Did you hear me . With freedom summer, the idea was they needed to attract National Attention to what was happening in mississippi. Civil rights activists worried a lot of their efforts, there was a lot of violence directed against them, murders and beatings not attracting National Attention. The thought was if you could bring in outsiders, northerners, whites, who attracted more National Attention, they could show to the rest of the country and the world what needed to change here. They brought down Civil Rights Activists, northerners, to help in the process. They attracted a great deal of National Attention. Tragically, with the murders of michael, andrew, and james, it focused National Attention on what was happening in mississippi. We are in the cofo building. From 1962 to 9065, this was the head of the council of federated organizations that ran freedom summer trade it was a partnership of different civil rights organizations. You had the student committee, the congress of racial equality, the naacp, the fdlc. These different groups decided they could achieve more working together so they founded cofo doing Civil Rights Activism across the state. Mississippi had the reputation as the most difficult place for the Civil Rights Movement to make progress. There was an entrenched notion of White Supremacy and blacks were disempowered. The real impact was voter registration, understanding the political power that stemmed from the vote was most appropriately focus and goal in mississippi. There were counties in the state that were black majority. If africanamericans had the right to vote, they would in a sense be able to control the county politically. The stakes were high politically for whites to keep themselves in charge. It was a mississippibased organization. Jackson was the nerve center. Cofo had offices around the state. The way freedom summer worked is they brought them here and sent them around the state. It was a Community Organizing model. You had civil rights volunteers and workers stand out around the state. All of that process was headquartered in jackson. Some estimates, over half of the white civil rights workers from the north were jews. They often said if everyone is not free in this country, no one is free. And although was happening here did not affect them in a personal, direct way, they felt they needed to do what they could to cure this injustice. It is sad to admit it was the whiteness of the two that helped attract National Attention. There were other black activists murdered that did not attract the same amount of National Attention. When those three workers went missing, it was a Huge National issue. All the media came down here to search for them. When their bodies were finally found, it was a somber sign of the significance of the work and danger all these activists endured. It was the 31st of august in 1962 that 18 of us traveled 26 miles to the county courthouse to try to register to become firstclass citizens. We were met by policemen and highway patrolmen. They only allowed two of us in at a time. The idea behind freedom summer was to focus on the vote. At the time, mississippi was a oneparty state. It was the Democratic Party. Africanamericans were generally not allowed to vote in the democratic primary. Part of that had to do with the laws on the books that were disfranchisement laws. One was the literacy test. It could be very hard for an africanamerican who was even quite educated to pass the test because it was quite subjective. They could fail someone even if they were qualified. Very few African Americans voted in mississippi when they were a significant part of the population. The idea was if we cannot take part in the democratic primary, we will create our own separate Democratic Party. They would be open to all comers, black and white. Part of the focus was to organize people around the state to take part in this freedom vote. They brought their own delegation to Atlantic City in 1964. They challenged the credentials of the mississippi regular Democratic Party saying they were discriminatory. That was a famous event in which they testified in front of the Credentials Committee about what they experienced in mississippi and the hardships and violence they faced. A former sharecropper talked about being beaten during the midst of her efforts to organize to vote. The state highway patrolman ordered the first negro [indiscernible] the state patrolman ordered me to lay down on the bunk bed on my face. I laid on my face. The first negro began to beat me. I was beaten by the first negro until he was exhausted. I was holding my hands behind be on the left side because i suffered from polio when i was six years old. After the first negro had been me until he was exhausted, the state highway patrolman ordered the second negro. That testimony was so compelling, watched by a national audience. President johnson held an impromptu News Conference to cut off coverage of this testimony. In Atlantic City, they had a compromise. They allowed two seats at large from the Freedom Party to be counted. They were not satisfied with two seats and walked out. Interestingly, so did the allwhite delegation walkout in protest. The rules changed. By 1968, there could no longer be discrimination in the Democratic Party primary process. It had a big impact. In 1965, there was the passage of the Voting Rights act which helped alleviate a lot of those laws that prevented blacks from voting. Much of the National Attention in history is given to freedom summer, 1965, the march in selma and the ultimate passage of the Voting Rights act. Often people figure that is the end of the story. In mississippi, the real story comes after that, after the laws have been passed. After you have the Voting Rights act and have passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which bans segregation, how are these laws going to play out in local communities . In every town in mississippi, you had this question. They are going to vote, who will they elect . There were actions that try to limit black Voting Rights. There was an effort to redraw districts to limit black power. There is a lot of adjusting history that takes place. People do not always realize how these changes came to transform the state. It takes place after 1964 and 1965. Freedom summer is essential in helping to understand the passage of the Voting Rights act, which was an important catalyst for mississippi and across the south. I think one of the important things about these anniversaries is it brings a lot of attention and people to come down. They see mississippi has changed a lot. There is a lot of progress yet to make. My sense of it is it was worse back then than people realized, but it is better now than most people realize outside of the state. I think you will see an embrace of the returning activists. The freedom riders were welcomed to the governors mentioned. The governor apologized for the states actions toward them at the time. Mississippi has a since this history is important. For a long time, he was debated and conflicted. But i think increasingly, all mississippians have a sense that this is an important legacy and one that we need to embrace, understand, and move forward with. Cspans localre content vehicles are going next. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. Up next on American History tv, and author talks about his book, project 9. He explores the creation of the elite team during the 1940s, later to be called the air force commandos. Together they invaded japanese occupied burma in 1944. He is joined by three of the original air commandos, who talk about their experiences during the war. This hourlong event was hosted by the kansas city public library. Let me tell you what to expect tonight. Im going to talk to you about. This littleknown organization known as the First Air Commando group. I will show you some photos,