the commitment that the students showed. The platform is a list of demands and resolutions that

were submitted to Mississippi governor Paul Johnson Jr. The demands were listed under

headings such as “Public Accommodations,” “Housing,” “Education,” “Health,” “Foreign

Affairs,” “Federal Aid,” “Job Discrimination,” “Law Enforcement,” and “Voting.” Under each

of these headings, a detailed and thorough argument is outlined that is visibly influenced by the

“The Illegal School System of Liberty, Mississippi,” Freedom School student created document,
48

[summer of 1964], The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, A:XV:165, 0097-0101.
ideals present within the Freedom Schools. For instance, under the heading of “Education” the

students wrote,

In an age where machines are rapidly replacing manual labor, job opportunities, and
economic security increasingly require higher levels of education. We therefore demand:
1. Better facilities in all schools. These would include textbooks, laboratories, air
conditioning, heating, recreation, and lunch rooms.
2. A broader curriculum including vocational subjects and foreign languages. . . .
10. That all schools be integrated and equal throughout the country. . . .
12. That teachers be able to join any political organization to fight for Civil Rights
without fear of being fired.49
With this example and the numerous others available within the document, this work serves to

illustrate SNCC ideals at work within the Freedom School students. In this questioning of their

lives and communities, the students put to use lessons on black identity to change the

communities in which they were a part of.

Teaching the ideals of education and installing a questioning attitude in students worked

to create a positive black identity for students of the Freedom Schools. The success of the

lessons not only illustrate the realization of these goals, but also the change in the perceptions of

students. These changes in student perception, because of lessons on the three themes, were

vividly illustrated when examining the works that Freedom School students created during

Freedom Summer. It was within the Freedom Schools that SNCC’s ideal of education burst to

the forefront of community organizing.

There were many groups fighting the battles for justice and equality during the Civil

Rights Movement. There is no question that the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

was an influential group during this tumultuous time period. The actions they initiated and the

programs they pushed for helped to guide the both the movement and the group itself.

49
The Freedom School Curriculum, “1964 Platform of the Mississippi Freedom School Convention,”
Mississippi Freedom School Curriculum, http://www.educationanddemocracy.org/FSCfiles
/B_20_PlatformOfStudentConv.htm (accessed November 21, 2008).
Throughout the early years of SNCC, a strong theme within the organization was education. The

task of having blacks see the reality of their lives and striving to change that reality made

education a necessity to those in SNCC. It was this deep-rooted emphasis on education that

came to fruition during the Summer Project’s Freedom Schools. Within the years leading up to

Freedom Summer, education was a strong value in the organization. It was through the principle

of education that SNCC reformed their tactic of community organizing to take the shape of using

education as fuel for the struggle for equality. This is established by exploring how the ideal of

education was strong in SNCC’s early years, by examining the programs that SNCC created for

students, and by analyzing how the theme of education truly emerged and effected community

organizing within the Freedom Schools. It is within these key points that a true understanding of

SNCC’s motivations and intentions are clear. The struggle to reverse the negative black

perceptions that had been engrained through years of oppression and change black identity

sprang from a deep belief in the power of education. Without these points, the actions of SNCC

are without basis and are seemingly unconnected. Education is the key that ties SNCC together.

Howard Zinn confirms these statements in the following reflection. After participating in a

Jackson, Mississippi Freedom School, he wrote,

The Freedom Schools’ challenge to the social structure of Mississippi was obvious from
the start. . . . There is, to begin with, the provocative suggestion that an entire school
system can be created in any community outside the official order of and critical of its
suppositions. But beyond that, other questions were posed by the Mississippi
experiment. . . . Perhaps people can begin, here and there (not waiting for the
government, but leading it) to set up other pilot ventures, imperfect but suggestive, like
the one last summer in Mississippi. Education can, and should, be dangerous.50

50
Howard Zinn, “Freedom Schools,” In The Zinn Reader, edited by Howard Zinn, (New York: Seven
Short Stories Press, 1997), 539.
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