A Social Studies Curriculum: Mississippi Freedom Schools 

George W. Chilcoat 
Jerry A. Ligon 

INTRODUCTION 

A question that appears to be 
frequently asked with regards to the 
effects of social studies education is 
what is social studies supposed to do 
for students? What effect does social 
studies curriculum have on students? 
How do different kinds of instruct­
ional strategies affect students? 
And, if social studies instruction is 
supposed to cause changes in students, 
why does research seem to show most 
students, elementary and secondary, 
appear to have a very strong dislike 
for social studies content, 
particularly historical content? 
(Shaver, 1987) 

This paper is an attempt to explore 
a social studies curriculum used in an 
historical Civil Rights educational 
experience known as the Mississippi 
Freedom Schools during the summer of 
1964. Freedom schools provide a 
useful context in which to study 
examples of social studies instruction 
from the perspectives and experiences 
of volunteer teachers working under 
hostile conditions for approximately 
six to eight weeks instructing 
African-American students using 
pedagogical efforts to promote 
equality, self-discovery, learning, 
social justice, and community activism 
(Perlstein, 1990). 

The first purpose of this paper is 
to examine (1) the aims of the freedom 
schools, (2) the curriculum, (3) the 
instructional behaviors, (4) the 
evaluation/assessment uses, and (5) 
classroom management. A second 
purpose of this paper is to propose an 
educational model of social studies 
instruction built on the principles 
generated from the aims, curriculum, 
instruction, evaluation and classroom 
management espoused by the various 
freedom school experiences. The 
organization of the paper provides an 
historical framework of the 
development of the freedom school 
experience, the method design for 
studying the pedagogical actions of 
various teachers from five freedom 
schools, the results of these 
pedagogical actions as found in the 
instructional experiences of these 
teachers, and the organizing 
principles suggested from these 
pedagogical experiences in 
constructing a model of 
social studies instruction. 

1 

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 

Zinn (1970) purports history "can 
recapture those few moments in the 
past which show the possibility of a 
better way of life than that which has 
dominated the earth thus far" (p.47). 
Earlier, Zinn (1964), himself a 
Mississippi freedom school teacher, 
claimed the freedom school idea: 

was an experiment that cannot be 
assessed in the usual terms of 
• success· and • failure,· and it 
would be wrong to hail it with an 
enthusiasm which would then lead 
it to be judged by traditional 
criteria. But that venture of last 
summer in Mississippi deserves 
close attention by all Americans 
interested in the relationship 
between education and social change 

(p.371). 

Zinn believed the freedom schools 
provided a model to scrutinize 
prevailing educational ideas and 
practices rooted in an unfair and 
unjust society. He elaborated in what 
he hoped the freedom school idea could 
do to correct antiquated educational 
beliefs and, in turn, help correct 
various social ills: 

The Freedom Schools challenge of 
the social structure of Mississippi 
was obvious from the start. Its 
challenge to American education as 
a whole is more subtle. There is, 
to begin with, the provocative 
suggestion that an entire school 
system can be created in any 
community outside the official 
order, and critical of its 
suppositions. But beyond that, 
other questions were posed by the 
Mississippi experiment of last 
summer. 

Can we, somehow, bring teachers 
and students together, not through 
the artificial sieve of certif­
ication and examination but on the 
basis of their common attraction to 
an exciting social goal? Can we 
solve the old educational problem 
of teaching children crucial 
values, while avoiding a blanket 

ition of the teacher's ideas? 
Can this be done by honestly 
accepting as an educational goal 
that we want better human beings in 
the rising generation than we had 
in the last, and that this requires 

declaration that the 
cherishes 

just 



world brotherhood? Is it not 
possible to create a hunger for 
those goals through the fiercest 
argument about whether or not they 
are worth while? And cannot the 
schools have a running no-ideas­
barred exchange of views about 
alternative ways to those goals? 

Is there, in the floating 
prosperous, nervous American social 
order of the sixtles, a national 
equivalent to the excitement of 
the civil rights movement, one 
strong enough in its pull to create 
a motivation for learning that even 
the enticements of monetary success 
cannot match? Would it be possible 
to declare boldly that the aim of 
the schools is to find solutions 
for poverty, for injustice, for 
race and national hatred, and to 
turn all educational efforts into a 
national striving for those 
solutions? 

Perhaps people can begin, here 
and there (not waiting for the 
government, but leading it) to set 
up other pilot ventures, imperfect 
but suggestive, like the one last 
summer in Mississippi. Education 
can, and should, be dangerous. 

(p. 374-375). 

In late 1963, The Council of 
Federated Organizations (COFO), an 
organization composed of members of 
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating 
Committee (SNCC), Congress of Racial 
Equality (CORE), the NAACP, and the 
Southern Christian Leadership 
Conference, began to conceive of a 
major civil rights offensive in 
Mississippi during the Summer of 1964. 
(The Student Nonviolent Coordinating 
Committee papers [hereafter cited as 
SNCC] , 1982: Reel 38) This offensive, 
spearheaded largely by SNCC, which 
became known as Mississippi Freedom 
Summer, would involve over 1000 
African-American and white volunteers, 
mostly from the north and west, to 
promote African-American equality and 
basic democratic rights through (1) a 
massive voter registration drive among 
the majority of disenfranchised 
African-Americans; (2) the creation of 
the Mississippi Freedom Democratic 
Party (MFDP or FOP) to run a mock 
election in defiance to the all-white 
state Democratic party and to 
represent African-Americans in the 
upcoming National Democratic 
Convention; (3) a series of community 
centers to organize particularly 
African-American adults by promoting 
their own agendas through collective 
action; and (4) the creation of a 
number of summer school programs 
situated both in urban and rural 

2 

Mississippi aimed originally at high 
school aged African-American students 
providing them with a richer school 
experience then they were able to have 
in their own schools and, hopefully, 
committing these students to become a 
force for social change in Mississippi 
(state Historical society of Wisconsin 
[hereafter cited as SHSW): Morrey; 
SHSW: Gould, Rothschild, 1982, 
Perlstein, 1990; Hinman-Smith, in 
progress). This educational endeavor 
became known as the Mississippi 
Freedom Schools. 

Charles Cobb (SHSW: Bowie; SNCC: 
Reel 68), field secretary for SNCC, 
proposed the idea of Freedom Schools 
as a war against academic poverty. He 
claimed the Mississippi School system 
to be the worst in United States and 
the African-American schools to be the 
worst in Mississippi. In these 
African-American schools there was "a 
complete absence of academic freedom." 
In fact, these schools were meant to 
"squash intellectual curiosity." 
Ignorance was safer than inquiry. The 
classrooms were "intellectual 
wastelands" (Also see SHSW: Davis; 
SHSW: Demuth). Cobb wanted young 
African-American students to have an 
education related directly to the 
everyday experiences and problems of 
these students. Freedom schools would 
"offer young black Mississippians an 
education that public schools would 
not supply, one that both provided 
intellectual stimulation and linked 
learning to participation in the 
movement to transform the South's 
segregated society" (Perlstein, 1990, 
p. 297). 

To effect the idea of freedom 
schools, the National Council of 
Churches sponsored a curriculum 
conference in New York during March, 
1964 (Fusco, 1964; SNCC: Reel 67; 68; 
69). The premise for the curriculum 
conference was a deep-rooted faith 
that education could promote freedom 
and democracy. The objective of the 
conference was to discuss what freedom 
schools were to be about in the summer 
of 1964. The major curriculum focus 
and the core of the freedom school 
lessons were the formulating of a 
civic curriculum (SNCC: Reel 35). The 
civic curriculum was to be of 
(1) fourteen problem-solving case 
studies deal with the political, 
economic, and social forces relating 
to the direct experiences of the 
students; (2) a citizenship curriculum 
facilitating student discussion as a 
means of achieving a new society; (3) 
a Guide to History providing a 

ive survey of African-



American history; and (4) an emphasis 
on teachers extrapolating directly 
from students those personal 
experiences in which they live each 
day in a hostile, repressive dominate 
white society (See Sugarman, 1966, p. 
219: "You listen to them. You hear 
what they say, and then you deal with 
their problems where they are") . 
Curriculum also revolved around the 
development of a reading and writing 
remediation curriculum, a humanities 
curriculum emphasizing foreign 
languages, art, and creative writing, 
and a general science and mathematics 
curriculum. 

Although fourteen case study 
lessons were to be designed, only 
seven were created. Yet, these seven 
proved to be substantial teaching 
units. To be coupled with the 
curriculum, the conference recommended 
a variety of progressive democratic 
teaching techniques emphasizing 
informal group discussion. The 
pedagogical combination of self­
discovery and self-expression was to 
stimulate "high school youth in 
Mississippi to QUESTION" (SNCC: Reel 
27). As Paul Lauter (Lauter & 
Perlstein, 1991), a freedom school 
teacher reflected on the purposes of 
both the curriculum and the 
instructional behaviors, 

"The act of questioning was not 
just a step in a process of 
intellectual growth but rather a 
repudiation of subordination. 
Questioning would lead to self­
expression, to an understanding of 
Mississippi's oppressive social 
order, and to participation in the 
movement for social change" (p.3). 

In June, 1964, two one-week 
orientation meetings were held on the 
campus of Western College for Women at 
Oxford, Ohio, for most of the freedom 
summer volunteers (SHSW: Gould; SHSW: 
Ooiman; SHSW: Vogel). The second week 
orientation included the 233 freedom 
school teachers. The volunteer 
teachers included both professional 
teachers (there were 40) and non­
teachers. Fifty-six percent of the 
teachers were female, mostly white, 
median age, 24.1, all either college 
graduates or attending universities, 
74 percent majoring in humanities, and 
the majority from the East or the 
Midwest. At least 60 percent had had 
at least some involvement in the civil 
Rights movement either in their home 
states and/or in the South. 

