Rooted in the Highlander model, Citizenship Schools were explicitly political. The literacy skills taught in Citizenship Schools were specifically designed to enable older African Americans to pass voter registration requirements. A common “test” at the end of a two-to-three-month Citizenship School session was for students to attempt to register to vote at the local precinct. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the schools spread through Dixie, training thousands of southern African Americans and drawing them into the Civil Rights Movement. By 1965, more than fifty thousand registered voters had been trained in nearly nine hundred Citizenship Schools across the South.35
Citizenship Schools built on previously existing traditions in southern black communities. They were merely the most recent manifestation of education for liberation, an important connection that had existed since the antebellum era when enslaved African Americans learned to read in secret, dreaming of ways education could one day help them improve their lives, find lost family members, and gain freedom. The former black slaves continued their educational quest during the Reconstruction era, flocking to Freedmen’s Bureau schools and even starting many of their own. Those who managed to graduate high school and even college often returned to their communities to help lead and teach. Black educators and professionals emerged as the “talented tenth” during the era of Jim Crow. This cadre of talented African Americans provided the leadership and vision that helped lay the educational foundations of the Civil Rights Movement.
During the Jim Crow era, women committed to education such as Septima Clark, Ella Baker, Gladys Noel Bates, and countless others helped cultivate the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement by guiding communities and young people to mobilize for collective action within neighborhood schools. Though often working behind the scenes, thousands of African American educators in the Jim Crow South helped generate widespread communal support for local schools, fought to equalize teacher salaries, and tried to increase the amount of resources allocated to black schools. Many also later became involved with the Citizenship Schools that spread across the South during the late 1950s. Educational activism built upon decades of an organic struggle for knowledge among black families who had long associated education with political freedom and liberation. Learning at all levels, including high school and college in both the public and private sectors, provided the foundation of political socialization in southern black schools.36
As the Civil Rights Movement spread across Dixie, longstanding educational traditions in southern black communities combined with a growing political renaissance to generate early versions of Freedom Schools—alternative educational institutions that promoted racial equality. In 1961, fifteen-year-old African American student Brenda Travis was expelled from McComb’s Burgland High School for participating in civil rights activities. Her peers walked out and formed an alternative school they dubbed “Nonviolent High” to protest Travis’s expulsion. In 1963, organizers in Virginia’s Prince Edward County formed their own versions of “Freedom Schools” in response to the local school district closing public schools to avoid racial integration. Several other versions of Freedom Schools opened in the North. During the winter of 1964, Boston educators led by Noel Day conducted a school boycott to protest de facto segregation in the city’s public schools. On February 26, 1964, hundreds of student protestors attended the Boston “Freedom Schools” and received Freedom Diplomas for their participation. New York City activists similarly organized their own versions of Freedom Schools during the spring of 1964. As COFO activists began planning the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools, they found several examples of other Freedom School–type programs to build upon. The biggest difference was scale. The 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools were going to involve a lot more students than any other similar program. But the basic dogma of education for liberation and citizenship was already well established, both within local black communities and among veterans of the movement.37
Freedom School Curriculum
In March of 1964, a talented collection of educators and civil rights activists gathered in New York City to plan the Freedom School curriculum. This assembly was sponsored by the National Council of Churches, which had made a serious commitment the previous spring to begin supporting the Civil Rights Movement. Conference attendees included veteran activists such as Bayard Rustin and Andrew Young, Citizenship School pioneers Septima Clark and Myles Horton, several experienced New York City public school teachers, and a number of seasoned educational activists, including Noel Day. The primary objective of the New York conference was to create a full curriculum for Freedom Summer volunteers to follow in their classrooms. Writing a curriculum to use in the Freedom Schools was critically important. Curriculum planners knew that many of the volunteer Freedom School teachers had never taught before and needed a bulk of material to help them prepare for classes.38
Conference attendees met in a large body before breaking into smaller groups based on personal specializations to design the various aspects of the Freedom School curriculum. The groups met for two days to discuss and plan the ambitious curriculum. Attendees left those small meetings charged with producing teaching materials that could be used as parts of the official curriculum. Instructional approaches and lesson plans were to be mailed back to Freedom School organizers and then integrated into a single, comprehensive curriculum. Many of the curriculum writers contributed various lesson plans and strategies that were used to form an official Freedom School curriculum guide.39
