Having grown up in Mississippi, I think I tend to forget that less than 50 years ago this place was, for so many people, truly nightmarish. It really is hard to believe.
Last night Bruce Watson came and talked about his new book, Freedom Summer, written specifically about the summer of 1964. This was the summer that the SNCC mobilized an army of sorts in order to help with voter registration and education in Mississippi – it’s also the summer that James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were murdered. Those murders got our hospitality state lots of attention that summer, as we all know. What Bruce Watson has done with his book is focus not exclusively on those murders, but also on the accomplishments of Freedom Summer, relating anecdotes and going into great detail to capture just what it was like for some of those 700+ college students who came down.
Anyway, Bruce was a fantastic speaker and we were glad to have him. He’s written a good book – the evidence is in this review of Freedom Summer from BookPage. We have signed copies so come and have a gander!
Susie
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