The orientation workshops were 
crash courses in Mississippi politics, 

3 

race relations, practical safety 
rules, and the movement philosophy of 
nonviolence as a tactic and life 
commitment. 2 Also, there were training 
courses in the existing educational 
structure of African-American 
students, in the physical structures 
or lack thereof of the freedom 
schools, in pedagogical techniques, 
particularly in communication and 
expression skills, and in the use of 
civic curriculum of the case studies 
and African-American history. 

Upon completing the orientation, 
the volunteers traveled to their 
freedom school locations in 
Mississippi to begin their six-eight 
week stay. The original expectation 
was the creation of twenty schools 
with a desired student population of 
1000 (SHSW: Starobin) . However, 
freedom schools became a far greater 
success than the project had planned 
with 41 schools in 20 communities and 
2,165 students (SNCC: Reel 38). The 
schools not only attracted high school 
age students but also elementary 
students and some adults: 

Where the initial plans had been 
for only the tenth, eleventh and 
twelfth grades, one found sitting 
in the informal circles youngsters 
with the smooth black faces and 
wondering eyes of the impish ages 
of nine and ten who were mere 
fifth-graders ... And there just 
behind teen-age boys-with slender, 
cotton-picking muscles-were sets of 
gnarled hands and the care-chiseled 
faces of grandmothers, some of whom 
said they thought they were in the 
seventies (birth records for the 
old are almost nonexistent). 

(Holt, 1966, p.l07) 

Facing lack of physical facilities 
("One beautiful thing about a Freedom 
School is that, provided it doesn't 
rain, the only physical plant needed 
is a shady spot, books, paper and 
pens" [SNCC: Reel 6J), limited 
resources, larger student-teacher 
ratios than anticipated, some African­
American community indifference 
(mostly from Mississippi African­
American teachers (SHSW: Davis; SHSW: 
Benard), and a hostile white 

(SHSW: Demuth), most of the 
freedom schools offered the intended 
curriculum a of other 
courses that students wanted and the 
teachers might be able to provide 
(Zinn, 1964; Gillard, 1965; Howe, 
1965) • The following was a typical 
class schedule (SNCC: Reel 68) for 
many of the freedom schools: 



Morning: 
8:15 8:30-Freedom Songs and 

Devotions 
8: 30 - 9: 20-History of the Negro in 

America (on rotating basis of 2 and 
3 sessions per week per ect) 
-English 

9: 30 - 10: 20 -Citizenship Curriculum 
(2 general sessions per week and 3 
small group discussions) 

-Also time for films related to 
citizenship 

10:30 - 12:00-Special Subjects 

Afternoon: 
1:30 - 3:30-Afternoon Activities: 

1.Arts and Crafts 
2.Playwriting, producing, acting 
3.Writing, editing, sending out 
Freedom School Newspaper 
4.Every Monday afternoon: sessions 
on how to prepare, mimeograph 
leaflets for Mass Meetings, Freedom 
Says, Voter Registration campaigns, 
etc. 
5.Typing one hour per day; times to 
be arranged. 

Special Subjects Available: 
Mathematics, German, Biology, 
Astronomy, Spanish, Geography, 
Psychology, Creative writing, 
French, oriental culture, political 
science (International politics, 
Supreme Court and the Constitution, 
with special emphasis on leading 
Civil Rights cases in American 
History) • 

As freedom schools began, students 
and freedom school teachers crowded 
into sheds, lodge halls, store fronts, 
churches, and open fields that served 
as school facilities (Holt, 1966). 
Student attendance varied from day to 
day. Often students had to work as 
field hands and as domestics. Some 
Freedom School experiences were more 
interesting than others ("It was very 
difficult for us as teachers to sense 
whether or not we had gotten to the 
students--whether they were interested 
or merely polite, whether they 
comprehended or were too shy or afraid 
to ask questions" (SNCC: Reel 68). In 
some cases particular Mississippi 
public schools were open the 
summer months structured the 
Fall cotton season. And fear of white 

retaliation caused some 

civil 

to be 
their children to 

Sutherland) . 
wanted to be in 

and wanted to be 
Movement 

and social 
of their 
authors;). 

4 

volunteer teachers for the most part 
were enthusiastic about their new 
vocation and adapted ably to their 
tasks (Rothschild, 1982) . Tracy 
Sugarman (1966), a SNCC fieldworker, 
described the teacher-student 
of a first freedom school 
Ruleville, 

in the afternoon the 
the school-age children 

At two 
session for 

. In of three and four, 
their students to 

the lawn where they might 
teachers 
areas of 
discuss and without 

of 
another group. I , 

papers-the paraphernal of 
learning-sprinkled the hardpacked 
yard with a confusion of color. 
The excited talk of the 
enthusiastic teachers mingled with 
the suppressed excitement of the 
Negro children. One watched the 
young teachers, bending to the 
task, starting to probe, to move, 
to make curious. The youngest 
children were quickest to be fired. 
Their surprised laughter and 
exclamations showed contact was 
being made. The older boys and 
girls shyly smiled, seriously 
frowned, or dropped their eyes. No 
white teacher had ever taught them, 
and the northern speech sounded 
hard and strange in their ears. 
And no teacher had ever reached out 
toward them with such ardor and 
trust. It was new, but not 
uncomfortable. They watched from 
lowered lids, did little, and 
noticed everything. 

I laughed as I moved through the 
clusters of kids. America's most 
verbal students were teaching her 
least verbal children, and words 
that had been useful on campus were 
suddenly embarrassing and pompous. 
I shuddered as I heard words like 
"dichotomy" and "incongruous," but 
as I watched I realized that most 
of what they were saying was 
striking sparks. Even during that 
first afternoon one could hear the 
vocabularies as 
the teachers common 

their students. 
At last the that had 

so many of the teachers 
since Oxford was removed in 
the actual confrontation with their 
students. were 

The 
freedom 
student 

schools was 
convention 

come 

(p. 123-125). 

event 
the 
in 

for the 
statewide 
Meridian, 



Mississippi in August, at which 
student delegates from each freedom 
school hammered out and adopted a 
detail platform on issues ranging from 
job discrimination to civil liberties 
(SHSW; Parks; SHSW: Zinni Grant, 
1964 i Lynd, 1965). The three day 
event, planned and administered by the 
student delegates, was the first time 
African-American students from all 
over the state had come together to 
discuss their common concerns and 
aims. An observer for the National 
Council of Churches, Atlee Beechy 
(SHSW: Friesan) wrote, 

The Freedom School conference was 
impressive. A sense of mission, 
cultural identity, hope, and 
inspiration were perhaps more 
significant outcomes than the 
academic program of the 
participants. 

As Freedom Summer ended, it was 
hoped that freedom schools would 
continue. While some of the schools 
did continue to operate, few could 
sustain either learning or activism. 
The schools were never projected as 
permanent institutions but rather, 
according to most of the original 
planners, as a tactic for immediate 
change (Lauter & Perlstein, 1991). 
However, for many students and 
teachers, the freedom schools in those 
short six eight weeks had a 
substantial impact on their lives. 
Mary Gillard (1965), a freedom school 
teacher in Gulfport, summed up the 
impact of freedom schools: 

The Freedom Schools showed that 
there can be a situation where 
learning is not forced upon youth. 
This was a type of education which 
gave individuals a personal 
interest in social relationships, a 
personal interest which made 
learning something to be sought 
after . The Freedom Schools 
met the challenge of changing the 
social order through the educative 
process. They showed that this is 
not an additional burden that must 
be met through education, but a 
necessity if we are to have truth, 
justice, and equal in society. 

(p. 43). 

METHODOLOGY 

The purpose of this study is 
threefold: (1) explore examples of 
social studies instruction that took 
place in the various freedom schools; 
(2) extract pedagogical principles 
from the freedom school experience as 
these principles relate to social 
studies instruction, and (3) construct 

5 

a possible model from these principles 
for social studies instruction. The 
data came from case examples of five 
of the 41 freedom schools. Using cross 
-case analysis, each of the five 
freedom schools was studied by 
examining the pedagogical behaviors of 
aims, curriculum, instruction, 
evaluation, and classroom management. 
From each of these behaviors, a set of 
organizing principles was evolved to 
construct a possible social studies 
instruction model. 

The five freedom schools used as 
cases in this study are Holly Springs, 
Mileston, Jackson, Ruleville, and 
Gulfport. These five schools were 
chosen over the other freedom schools 
because the historical information 
located and gathered provided detailed 
accounts of curriculum use, instruct­
ional behaviors, and teacher and 
students' thoughts and responses about 
their involvement in Mississippi over 
the six - eight week period. 

Information on each of these 
schools came from a number of sources. 
In the fall of 1991 and winter 1992, 
questionnaires were mailed to known 
freedom school volunteers asking for 
information describing their freedom 
school experiences. A number of these 
have been interviewed for further 
detailed information. Some partic­
ipants provided diaries and journals 
giving accounts of their experiences. 
Some of the freedom school teachers 
and the original developers of the 
citizenship curriculum and the 
instructional program provided copies 
of the original curriculum and the 
intended instructional strategies. A 
number of news accounts, scholarly 
books, journals, popular magazine 
articles, and one master thesis 
provided a number of personal 
experiences of various freedom school 
teachers. A major resource for 
curriculum development and 
instructional use by the volunteers 
was found in a number of archive 
collections: The SNCC Papers, 
University Microfilm; Project South 
Collection, Stanford University; and 
The Social Action Papers, and State 
Historical Society of Wisconsin. 