As the curriculum guide stated, the Freedom Schools served to “sharpen the students’ abilities to read, write, work mathematical problems, etc. but [also to] concentrate more on stimulating a student’s interest in learning, finding his [sic] special abilities, so that when he returns to the state schools in the fall he can take maximum advantage of the public education which is offered to him.”40 Toward this end, the Curriculum Conference Report adopted behavioral outcomes that were grounded in traditional learning objectives. For instance, the students were expected “to develop his [sic] sense of self-worth and self-confidence in his ability to learn, achieve and contribute . . . to improve his ability to communicate ideas . . . to improve his study habits and skills . . . to promote his sensitivity to and competence in the use of logical thinking, critical judgment and problem-solving processes . . . to develop his skills and competence in handling money and financial transaction.”41
The official Freedom School curriculum was composed of three parts. Part II, the “Citizenship Curriculum,” was by far the largest and most important portion of the Freedom School curriculum. It opened by reiterating that “[o]ne of the purposes of the Freedom Schools is to train people to be active agents in bringing about social change.” The Citizenship Curriculum was divided into seven units. The first section offered a series of prompts that asked students to begin comparing their realities with those of others, especially local whites, and begin discussing ways to improve their own lives. The second portion of the Citizenship Curriculum introduced them to the Mississippi power structure by explaining how their society worked and the ways the movement had been trying to combat the systematic racism of Jim Crow. This section was crucial. Freedom School planners understood that although young black students knew that racial inferiority was unjust, they did not necessarily understand why or how those inequalities had been constructed. By understanding basic processes, such as how local officials were elected or appointed, they would be able to develop an understanding of how to change aspects of their society. Other units of the Citizenship Curriculum included lessons on Mississippi politics, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), and the recent history of civil rights activism in the state. Overall, the broad goal of the Citizenship Curriculum was to teach the young Freedom School students about the institutionalized racism of their society and develop in them a basic civic literacy so they could understand how various movement tactics challenged existing structures.42
Although standard academic components we
re less visible in the Freedom School curriculum than overt political objectives, they were just as important. Part I of the Freedom School curriculum emphasized standard academic instruction, especially reading, writing, and mathematical skills, and included activities such as oral reading, writing discussion summaries, composing poetry, reading newspapers, and some basic arithmetic exercises. The third and final part of the Freedom School curriculum was a smaller section titled “Recreational and Artistic” that emphasized fostering artistic skills and active play.43 Freedom Schools were designed to balance political objectives with standard educational goals. Students were instructed in basic lessons on American government, history, and reading and writing skills. The curriculum also included an emphasis on African American literature, history, and culture, topics that had been censured for decades in many of the state’s regular black public schools.
The study of African American history was particularly important. Freedom School coordinator Staughton Lynd, a Columbia University–trained historian, prepared a unit called the “Guide to Negro History,” which included brief lessons on the history of slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. It also incorporated sections on historical black leaders such as Gabriel Prosser, Nat Turner, and Frederick Douglass. With regular Mississippi public schools censoring discussions of aggressive African American leaders, Lynd thought that Freedom Schools could help young black students develop a sense of pride in the accomplishments and history of their race through an exposure to deep-rooted radical traditions in the black freedom struggle. Staughton Lynd wrote brief synopses of major events in African American history and encouraged Freedom School teachers to share the historical information with their students. Those history lessons proved valuable to the development of Freedom School students. As is evidenced throughout their newspaper articles, essays, and poems, students embraced African American historical figures and used the lessons from the past to reinforce their hopes for the future.44
Although the curriculum guide was important as a pedagogical baseline, it was never intended to completely dictate the parameters of classroom instruction and learning. Rather, it was designed to be used as a resource for teachers who needed support. As Freedom School coordinator Staughton Lynd explained, the guide itself “was like a security blanket. When you ran out of things to do with the kids, you might get out the old Freedom School curriculum and think ‘Oh, I can do that tomorrow.’” As Lynd later elaborated, “[I]t was therefore a backup. But most of what happened in the schools was improvised.”45 The content and style of teaching closely mirrored the earlier educational models of participatory education espoused at the Highlander Folk School and the Citizenship School program.
