The Violent Season that Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy
Starred review from September 1, 2020
Grades 6-10 *Starred Review* This compelling book tells of Freedom Summer. In 1964, a coalition of civil rights groups put an ambitious project into action, recruiting college students to volunteer in Mississippi, where voting rights for Black residents were routinely suppressed through intimidation and violence. Quickly educated about the situation, trained in nonviolence, and sent South, the students worked within Black communities, teaching literacy and encouraging a grassroots voting-rights movement. The disappearance and murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman happened just before the volunteers arrived. A sobering beginning for the students, the event became a flare that for months drew national media attention to Mississippi. Based on Watson's adult book, Freedom Summer (2010), this volume offers young people a detailed, concise, well-researched account of a significant civil rights program. Profiles of the projects' leaders as well as individual student volunteers (along with passages from their letters home) add more perspectives. Illustrations include well-chosen archival photos and intriguing documents. An underlying sense of urgency pervades the writing as the narrative progresses, reflecting the tension building throughout the summer as an array of forces, including the Klan, the FBI, and competing political factions, came into play. A fascinating account of a pivotal civil rights initiative.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)
July 15, 2020
Idealists seeking a more racially just America met the deep-seated racism of Mississippi during Freedom Summer. In 1964, hundreds of mostly college-aged students, many of them White, were drawn to work alongside local African Americans seeking voting rights and better education for their children. Based on Watson's adult title Freedom Summer (2010) and adapted by Stefoff, this is a searing account of the difficulties of affecting change in a state that persistently held onto racial inequality and division. The volunteers who would register voters and operate Freedom Schools were carefully trained and organized, and an additional goal was challenging Mississippi's Democratic Party leaders to seek political involvement that reflected the state's population. Resistance was often violent, as shown by as the murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman. This is also the story of civil rights activists--including Bob Moses, Stokely Carmichael, and Fannie Lou Hamer--who worked tirelessly, often at great personal risk. The compelling narrative highlights national leaders, such as President Lyndon Johnson and Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who pushed legislation but balked at providing protection to citizens in hostile situations. Moving personal stories of volunteers who wanted to make a difference and found themselves changed forever round out this narrative that provides a valuable level of intimacy for readers. An in-depth look that contributes to understanding a violent painful chapter in recent history. (source notes, further reading, image credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)
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