The results are divided under the 
five pedagogical behaviors of aims, 
curriculum, instruction, evaluation, 
and classroom management. Each 
behavior begins with a discussion of 
the general intent of that behavior as 
prescribed by the organizers of the 
freedom school movement followed by 
how each of the five freedom schools 
effected, modified, or changed the use 
of the behavior. 



RESULTS 

AIMS 
was 

A female freedom school teacher 
asked about her 

American 
themselves 
their 
schools 

in helping her 
students to think for 
and to take control of 

lives, if the freedom 
were not, in fact, 

the young She 

Yes, I But, I can't 
think better to 
indoctrinate Freedom. 
Justice. The Golden Rule. Isn't 
there some core of belief a school 
should stand by? 

(Zinn, 1964, p. 374) 

Indeed, the originators of the freedom 
school idea had a core belief in the 
relationship of education and social 
change. The general goal of the 
entire Mississippi Freedom Summer 
Project was to replace the existing 
oppressive power structure with a new 
structure that promoted equity and 
social justice (SHSW: Hard). Freedom 
schools were to play an important role 
in accomplishing this goal. "The 
Freedom Schools mean an exposure to a 
totally new field of learning, If 
explained Carolyn Reese, a Detroit 
school teacher and coordinator of the 
Hattiesburg freedom schools (Student 
Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, 
1964; SNCC: REEL 73). "New attitudes 
about people, new attitudes about 
self, and about the right to be 
dissatisfied with the status quo" 
(p.3). A number of the summer project 
organizers felt that many of the 
Mississippi African-American adults 
were indifferent to any major change 
in Mississippi society (Howe, 1965). 
Hope for change, believed the 
organizers, was to be found in the 
African-American youth. Therefore, 
the dominate aim of freedom schools 
was to promote student conversion from 
a passive observer of events being 
acted upon by the dominate white 

to an active critical 
involved 

a force 
in 

students as a for 
Cobb and other members 

conference 
to 

curriculum the 

6 

summer freedom 
additional 
schools were 
various 
to articulate their 
and personal 

schools 
aims. 

students 
skills in order 

desires for 
and commun 

The schools 
of 

and 
students "more 

of current issues" 
"to introduce students to 

of local difficulties in a context 
national SNCC: Reel 27). 
Students would discover that 

were of 
who had line of 
protest and for social and 
economic j (SNCC: Reel 38). 
These aims were to lead to helping 
students 

"to develop a new of thinking 
and be awakened to powers of 
analytic In short .. 
Freedom Schools can accomplish the 
vital task of causing high school 
youth in Mississippi to QUESTION." 

(SNCC: Reel 27). 

It was necessary to question 
society, teachers, or any oppressive 
authority, if real change was to take 
place. "More students, It Cobb (SNCC: 
Reel 27) wrote, "need to stand up in 
the classrooms around the state, and 
ask their teachers a real question." 
The "Introduction" to the citizenship 
curriculum (SHSW: Hextor) states, "It 
is not our purpose to impose a 
particular set of conclusions. Our 
purpose is to encourage the asking of 
questions, and hope that society can 
be improved." One of the organizers of 
the curriculum conference, Jane 
Stembridge wrote to the freedom school 
teachers prior to the Oxford 
orientation: 

You will be 
who have 

lived Mississippi all their 
lives. That means that have 
been of decent education, 
from first 
school. It means that have 
been denied free and 
free Most of a11-- it 

have 
resources. 
With the skills 

have been denied 

possess 
. the desire 

. and the wild 
You 

these 
Reel 39) 

articulation, 



academic learning of various social 
science content to provide 
understanding of contemporary and 
local problems, a historical identity 
and awareness of self, and the power 
to question, the freedom school 
planners hoped the students would 
return to their communities as an 
organizing base to further the cause 
of the Civil Rights movement (Fusco, 
1964; SNCC: Reels 27; 67; 68; 69; Day: 
Interview). It was hoped these 
students would take back to their 
communities what they had learned in 
the freedom schools and teach other 
students who had not participated in 
the summer schools. Also, these 
students might form local and 
statewide student action groups 
involved in voter registration, school 
boycotts, or become community leaders. 
The aims were ambitious. Hope in the 
schools was bountiful. Faith in the 
volunteer teachers to meet these aims 
appeared, for the most part, to be 
well-placed (Zinn, 1964; Gillard, 
1965; SNCC: Reels 6; 65; 68; SHSW: 
Lynd; Sutherland, Questionnaire: Pam 
Allen; Questionnaire: Norma Becker; 
Aviva Futorian: Interview). 

The organizers also realized the 
volunteers would need to come to terms 
with their own personal objectives for 
teaching in the freedom schools with 
those of the prescribed pedagogical 
program (SNCC: Reel 67). It was 
important there be cohesiveness and 
cooperation among the freedom school 
personnel of faculty, administrators, 
and other staff members. To promote 
this cooperation, it was necessary 
that each freedom school staff agree 
on a set of aims (or core beliefs) 
which would pedagogically drive their 
respective schools. 

Hopefully, before the opening of 
each school, there will be time for 
the staff to agree on overall aims 
and to apportion individual 
responsibilities. 

(Sandra Adickes Curriculum Conference 
Report, SNCC: Reel 67, p.1). 

Gulfport Freedom School 

The Gulfport freedom schools were 
where African-American youth could go 
to discover themselves as human 
by developing racial pride and 
participating in a meaningful role in 
critical thought and social action 
(Gillard, 1965). The schools were to 
be "a place of social, political, 
intellectual, and recreational 
development" providing the students 
with opportunities both in and out of 
class to examine the conditions in 
which they live, better ways 

7 

of life for them, their families, and 
the Gulfport community, and exercise 
their rights to overcome injustice. 
The Gulfport freedom schools were to 
"fill the large void in the Negro 
youth"s life while providing him with 
the means to plan a brighter future 
for himself and his society" (Gillard, 
1965, p. 24). 

Jackson Freedom School 

The Jackson staff believed that 
..... academic experiences should relate 
directly to ... [the students"] 
real life in Mississippi, and since 
learning that involves real life 
experiences is, we think, most 
meaningful, we hope that the students 
will be involved in the political life 
of their communities." (Pease papers). 

Florence Howe, a teacher in the 
Jackson freedom school, looked 
differently at freedom school aims 
from the perspective of what freedom 
school teachers ought or ought not to 
be to students. First, Howe claimed 
African-American school teachers in 
the Jackson public school system were 
not well-prepared teachers and were 
either timid and part of the white 
system or actively hostile, 
dictatorial, and even vengeful to 
their students. Either type of 
teacher would not allow students to 
question the dominate society or the 
poor African-American living 
condi tions. The only way these 
teachers taught was rote learning to 
an expected passive class: 

You learn this. and you get 
along. Get used to the violence, 
get used to being stuck, get used 
to taking orders, for that is the 
way life is on the outside. 

(Howe, 1965, p. 145) 

Therefore, Howe stated the aims of 
the Jackson freedom school teachers 
included not standing before rows of 
their students being omnipotent, 
aristocratic dictators, paternalistic 
domineer ing parents, or professional 
manipulators "pouring pre-digested, 
pre-censored information into their 
brains." The freedom school teacher 
was to be a student among students who 
do not always have the right answer, 
who was an equally concerned 
questioner and listener, who wanted to 
help students control their own lives 
and promote self-determination in 
their communities. 

Fred Heinze (SHSW: Heinze), also a 
Jackson freedom school teacher, 

Howe's positions on poor 
ic school education and the role 



of freedom school teachers and those 
of the summer projects when he wrote 
to his family: 

One of the most basic of COFOns 
programs is the Freedom School. 
Every project operates a Freedom 
School; and Freedom Schools are 
just that. They are free 
institutions in a totalitarian 
state. Essentially, the Freedom 
Schools seek to do two things. 
First, we are trying to provide 
those things in the Freedom Schools 
that are not available in the 
public schools, or at least, 
supplement and improve on the 
offerings in the public schools. 
Secondly, in the Freedom School we 
are trying a new (for Mississippi 
at any rate, & possibly the rest of 
the country) approach to that 
process we call education. The 
Freedom Schools exist to encourage 
and aid free expression and thought 
on the part of the students. We 
are teachers, but it is important 
for us to remember that we do not 
possess knowledge that our students 
are incapable of acquiring through 
their own inquiry and efforts. The 
Freedom Schools exist to set free 
the intellect. 

Holly Springs Freedom School 

Two major aims became the focal 
points of what freedom school teachers 
wanted to do in Holly Springs. The 
first aim of the freedom school was to 
have AfricanAmerican students and the 
white teachers view each other as 
people whose only difference was one 
of cultural experiences (SNCC: Reel 
6) • The second aim was to provide 
students with as many opportunities to 
practice creative thought through a 
variety of communication techniques 
(SNCC: Ree 1 6). Both of these aims 
were based on what most of the freedom 
school teachers perceived as the two 
major obstacles preventing students 
from changing the power structure in 
Holly Springs: (1) the lack of 
confidence students had in themselves 
caused by years of lack of expression 
and (2) repressed emotions about their 
plight and their mistrust in whites, 
evidenced in years of calling whites 
Mr. or Mrs. and "years of being 
automatically second and automatically 
wrong,· (SNCC: Reels 6; 65; 68). 

To overcome the first obstacle, 
teachers provided a number of 
creative, fun ways to help students to 
express themselves (SNCC: Reel 6; 
Questionnaire: Allen; Futorian: 
Interview). A freedom school 
newspaper was written and ished by 

8 

the students containing their 
articles, poems, news reporting, and 
critical compositions. Also, the 
students, with the help of the 
teachers, developed and acted out an 
one-act play that was perform a number 
of times in Mississippi throughout 
the summer and once in New York City. 