The curriculum guide was important to many teachers, especially those without any formal instructional experience or training. Alongside the various parts and units, it offered examples of a potential classroom schedule, lists of questions to generate student discussion, and also basic information on topics such as African American history and the history of the movement in Mississippi. Many of the teachers themselves did not have strong backgrounds in African American history and were challenged by the new material. In these cases the curriculum became an important instructional guide. “A lot of what I was teaching, I never knew about,” explained Freedom School teacher Stanley Zibulsky, “because we didn’t get really to study black history [in public schools] . . . It took a lot of studying to just be able to teach.” Despite not always having strong backgrounds in each topic, Freedom School teachers learned what they could and passed the lessons on to their students.46
The Freedom School curriculum guide was also an important way of stressing the pedagogical approach to political education pioneered by Myles Horton at the Highlander Folk School. Horton was one of the attendees at the New York City Curriculum Conference and his influence on the curriculum was clear. Freedom School classes were going to resemble participatory democracies aimed at developing strategies for social change. Teachers were to facilitate dialogue while students guided the learning process and produced answers. The curriculum guide included a “Basic Set of Questions” that asked Freedom School students to consider why they were in Freedom School and how the Civil Rights Movement might change their lives. Other questions asked students to compare white and black schools, housing, employment, and medical facilities, constantly asking students to define the parameters of their oppression and consider measures that would make their society more equal.47
A major part of the Freedom School mission was to fold young black students into the black freedom movement and encourage a cadre of young local leaders who could help lead civil rights activism well after the end of Freedom Summer. As the original proposal stated, Freedom Schools were conceived to train students who could “form the basis for statewide student action such as school boycotts, based on their increased awareness.” Just as Myles Horton had once done with Highlander and Septima Clark had implemented with Citizenship Schools, the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools were designed to empower a new generation of people who could carry the fight forward.48
Freedom Summer and the Opening of Freedom Schools
For most Freedom School teachers, the Mississippi Freedom Summer actually began in Ohio. After applying, being accepted, and committing to the summer project, volunteers attended a week-long orientation on the campus of Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio (now a part of Miami University). The week in Ohio was crucial for Freedom School teachers. They spent the week meeting new colleagues and learning basic movement skills such as ways to absorb an attack, how to respond to an arrest, and the words to dozens of freedom songs. Freedom School teachers studied the curriculum and listened to seasoned activists talk about how to interact with the black Mississippi youths who would be attending Freedom Schools. During that week, Freedom School organizers also completed a great deal of administrative work. They spent hours organizing school staffs, distributing curriculums, and making housing preparations. For many volunteers, the experience in Oxford also served as an important emotional transition between their prior lives and the intense racial climate they were about to enter. Mississippi’s racial order was dangerous and terrifying, a fact confirmed to volunteers when Bob Moses took the stage during an orientation session and announced that three civil rights workers—James Chaney, a local African American Mississippian involved with Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Mickey Schwerner, a white CORE staff member from New York, and Andrew Goodman, a white Freedom Summer volunteer who had been in Mississippi just one day—had disappeared and were presumed dead.49 The three missing workers had been in Oxford just days before and their disappearance frightened both seasoned and new activists. Yet, most resolved to continue on to Mississippi and spent the rest of orientation preparing for the summer and coming to terms with internal conflicts between hope and fear. Meanwhile, as the mainly white northern volunteers prepared to enter the nation’s most racially oppressive state, hundreds of young black Mississippi youths waited anxiously for the opening of the Freedom Schools.50
By the time Freedom School classes began in the first week of July, hundreds of students were already enrolled. In Hattiesburg alone, nearly six hundred African Americans preregistered for Freedom School classes. Similar, albeit smaller, reactions were common elsewhere. Plenty of young black Mississippians had previously participated in movement activities, but most had never enjoyed any form of leadership role. Too young to vote, their activism consisted primarily of filling the pulpits and following others. Many saw Freedom Schools as their pathway to full involvement or leadership and rushed to the schools in large numbers. Within just three weeks, Freedom School attendance figures more than doubled the expected enrollment for the entire summer. Students arrived at the schools bursting with energy, each ready to learn, grow, and join the fight for racial equality. Their fervor surprised many volunteers. As one Freedom School teacher reported, “The atmosphere in class is unbelievable. It is what every teacher dreams about—real, hon
est enthusiasm and desire to learn anything and everything.” “The students couldn’t get enough,” remembered Palmer’s Crossing–based teacher Sandra Adickes, “they wanted more; they wanted as much as I could give them.”51
By late July, Freedom School organizers counted 41 official schools with a total attendance of 2,135 students. The typical school consisted of between 25 to 100 students taught by 5 or 6 teachers. Some schools, such as the Meridian Freedom School, were larger. Some cities, most notably Hattiesburg, had more than one Freedom School. The precise number of schools that operated that summer is hard to track. All summer long, improvised Freedom Schools opened across the state, even in places where no school had been planned. Freedom School administrators had only planned for 25 schools, but many communities heard of the program and decided to organize their own schools. Some lasted just a week or two. Others carried on into the autumn and through the next school year. COFO supplied teachers when possible, but there was always a shortage of instructors. The exact number of Freedom School students is similarly hard to accurately measure. Some students attended regularly, but others came only when they were free from work or able to escape their parents’ watchful eye. Not all parents wanted their children to attend Freedom School due to potential repercussions from white supremacists. During the previous years, thousands of black Mississippians had been fired from their jobs or attacked for participating in movement activities. All black families were very familiar with the risks associated with joining the movement. Because of this very real threat, not every Freedom School kept attendance or precise records of student enrollment. Those lists could be extremely dangerous if they fell into the wrong hands.52
To Write in the Light of Freedom Page 3
