Printer-friendly versionThis piece is to accompany No School Like Freedom School
The legacy of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools—that change comes from the bottom up—is timeless.
When the schools were founded, fewer than 6 percent of African Americans could vote, and schools for black children lacked basic resources. Inspired by the Highlander Folk Schools of the labor movement, groups like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), SNCC and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) teamed up to create activists, organize residents, register voters and form an alternative political party that included African Americans.
Classes taught by student volunteers—including historian and college professor Howard Zinn and activist Stokely Carmichael—were held in churches, open fields and residential backyards and included a mix of black history, civil rights movement philosophy, leadership development, reading and math. Students ranged from preschoolers to adults.