The second obstacle was resolved 
two ways. Teachers were to be called 
by their first names (SNCC: Reels 6; 
65) . This proved to be awkward and 
difficult for the African-American 
students to do. They addressed adults, 
particularly white adults as Mr. or 
Mrs. One teacher to curtail this 
practice began to call each student 
Mr. or Mrs. After a week the practice 
ended. The second way that was used 
by the teachers to eliminate student 
mistrust and fear of the white 
teachers was to physically touch the 
African-American students 
(Questionnaire: Allen). A number of 
black students thought it incredible 
that whites would touch them, not out 
of hate, but out of enthusiastic 
sharing and a deep appreciation for 
them as equal human beings. 

Ruleville Freedom School 
In a letter to a friend, Dale 

Gronemeier (SHSW: Gronemeier), the 
Ruleville freedom school librarian, 
wrote that the community freedom 
school would attempt "to remedy the 
educational dearth and brain-washing 
of Negro youths through genuine 
progressive education." Kristy Powell 
(SHSW: Lynd) , teacher and coordinator 
at Ruleville, wrote the major purpose 
of the Ruleville freedom school was to 
act as a center for real education as 
opposed to just being an academic 
institution. Students had to achieve 
in their own learning, exploring 
ideas, making choices to solve real 
problems, giving expression in various 
and meaningful ways, and becoming 
actively involved in community change. 
Academics had its place. It could 
provide a sound foundation in 
developing research skills to solve 
problems and in developing positive 
self-concepts about oneself. However, 
if education, thus the freedom school, 
was to have any and impact on 
the African-American students, they 
had to use what they learned in school 
to effect positive in the 
community. Also, students could not 
make these changes alone. There was 
needed a strong association between 
both the teachers and the students 
working together both academically and 
socially to solve and make 
improvements in the 
Mileston Freedom School 



Mileston Freedom School 
The Mileston freedom school 

teachers wanted their students to 
develop a political consciousness and 
understanding of the oppressive 
problems in their community (SNCC: 
Reel 65). If students could 
understand the white exploitation and 
injustices that blocked their personal 
and community development and if they 
could understand how the white system 
worked, they would be able to improve 
their community through articulate 
dialogue, cooperation, risk taking, 
and democratic action (See SNCC: Reel 
65; SHSW: Lynd). 

CURRICULUM 

The March, 1964, curriculum 
conference (SNCC: Reel 64) proposed a 
progressive curriculum (especially for 
the African-American students of 
Mississippi attending less than 
adequate public schools) to help 
students to become both better 
academically and active socially and 
politically. An academic curriculum 
of reading, composition, math, 
science, and humanities emphasizing 
foreign language, art and creative 
writing was to be provided because (1) 
students had limited exposure to most 
subject matters due to poor schools, 
(2) some students I need for remedial 
help in basic reading, writing, and 
math skills, and (3) need to stimulate 
students" interest in learning. 
Although academics was believed to be 
important in the freedom schools, the 
civic curriculum proposed by the 
curriculum conference was to be the 
major thrust of the freedom schools 
and formed the core of the freedom 
school lessons to affect both the 
students and their immediate 
communities. 

The civic curriculum, which was to 
be directly related to the experiences 
and life situations of the students 
was composed of seven case studies, 
the Guide to Negro History, and the 
citizenship curriculum (Fusco, 1964; 
SHSW: Starobin). The case studies 
were designed to help students develop 
leadership abilities to deal with the 
problems associated with their 
communities and the state. In 
teaching the cases, teachers were not 
to be interested in the quant of 
facts students were supposed to 
but rather in students" ability to 
solve given problems, drawing on their 
experiences associated with current 
situations in Mississippi. The case 
writers were to outline a set for 
concepts for their , 
material relevant to each concept, 
indicate sources for teachers, provide 

9 

a general outline for a week"s study -
approximately five one-hour lessons, 
and offer ideas about effective ways 
to present to students the content in 
the case (SNCC: Reels 37; 67). 

Of the fourteen cases originally 
proposed, only seven were actually 
developed and used in the freedom 
schools. The seven were the role 
Fannie Lou Hamer' congressional 
campaign played in the Mississippi 
Movement; the impact of the 
Mississippi judicial system on 
African-Americans; the ramifications 
of poverty for both African-Americans 
and poor whites; the parallel history 
of Nazi Germany and of the white power 
structure of the south; the southern 
education system; and how the Civil 
Rights Bill of 1963 went through 
Congress (SNCC: Reel 64). 

Perlstein (1990), in his study of 
freedom schools, maintained these 
seven case studies were substantial 
lesson plans, yet, the pedagogical 
quality varied. For example, the case 
study on the Power Structure in 
Mississippi (SHSW: Allen) provided 
insightful information on the 
structure of the working class (blacks 
plowing, planting, chopping, and 
picking cotton and poor whites working 
in factories) and on the prevailing 
dominate social, political, and 
economic policies through the state 
(banks, utility companies, the White 
citizens' Council, and the white 
Mississippi Democratic Party). It did 
not, however, provide instructional 
guidelines to help teachers present 
the information or help students to 
know how to use the information in 
improving their current situations 
under such a structure. 

In contrast, the case study on the 
Nazi German power structure vs. the 
Mississippi power structure (SHSW: 
OOiman) provided content, teacher 
guidelines and suggestions for 
instructional strategies and showed 
students how concrete historical 
experiences could provide solutions to 
similar current situations. The case 
study was divided into five sections. 
The first section provided an overview 
comparing Nazi Germany with the 
current Mississippi power elite, 

concentration camps as a 
closed society with Mississippi as a 
closed ,and emphasizing the 
importance of active community 
resistance. The next four sections 
provided historical narrative examples 
of the above within a 
discussion/role suggesting 
solutions to mistakes of the 
Nazis' victims by the African-American 

in Mississippi. For 



example, to overcome submission to a 
system of persecution, it was hoped 
students would learn: 

a. an awareness of the dangers of 
cooperation with the persecutors. 

b. the need to carve out an area of 
individual identity, initiative, 
especially in the face of attempts 
to reduce Negroes to a "group­
status." 

c. the maintenance of inner 
convictions and of the freedom to 
chose one"s attitudes, [and) 

d. the importance of group solidarity 
and rejections of divisions based 
on privileges or rewards. 

(SHSW: Ooiman). 

The Guide to Negro History (SHSW: 
Allen; SHSW: Ooiman; SNCC: Reels 38; 
67) was developed to help African­
American students learn about their 
heritage, to construct a positive 
~mage of themselves as a people who 
could be successful in any endeavor, a 
sense of themselves as a people who 
could produce heros (Fusco, 1964), and 
to realize they were taking part in a 
historical movement of protest for 
social, economic and political justice 
(Gillard, 1965). The history lessons 
also were to show students that 
history as a subject could have 
meaning in their lives as a cumulative 
process. Students could "grow and 
develop new insights as they (1) 
master relevant information, and (2) 
relate this new knowledge to the 
information they already have, and (3) 
attempt to apply these insights to 
current problems" (SHSW: Ooiman). 

The Guide began with an 
introductory lesson on the Amistad 
incident, a slave revolt in 1839. 
This was followed with a brief 
background on African heritage, the 
slave trade, and an extensive 
discussion of the origins of prejudice 
using examples of the Founding Fathers 
and the Constitutional Convention. 
There were a series of lessons on the 
subject of black resistance to 
opposition, citing the Haitian 
Revolution, various American slave 
revolts, and the abolitionist 
movement, emphasizing the many people, 
African-American and white, 
collectively devoting their lives and 
energy to the abolishment of slavery. 
A large section of the Guide dealt 
with the hope and failure of 
Reconstruction, leading to a 
segregated South, in general, and 
Mississippi, in particular. The Guide 
ends with the beginning of the Civil 
Rights movement and the role of the 
courts to enforce Civil Rights laws. 

10 

The Citizenship Curriculum (SHSW: 
Hexter; Day: Interview) was a set of 
lessons designed to have students 
critically examine their present 
situations and determine what they 
wanted to be and do in obtaining a new 
existence of social justice and 
equality. This curriculum was based 
on students answering two basic set of 
questions considered to be the 
foundation to understanding and using 
the information in the citizenship 
curriculum: 

The BASIC SET OF QUESTIONS is: 

1. Why are we (teachers and students) 
in Freedom Schools? 

2. What is the Freedom Movement? 
3. What alternatives does the Freedom 

Movement offer us? 

