A History of the Civil Rights Movement

48

A History of the Civil Rights Movement

the South. At the time, many Southern blacks were denied the right to vote. This was particularly true in Mississippi. The state had the lowest African American voter registration in the country. In 1962, less than 7 percent of eligible black voters were registered. If you lived in Mississippi in 1964 and you were black, it was not easy to vote. First you had to register at the courthouse. You had to fill out a long form with 20 questions. You had to copy any section of the state’s con stitution. Then you had to explain what it meant—in writing. Many blacks in Mississippi were poor and uneducated. Most of them couldn’t qualify to vote. Because they weren’t permitted to vote, African Americans could not decide who would represent them in the local, state, and national govern ment. They could not elect African Americans or those who would work to end segregation and ensure civil rights for blacks. SNCC decided to try to change that. Their project, called Freedom Summer, had many goals. The top goal was to help more blacks in Mississippi register to vote. Other goals were to open community centers, help black kids with reading and math, and start a new political party that would listen to the needs of African Americans. College students from around the coun

try—both black and white—volunteered to take part in the project. After a training session, the first group headed for Mississippi. Not long after that, three vol unteers—Michael Schwerner, Andy Goodman, and James Chaney—disap In Mississippi only whites were allowed to join the Democratic Party, so as part of the 1964 Freedom Summer program, Fannie Lou Hamer helped to create a new political party, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). People of any race could join, but most MFDP members were African American.