The SECONDARY SET OF QUESTIONS is: 

1. What does the majority culture have 
that we want? 

2. What does the majority culture have 
that we don't want? 

3. What do we have that we want to 
keep? 

Lauter and Perlstein (1991), assert 
these questions were and still are 
very important to understand the need 
to reshape both the then Mississippi 
society and today' s society from an 
individual perspective to a 
collective, collaborative perspective: 

First, these questions do not ask 
"what does the majority culture 
have that I want?" but "what does 
the majority culture have that we 
want?" The distinction is critical 
and yet very difficult to 
comprehend within the framework of 
American educational institutions. 
For virtually every-thing in our 
schools and colleges, except for 
some team sports, is calculated to 
reinforce the idea of individual 
advancement, private accumulation 
of knowledge, grades, degrees. 
Freedom school students were quite 
clear about this matter: the 
discrimination they encountered 
every day had little or nothing to 
do with them as individuals named 
Alice or Burdette or Clarie; it had 
everything to do with them as black 
people. And thus the question was 
not only the knowledge, the sense 
of self Alice as an individual 

accumulate in her private 
way, but also how the social 
definition of her as an "ignorant 
nigger, .. or more politely, a 
"culturally deprived" black girl, 
might be changed by joining with 



others who shared a similar fate. 
(p. 4-5) 

The citizenship curriculum 
consisted of seven units. Each lesson 
facilitated class discussions with a 
series of stated questions. The 
curriculum (Perlstein, 1990; Day: 
Interview) began with a lesson about 
students' experiences in their 
community schools, housing, 
employment, and medical facilities. 
What were the differences in the real 
conditions of these various facilities 
of AfricanAmerican compared with those 
of the whites? The second lesson 
compared the lives and experiences of 
Northern African-Americans with 
Southern African-Americans. The 
purpose of this lesson was to show 
that there was comparatively little 
difference between the geographical 
realities of African-Americans as 
second class citizens and that of 
Southern African-Americans, 
particularly those in Mississippi, 
ought to stay and change that reality. 
The third lesson examined a set of 
myths perpetuated by the white culture 
to repress African-Americans with low­
expectations and self-image. The next 
two lessons attempted to create an 
awareness that some people profit at 
the expense of others, particularly 
African-Americans and poor whites, 
through power, money, fear, and 
illegal laws. The sixth lesson, 
"Material Things versus Soul Things," 
and the first half of the seventh 
lesson promoted the principles of 
nonviolence as a philosophy of 
personal life and of the Civil Rights 
movement. Various Civil Rights 
experiences provided vivid examples of 
nonviolence as the way to merge "the 
atmosphere in which reconciliation and 
justice become actual possibilities" 
(SHSW: Hexter). The second part of 
the seventh lesson advocated active 
participation in changing the existing 
society and described what steps were 
needed to effect the change. 

It was important to the curriculum 
committee that the overall curriculum, 
the academic curriculum, and the civic 
curriculum, be integrated with 
existing events in the local 
communities "to elicit from the 
students in terms of comprehension and 
expression of their experiences." 

It would seem advisable that, 
considering the special conditions 
under which the Freedom Schools will 
operate, some form of the team 
approach be adopted, to divide 
responsibility, yet retain an 
integrated educational to the 

11 

student. The teachers should plan the 
activities together, so that each 
subject area correlates and 
reinforces the others. If, for 
example, the group of students plans 
to canvass, the language arts phase of 
the program could concentrate on an 
appropriate verbal skill, the social 
studies area could be devoted to the 
study of the population to be 
canvassed in terms of economic, 
social, religious factors and the 
implications of those factors, the 
math area could be given over to 
statistical breakdowns, charts, etc. 
(This example is a little advanced.) 
Or, if the students were to publicize 
a mass meeting, the language arts 
phase could study the considerations 
involved in writing persuasive 
material, the arts and crafts programs 
could make posters and leaflets, etc. 
One other advantage of the team 
approach is that, since students are 
first of all individuals, a group of 
teachers working in concert can serve 
their separate, special needs better. 
It is not likely that there will be 
sufficient time or variety of 
personnel to organize the staff in a 
detailed manner, but some version of 
the team concept could probably be 
implemented (Introduction: Citizenship 
Curriculum in SHSW: Hexter). 

Although the intent of the 
curriculum makers was to help freedom 
school volunteers, teachers and 
nonteachers alike, with a predesigned 
curriculum geared to attempt to help 
African-American students to 
critically change their SOCiety 
despite the volunteers inexperience in 
teaching and/or lack of content 
knowledge of African-American 
history/Civil Rights content, the 
makers strongly believed the freedom 
school teachers should have 
opportunities to make their own 
curricular and instructional choices 
(Hinman-Smith, in progress; SNCC: Reel 
67; SHSW: Demuth). It was hoped the 
teachers would use the designed 
curriculum but they had the choice to 
modify or change the curriculum to 
whatever the teacher thought more 
suitable depending on the existing 
situations and/or the experiences and 
abilities of the students. 

Gulfport Freedom School 

The Gulfport freedom schools 
offered the full curriculum advocated 
by the curriculum conference (SNCC: 
Reel 68). A discussion of the first 
lessons in the citizenship curriculum 
about the educational system 
led to the development of a business 



skills curriculum (Gillard, 1965). 
The teacher began a discussion with a 
question: "What were the 
schools like?" The students 
by claiming their schools were a waste 
of time and so poor in instruction 
that could not African-
American students for jobs. 
"What kinds of won' t the school 

Clerical 

were made for 
typing classes to be to 
students who were interested. 

African-American history was 
introduced by a teacher having her 
students gather around a large sheet 
of paper. She drew a map of the world 
and explained to the students the 
relationships of some of the countries 
to the United States. She stopped at 
Africa. "What is important about this 
continent?" One student returned her 
question with one of his own. "Is 
this the place where Negro people came 
from?" The African-American history 
lessons had begun (Gillard, 1965). 

A recreational program also began 
on the first day (Gillard, 1965). The 
purposes were to have fun activities 
and to invol ve the students in 
discussing the differences in African­
American society compared with the 
dominate white society. An example of 
this program involved the playing of 
baseball. The teachers wanted to have 
the students critically examine their 
neighborhoods with something the 
students were involved with every day. 
The teachers suggested a game of 
baseball and the students readily 
agreed. The teachers asked where did 
the students usually play and the 
student took them to a rutted path 
between some of their homes. It was 
here on this street they played ball. 
After the game, a discussion was led 
as to why white children had playing 
fields and African-American children 
did not. Looking for a better baseball 
field was the result of the baseball 
game discussion. This was 
designed to start with students where 

in their own and 
to 

Jackson Freedom School 

the 
school 

(Howe, 1965; Zinn, 1964) on 
freedom schools showed the 

curriculum was of the 
curriculum, seven case 

African-American 
the and a series 

elective courses such as 

12 

taught in the afternoon. Other 
curriculum sources included using 
local events and movie films as 

for discussion (Lauter: 

an example of 
the 

her 11-14 year olds. 
She asked her students to describe 
their own houses with those 
of Jackson whites? the students 
described their houses and those white 
houses where either or their 
mothers worked as domestics, Howe 
asked what would they like to 
make in their own houses. The answers 
varied from adding additional rooms to 
more They did not, 
however, the "grandiose" white 
homes they had earlier described. 
They described their homes as being 
very comfortable. This led to a 
discussion on the conditions of the 
public schools they attended. The 
student responses were angry. 
Although their school was new, it was 
inferior as compared to the white 
schools. They resented the hand-me­
down textbooks, the inadequacies of 
the teachers and the repressive 
atmosphere of allowing no questions or 
discussions of any topic the students 
deemed important. 

Zinn (1964) provided an example of 
a freedom school teacher using the 
case study of how the Civil Rights 
Bill of 1963 became law. The teacher 
listed on the blackboard the reasons 
Barry Goldwater, Senator from Arizona, 
and Republican candidate for the 
presidency, gave for voting against 
the Civil Rights Bill. The bill was 
unconstitutional, would not end 
prejudice, could not be enforced, and 
violated the idea of states' rights. 
The class role-played these arguments. 
One boy, portraying Goldwater, 
defended these points with vigor, 
while another developed strong 
positions trying to break these points 
down. 

The elective courses, 
classes, films, 

local events 
students to 

of 
and 

those of 
, and 

(SHSW: COFO), students 
to write their own 

present I and 
of the 

A 



films, "Oliver Twist, n documentaries 
of Gandhi and the Montgomery bus 
boycott, "The Magician," and an 
animated cartoon, "The Hat," provided 
connections of the Civil Rights 
movement with non-violence techniques 
and world peace (Lauter: Interview; 
Howe, 1965). 

An example of using local events 
that took place in Jackson involved 
students" reading and discussing an 
editorial in the local newspaper which 
charged that Civil Rights workers were 
teaching African-American people to 
break the law. The teacher asked a 
question: 

"What do you think about that 
editorial? Is it true? If you 
could write a letter to the editor 
about it, what would you say? . • . 
Here's paper and pencil, go ahead. 
We'll pick out one or two and 
really send them to the editor." 
This was not education for grades, 
not writing for teacher's approval, 
but for an immediate use: it was a 
learning surrounded with urgency. 
And the students responded with 
seriousness, picking apart the 
issues: Are we for the law? Is 
there a higher law? When is civil 
disobedience justified? Then the 
teacher explored with them the 
differences between statutory law, 
constitutional law, "natural" law. 

(Zinn, 1964, p. 372) 

Holly Springs Freedom School 

Holly Springs freedom school began 
at 9 a.m. (Questionnaire: Pam Allen; 
SHSW: Hard). Singing Civil Rights 
folksongs went until 9:15. The 
students were then divided into 
classes according to age level and 
interest. The one class all students 
had to take was citizenship. From 
9: 30 to 10: 30, the core classes of 
African-American history and 
citizenship curriculum were offered. 
10:30 to 11:30, students had a choice 
of dance, drama, art, auto mechanics, 
guitar and folksinging, and sports. 
The school was closed from noon to 2 
p.m. In the afternoon, the school 
continued with classes in French, 
religion, crafts, music, playwriting, 
and journalism. At 4 p.m., the school 
ended with a seminar on non-violence. 

Pam Allen, a Holly Springs freedom 
school teacher, wrote about a 
experience she had in implementing 
Guide to Negro History: 

Let me describe one of my first 
classes and one of my favorite 
classes. I gave a talk on Haiti 

l3 

and the slave revolt which took 
place there at the end of the 18th 
century. I told them how the slaves 
revolted and took over the island. 
I told them how the French 
government (during the French 
Revolution) abolished slavery all 
over the French Empire. And then I 
told them that the English decided 
to invade the island and take it 
over for a colony of their own. I 
watched faces fall all around me. 
They knew what was coming. They 
knew the story of their people 
well. They knew that a small 
island, run by former slaves, could 
not defeat England. They knew that 
the Negroes always lost to the 
Europeans. And then I told them 
that the people of Haiti succeeded 
in keeping the English out. I 
watched a smile spread slowly over 
a girl"s face. And I felt the 
girls sit up and look at me 
intently. Then I told them that 
Napoleon came to power, reinstated 
slavery, and sent an expedition to 
reconquer Haiti. They looked at me 
and their faces began to fall. But 
they waited this time. They waited 
for me to tell them that France 
defeated the former slaves, hoping 
against hope that I would say that 
they didn't. But when I told them 
that the French generals tricked 
the Haitian leader Toussaint to 
come aboard their ship, captured 
him and sent him back to France to 
die, they knew that there was no 
hope. They waited for me to spell 
out the defeat. Former slaves, 
Negroes, could not defeat France 
who had the aid of England, 
Holland, and Spain, especially 
without a leader. And when I told 
them that Haiti did succeed in 
keeping out the European powers and 
was recognized finally as an 
independent republic, they just 
looked at me and smiled. The room 
stirred with a gladness and a pride 
that this could have happened. And 
I felt so happy and so humble that 
I could have told them this little 
story and it could have meant so 
much. (SHSW: Allen) 

Ruleville Freedom School 

The schedule of classes of the 
Ruleville freedom school began 
similarly to those of the schools 
described above (SHSW: Tecklin). 

into the freedom school program, 
the teachers realized many of the 
students were not excited with many of 
the classes (SHSW: Lynd). Prior to 
the of the freedom school, the 



teachers had come together and decided 
the overall curriculum would be 
planned co-operatively by the whole 
staff and each teacher had the right 
to develop his/her own curriculum. So 
after the beginning of the school, the 
staff realized that to motivate the 
students in attending the school, the 
teachers needed to revise the 
curriculum. The civic curriculum was 
to remain with two revisions (SHSW: 
Lynd) • 

The first revision was to add to 
the citizenship curriculum and the 
Guide to Negro History a class in 
world geography (SHSW: Demuth). Two 
countries and a continent were chosen 
for study because they emphasized 
various black cultures: Australia, 
Egypt, and Africa. The second 
revision to the civic curriculum was 
to add a general session prior to the 
scheduled classes. The general 
session would include motivational 
speakers from the freedom school 
staff, voter registration people, or 
SNCC visitors on topics such as the 
White southerner, the Negro in 
Mississippi, Gandhi and non-violence, 
and Mississippi Freedom Democratic 
Party. 

The staff made an additional change 
involving the freedom school as a 
student forum in community change 
(SHSW: Lynd; SHSW: Tecklin; SNCC: Reel 
40). A number of the freedom school 
students were concerned that their 
African-American teachers in their 
public school were afraid to register 
to vote and would not take the lead in 
demanding better integrated schools 
(SHSW: Davis). The students wanted to 
picket the public school to show their 
concern and hopefully cause the 
teachers to become active change 
agents. The freedom school teachers 
joined the students in a joint effort 
practicing picket strategies, role­
playing student interviews with their 
public school teachers on registering 
to vote, producing leaflets to join 
the picket to be given to all students 
in the public school, and constructing 
a pre-picket letter to the public 
school's principal and faculty 
presenting student demands. These 
freedom school experiences lead the 
students to organize under the threat 
of school suspension a number of 
public school students in a successful 
picket of the local high school. 

Milestone Freedom School 

An active approach to integrating 
the citizenship curriculum in 
developing students" leadership 
abilities for community activism 

14 

characterized the Milestone freedom 
school (SNCC: Reel 65). The students 
became so involved in writing and 
practicing a play, creating and 
staffing a freedom school newspaper, 
and preparing and participating in a 
mock precinct meeting in preparation 
for the Meridian Freedom School 
Convention using their learning 
experiences from the lessons in the 
Guide for Negro history and the 
citizenship curriculum, the freedom 
school teachers canceled the academic 
classes in the afternoon due to lack 
of time. Because the students wanted 
to be involved in creative ways of 
expression to implement the ideas from 
the civic curriculum to local events, 
the teachers believed that the short 
time they had with the students would 
be put to better use for student 
involvement than students spending 
their time passively studying other 
subjects. This decision was made with 
the consent of the students. 

INSTRUCTION 

Cobb (SNCC: Reels 27; 68) and those 
preparing the freedom school 
exper~ence (SNCC: Reels 67; 68; 69; 
Holt, 1966; Day: Interview; Lauter: 
Interview) wanted a curriculum that 
was to be derived "from the students" 
background" and teaching methods 
promoting classroom activities drawn 
from "an outgrowth of [the students'] 
experiences. " This ideology of the 
founders and the background of the 
students dictated the classroom 
methodology. Avoiding traditional 
teaching methods, they wanted to rely 
on progressive methods that would 
promote "student participation in 
learning a sense of the worth and 
equality among students, and the need 
to connect lessons to life ... " 
(Perlstein, 1990, p. 319). The purpose 
of freedom school teaching was to 
eschew the repressive mentality that 
dominated the black formal school 
system, not to mention the MissiSSippi 
SOCiety at large (Holt, 1966). 
Traditional instruction served as a 
form of oppression. This 
authoritarian instruction involved 
rote learning with lecture and testing 
by the teacher, and kept students in a 
passive, subservient role instead of 
funct as active for 
social change. 

This closed minded school 
evidenced by traditional 
taught the African-American youth not 
to trust others (particularly whites), 
to be cynical, and to be ill-prepared 
to function in their (SNCC: 
Reel 67). Therefore, the freedom 



school teachers had to use teaching 
methods that demonstrated to their 
students that the freedom school 
teachers were trustworthy, were 
respectful of their students and their 
experiences, and could be honest in 
their relationships with their 
students. A handout entitled "Notes 
on Teaching in Mississippi" (SHSW: 
Allen; SNCC: Reel 39) g1ven to the 
freedom school volunteers prior to the 
Mississippi experience, suggested how 
the teachers should respond to their 
students: 

What will they demand of you? They 
will demand that you be honest. 
Honesty is an attitude toward life 
which is communicated by everything 
you do. Since you, too, will be in 
a learning situation honesty 
means that you will questions 
as well as answer them. It means 
that if you don "t know something 
you will say so. It means that you 
will not "act" a part in the 
attempt to compensate for all 
they've endured in Mississippi. 
You can't compensate for that, and 
they don't want you to try. It 
would not be real, and the greatest 
contribution that you can make to 
them is to be real. 

The suggested basic method of 
instruction was discussion. The rough 
draft of the citizenship curriculum 
(SNCC: Reel 67) showed that of all the 
methods suggested to teach each 
particular set of content within each 
lesson, the discussion method 
overwhelmingly dominated. The 
discussion method was strongly 
suggested above other methods because 
the method provided for 
1. Encouraging expression; 
2. Exposing feelings (bringing them 

into the open where they may be 
dealt with productively); 

3. Permitting the participation of 
students on various levels; 

4. Developing group loyalties and 
responsibility; [and] 

5. Permitting the sharing of strengths 
and weaknesses of individual group 
members. (SNCC: Reel 39) 

Other progressive methods were 
suggested: drama, art, singing, 
resource people, films, role 
creative writing (especial 
and the creation of local 
school newspapers), and social action 
projects (Sutherland, 1965; SNCC:Reel 
67; Lauter: Interview; SHSW: Allen). 
Discussion, however, was to be used as 
a follow-up technique to these methods 
"to make certain that the material has 
been learned" (SNCC: 39). 

15 

The discussion method was intended 
to promote affective and cognitive 
results among students (Holt, 1966; 
Day: Interview). Students needed the 
opportunities to express feelings and 
beliefs about their lives without 
judgement. Many of these students had 
never had any such open experiences. 
On the other hand, it was expected 
discussions would revolve around 
learning of useful knowledge so that 
students would have an academic 
foundation. Unfortunately that was 
not always the case. Some discussions 
lacked educational standards, as 
described by Ronald de Sousa: 

The class tends to degenerate 
into discussion of anything from 
standards of Negro beauty to the 
Marxist view of private property. 

. They are eager to argue, in 
some ways less eager to learn; some 
days ago I was attempting to give 
some minimal account of certain 
facts, when one of the more 
brilliant and remarkable pupils, 
but somewhat headstrong, declared 
that no offense, but, all this was 
rather boring, and it would be 
better if other people got a chance 
to speak, and if we could have 
discussions. I often think of the 
difficulties which we will (for 
these schools will be continued all 
year) have in making the transition 
from this school to one where solid 
academic discipline must be 
imposed. (Robert de Sousa Journal, 
July 23, 1964) 

The role-play method proved to be 
very effective instructionally with 
all age groups bringing to the surface 
the hidden attitudes of the young 
people (" It was a form of catharsis 
for them" [SHSW: Adickes]), practicing 
critical consciousness ("And it puts 
them [students] in other people"s 
shoes. We don "t want to win easy 
arguments over straw foes. They have 
got to be tough thinkers, tough 
arguers" [Zinn, 1964, p. 373]), and 
measuring students" comprehension of 
the civic curriculum ("I think this 
technique should be used as frequently 
as where it proves 
successful" [SNCC: Reel 68). The 
short, creative dramatizations were 
also among the most popular freedom 
school classes for the students ("This 
proved far and away the most popular 
and there were sometimes as many as 30 

40 in a group" [SHSW: Lynd]). 
demonstrated the 

advocation the freedom 
curriculum designers wanting to 

the role-play method because 
believed the method would 



the expression of a wide range of 
feelings by the students, involve 
their total selves, stimulate 
creativity, provide the teacher with 
insights about the students, and at the 
same time, get across the content 
material" (SHSW: Allen). A civics 
class in a Hattiesburg freedom school 
showed how the method was implemented: 

We had a marvelous time at school 
today with a mock demonstration as 
a role-playing device designed to 
illustrate what Negroes have done 
to fight for their rights. A 
Volkswagen bus served as a "white 
only" restaurant complete with 
sign. The younger children, 
carrying and wearing signs, 
picketed in an orderly and very 
professional way, first in silence 
and then singing, according to the 
directions of their leader. They 
even held firm when at one point "a 
segregationist" poured water on 
them as they went by from a jug 
held over their heads. Along with 
some of the older girls, who played 
members of the Citizens Council, 
the white teachers played 
segregationists. This was a sort 
of test for both children and 
teachers: it took courage for us to 
assume this role and know the 
children might become frightened 
and more unsure than they are 
already of our real feelings, and 
it took courage for the children to 
accept our position as temporary. 
It appeared that we all passed. 
The police, played with vengeance 
by some of the older boys, came and 
hauled the pickets off to jail when 
they refused to disperse. The 
whole thing went off beautifully, 
with enthusiasm, and spontaneous 
creativity displayed on all sides. 

(Sutherland, 1965, p.106-107) 

Lecturing had a limited role in the 
citizenship curriculum (SNCC: Reel 
67) . Occasionally its use was 
suggested; however, it was not 
intended to be used often nor to 
replace the other methods. Reports 
indicate that there were teachers who 
did use the lecture method for a 
variety of reasons: at New Bethel 
teachers used lectures because the 
method "gave out information at a much 
faster rate" (SNCC:Reel 67), and the 
teachers at Gluckstadt freedom school 
lectured primarily because of lack of 
student materials and resources, of 
information (If there were such 
materials and resources, there "would 
be more discussion and less lecturing" 
[SNCC: Reel 67). Clarksdale 
(SNCC:Reel 67) one of their 

16 

freedom schools was conducted "on a 
somewhat formal level, as opposed to 
roundtable discussions. . but this 
does not seem to be particularly 
detrimental to the school." A school 
in Madison County (SNCC:Reel 68) 
devoted the first hour and a half of 
each day's schedule "to Negro History 
with the entire student body attending 
a lecture given by one teacher and 
then individual groups of students 
discussing the lecture with their 
respective teacher, " and another 
school in Pleasant Green (SHSW: 
Ooiman) "experimented with letting the 
students take over the lectures and 
discussion-leading and were excited by 
the good results." 

Gulfport Freedom School 

The Gulfport freedom schools 
incorporated many of the suggestions 
found in the "Notes for Teaching in 
Mississippi" (Gillard, 1965). 
Discussion and creative writing 
dominated. Students were actively 
discussing and debating and raising 
questions as to their way of life. 
Debating became so successful, 
contests were set up with neighboring 
freedom schools. A number of films 
were shown on the theme of nonviolence 
as a philosophical approach to freedom 
followed by many lively discussions. 
Creative writing was meant to give 
students their own voice to express 
deep feelings about their personal 
experiences. They wrote letters to 
federal officials about the deplorable 
conditions in which they lived, 
published a school newspaper, The 
Press of Freedom (SNCC: Reel 39), 
containing student work of creative 
stories, poetry, critical essays, 
editorials, personal experiences, and 
news reporting, and created a short 
play entitled "Memories of Freedom 
School," (SNCC: Reel 39). The plot of 
the short play emphasized one of the 
more memorable activities in the 
Gulfport freedom school - singing: 
Narrator: The day begins with singing. 

Beverly Washington will take 
the part of Florence, the 
teacher. 

Florence: Would you all like to sing 
some songs? 

All: Yes. 
Florence: What would you like to sing? 
All: Oh Freedom. singing.) 
Florence: Are you sure you do not want 

to be slaves? 
All: Yes, of course! 

Florence: Then why don't you sing this 
song like it has some 
meaning to you. it 



again. 
All: Sing. 
Florence: How about "Which Side Are 

All: 
Florence: 
All: 

You On?" 
Sing. 
Which side are you on? 
The freedom side! 

Singing songs about freedom and 
lessons from the songs was very 
important in the Gulfport freedom 
schools. Teachers would ask the 
students what song they would like to 
sing (Jones, 1964), then all the 
students including the teacher would 
begin fervently singing: 

"Which Side Are You On, Boy?" "Oh 
Freedom." "I Woke Up This Morning 
With My Mind Stayed on Freedom." 
"They Say That Freedom Is a 
Constant Struggle." "Ain"t Gonna 
Let Nobody Turn Me Back." "Ain"t 
Gonna Let No segregation Turn Me 
Back." "No Sheriff ... No Governor 

No Uncle Tom ... No Jim Crow 
The teacher in between verses 

stopped the singing and started 
asking questions. 

"Now what is this freedom we 
want?" "Who are these people who 
turn us back?" "Who are they doing 
a job for?" "That"s right the 
people who vote for him." "And who 
votes in this town?" "Well, it"s 
mostly the whites." How do we get 
people to do the jobs for Negroes 
as well as whites?" "By getting all 
the people to register to vote." 

At the end of every Freedom 
School session there was one 
special song, a very solemn song. 
It required everyone to gather in a 
circle and join hands for a time, 
each thinking in his own mind about 
the meaning of Freedom and about 
people like Medgar Evers, Herbert 
Lee, and the three Civil Rights 
workers in Neshoba County, and all 
the others who have died fighting 
for Freedom in Mississippi. Faces 
grow sad and earnest. Someone 
begins. "We Shall Overcome ... We 
are not afraid ... Truth shall set 
us free." Everyone knows that 
overcoming will be difficult 
because there are many white and 
Negro people who are afraid of 
Freedom. The song lets students 
and teachers know the of 
their lives; that all the great 
number of years which compr ise a 
life isn't so many after all when 
there is Freedom to be fought for. 

(Jones, 1964, p.5) 

Jackson Freedom School 

Howe (1965) and Zinn (1964) offered 

17 

rich descriptions of the use of 
teaching methodology in the Jackson 
freedom schools. The chief tool of 
the Jackson freedom school was the 
discussion method. Howe claimed the 
biggest problem the teachers 
encountered was learning not to talk 
at the students, but to question 
creatively and then listen. Not only 
was the method of discussion 
important, but also how the discussion 
took place physically. Rows, with a 
teacher standing in front, would not 
do. Not only would this hamper free 
expression, but would also stress 
inequality between the teacher and 
students. To solve this authoritarian 
problem, students and the teacher sat 
in a circle facing each other. 
Discussions usually followed the 
outlined curriculum and as a follow up 
to showing films, readings like James 
Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, and Richard 
Wright, role playing (one of the 
school"s favorite procedures) and 
1 istening to resource people such as 
Pete Seger, a national known 
folksinger who sang, taught, and 
discussed songs of other countries. 
Discussions usually followed a pattern 
of three steps after the students and 
teachers became seated in their 
"discussion circle." The discussion 
started with the questions. "How do 
you feel about ... ?" or "How would you 
feel if ... ?" Next, after responses, 
these questions were asked: "Why do 
you feel this way?" or "Why would 
anyone feel this way?" And finally, 
as the discussion progressed, the 
teacher would ask: "How do you feel 
about her/his idea?" or "What do yo 
think about his/her experience?" 

Writing played an important part in 
the political education of the Jackson 
students. The writing experience 
filled a need for self-worth, a 
feeling of being in control, and 
having some power to do something. 
Students wrote speeches as if they 
were senators urging the passage of 
the Civil Rights Bill. Zinn (1964) 
had his students react to various news 
articles and editorials in a local 
newspaper by responding with critical 
editorials of their own. Howe (1965) 
had her students read poems by 

and e. e. cummings I 
a discussion on students 

reactions and feel , instructed on 
poetry form, had write group 
and individual poems on personal 
experiences and aspirations, and had 
them share their poems with each 
other, followed by intense 
discussions. The following poem, 
entitled "Mine" Alice Jackson, came 
from Howens (1965) 



I want to walk the streets of a town, 
Turn into any restaurant and sit down, 
And be served the food of my choice, 
And not be met by a hostile voice. 
I want to live in the best hotel for a 

week, 
Or go for a swim at a public beach. 
I want to go to the best university 
And not be met with violence or 

uncertainty. 
I want the things my ancestors 
Thought we'd never have. 
They are mine as a Negro, an American; 
I shall have them or be dead. 

(p. 157) 

Community involvement became an 
important concern for the Jackson 
school. "Students had direct evidence 
that their [freedom) school experience 
had led them to create something that 
was lasting and profound" (Howe, 1965, 
p. 156-157). In the third week of 
freedom school, it was announced on 
that Tuesday, Afr ican-Amer ican first 
graders would be able to register to 
attend an all-white elementary 
school. Apprehension ran high in the 
African-American community. To 
encourage the registration, 36 local 
African-American ministers called for 
a Tuesday prayer meeting. Monday 
morning, Howe began a discussion on 
the "myth" of Negro inferiority. 
Silence. She then asked if anyone in 
the class knew any first graders 
beginning public school. Everyone 
did. Did anyone know of a first 
grader going to attend the white 
elementary school? No one did. Why? 
Responses were var ied : the whi te 
school was too far away, my mother 
wanted my brother to be with his 
friends. No one talked about the fear 
of trying to integrate a white school. 

Howe, wanting her students to be 
honest with their feelings, asked 
"What am I going to say to my friends 
back north when they ask me why Negro 
mothers haven"t registered their 
children in white schools? That they 
like things the way they are?" (Howe, 
1965, p. 186). Students began to 
explore their feelings of fear, loss 
of jobs, personal safety, and possible 
failure in the white schools. Then a 
shift took place. The students were 
discussing positive reasons why the 
first graders ought to the 
white elementary school. 

One student suggested to the class 
they needed to go out into the 
neighborhood and talk to reluctant 
parents about sending their children 
to the white school. Howe 
the class role the 
experiences of school students 

18 

encountering reluctant parents. 
Students immediately volunteered for 
the parts of mother, father, child and 
two freedom school students. During 
the role-play all of the previous 
arguments were rehearsed. A1 though 
the father wasn' t convinced, the 
mother thought she would try to send 
her child to the white school when the 
students left. After the role play, 
plans were made to go out into the 
neighborhoods. 

One of the freedom school teachers 
and a number of student volunteers 
spent the balance of Monday afternoon, 
Monday night, and most of Tuesday 
talking to over 70 families about 
attending the Tuesday night· sprayer 
meeting. Transportation would be 
provided. One mother out of 27 
assurances showed up. Undaunted, the 
next day, the freedom school students 
began the 70 visits again. On 
Thursday afternoon eleven out of a 
possible 43 African-American first 
grade children in Jackson registered 
to attend the previous all-white 
public elementary school. 

Holly Springs Freedom School 

As a freedom school teacher in 
Holly Springs, Pam Allen taught 
classes of 20-30 high school aged 
students in citizenship curriculum, 
religion, and non-violence and 
assisted in the drama class. Her 
experiences (Questionnaire: Allen) in 
using teaching techniques provide an 
example of how the freedom school 
teachers in Holly Springs presented 
their content. The teaching 
techniques Allen used included: 
lectures ( "I shared what I was 
learning. I am an excellent speaker, 
a storyteller actually. Both I 
enjoyed the verbal sharing and the 
girls" enthusiastic responses kept me 
at it."), storytelling ("My lectures 
on Negro history were really telling 
students to share experiences but we 
didn"t tell myths or legends."), 
discussion ,"It was fun, very exciting 
and alive. We always had discussion 
after my presentation. I believe it 

and no pulling 
trying to pul ideas out of 

the students."), creative writing 
("For self-expression and sharing"), 
resource people ("We utilized the 
voter registration men. Someone spoke 
every morning before classes began."), 
drama, ("The kids developed their own 
play. Kids chose the topic, Medgar 
Evers killing, divided up the 
and the characters role-played 

school newspaper ( "We 
a newsletter made up of 



student writings."), and community 
action ("It"s what the school was 
about-- educating students for 
involvement in changing the social 
conditions. Main work was registering 
people into the MFDP [Mississippi 
Freedom Democratic Party."). 

The Holly Springs freedom school 
newspaper, The Freedom News, played an 
important role in providing the 
African-American students 
opportunities to administer 
leadership, to express personal 
feelings and critical analysis about 
personal , community, and national 
experiences, and to involve themselves 
in the community (Questionnaire: 
Alleni SHSW: Hardi Futorian: 
Interview). The students did most of 
the work and made most of the 
decisions. The Freedom News was the 
first freedom school newspaper in 
Mississippi. Four editions were 
published with articles on national 
and community news, critical essays on 
why African-Americans should vote, why 
whites ought to accept African­
Americans, and on the involvement of 
the Holly Springs mayor attempting to 
get rid of the freedom summer workers, 
a creative story on how a white 
businessman accepts African-American 
workers as equals, a poem on the 
J.F.K. assassination, and a tribute to 
the freedom schools. 

Dramas, student-written and 
performed, played an important role in 
the freedom schools. Student 
involvement in the plays caused some 
of these students to become actively 
involved in the civil rights movement 
(Futorian: Interview; de Berry: 
Interview). After participating in a 
freedom school play, one student 
stated, 

In fact, I'd say that was the first 
time I really became personally, 
deeply, emotionally involved in the 
movement. Up to then, it was sort 
of a job, something that had to be 
done and so we did it. But this 
was different. 

(Lukas, 1968i p. 86) 

Of the many student dramas performed 
throughout the freedom schools, the 
most memorable was the Holly Springs 
freedom school"s drama, "The Seeds of 
Freedom,· (SNCC: Reels 6; 37; 68i 
SHSW: Hunni SHSW: Alleni Lukas, 1968). 
It played not only in a number of 
other freedom schools, but played at 
the Meridian freedom school 
convention, toured in the semi­

Free Southern Theater, 
and was performed in New York City 
(SHSW: Futorian). 

19 

The play began as a suggested 
activity in the Holly Springs freedom 
school's creative writing workshop 
(SNCC: Reel 6). Students decided they 
wanted to do a play on the life and 
death of Medger Evers, a Mississippi 
civil rights leader. None of the 
students had the slightest experience 
in playwriting. Deborah Flynn, a New 
York public school teacher, suggested 
to the students that they improvise 
the story. "The dialogue, 
except for the quotes," explained 
Flynn,"is indicated or simply outlined 
as a series of suggested ideas to 
carry forward the action of the play. 
Dialogue in this type of play should 
never be considered as words to be 
studied by heart and repeated by rote. 
This play form is particularly well­
suited to present ideas of action" 
(SHSW: Allen). 

With Flynn providing the historical 
content of Evers' life and death, the 
students for two weeks bit-by-bit 
acted out the story until the scenes 
were scripted. The title of the play 
came during a class discussion about 
Evers. A female student said, "I 
don"t think of him as really dead. I 
feel that from his grave is growing a 
huge tree which is spreading seeds of 
freedom allover" (Lukas, 1968, p. 
84) . "Seeds of Freedom" became the 
title of the play. 

The 50 minute play began with the 
actor-students sitting in the audience 
coming on stage at a designated time 
to tell in their own words their part 
of the story. The narrator begins: 

And this is a play about Freedom. 
. about us! Yes, us because every 
step we take along the Freedom 
Road, every time we act, every time 
we do something to move forward 
along the Freedom Road we plant a 
seed. And seeds are blowing in the 
wind today. (SHSW: Allen). 

The first scene then takes the 
audience to the home of the Evers 
family in Jackson, Mississippi. Mrs. 
Evers explains to her two children 
while they wait for Medger Evers to 
return home for dinner about the civil 
rights work with which he is involved. 
After a threatening phone call, Evers 
car is heard pulling into the family 
driveway, then a shot rang out. 
Medger Evers is dead. The second 
scene finds the returning home 
from Ever"s funeral, his son very 
bitter. His mother takes the time to 
teach him an principle (this 
play line was written by Ira Moore, 
the student who Mrs. Evers): 



Oh Darrell, don't talk this way. I 
too hated all whites the first day 
Daddy was murdered. But I don' t 
hate anymore. We must not hate 
even our worst enemy. We may hate 
only what they do. It was Daddy 
himself who taught us this. He 
wouldn't want you to hate or kill. 
Daddy is not dead in the inside of 
us. But if you hate, you will kill 
him. 

(SHSW: Allen) 

The next two scenes portray the 
travesty of the white Mississippi 
court system allowing Ever's murderer 
to go free. The last scene, the 
narrator returns: 

Here today we have talked of two 
men: one alive but forever dead. 
The other, Medgar Evers, dead. But 
having died for a cause, a noble 
cause, he will live forever. Don't 
you believe me? Then come see, 
come watch the hundreds, the 
thousands who are carrying on the 
work, who are joining the movement 

(Lukas, 1968, p. 85) 

After that narration, each freedom 
school student, one by one, went to 
the stage and told the audience of 
adults why they, the students, joined 
the civil rights movement. 

I believe it is time for the Negro to 
progress, to assume all the rights 
and the duties of free men. 

Attending Freedom school gives us the 
chance to learn to make that 
progress. 

As Freedom school students, we are 
helping in voter registration 
because we feel that the fight for 
freedom in Mississippi must be 
fought not only by the adults, but 
by the teenager. 

We go to Freedom school because we 
feel this is the era of changing 
conditions, and we want to 
participate meaningfully in that 
change. (Lukas, 1968, p. 85-86) 

At the end of these testimonies, 
the entire cast on the stage with the 
audience ended the play by singing: 

Wetfre voting now 
We"re voting now 
We"re now for 1 
Our years of slavery now are 

ending. 
We"ll walk and talk till we are 

free. (Lukas, 1968, p.86) 
Ruleville Freedom School 

Many of the same teaching methods 
used in the above three Freedom 
schools were also used in Ruleville 

20 

(SHSW: Lynd). One interesting 
difference was that the methods were 
aimed at promoting a community 
activity helping the students to 
prepare and effect a protest picket 
against their high school. Art work 
was directed to picket sign making, 
creative writing to designing leaflets 
to convince other students to join the 
cause and letters to the school"s 
principal and teachers presenting 
students" demands, newspapers for 
keeping the public informed about the 
students" protest of the high school, 
role-playing for practicing how to 
effect the picket, and drama for 
portraying with a 20-member cast the 
story of the picket of the school. 

Ruleville did have a number of 
outside resource people bringing to 
the students a variety of events that 
appeared to capture their attention 
about the Civil Rights movement. A 
touring folk singer group, "Caravan of 
Music," visited six different times 
providing entertainment with social 
songs about the movement. Thirteen 
women from various national women"s 
organizations gave a one day 
presentation about the movement in 
Ruleville followed by a discussion 
among the students. The third event 
was the presentation of the play "In 
White America" by the Mississippi 
touring company, the Free Southern 
Theater (SNCC: Reel 38; Hinman-Smith, 
in progress; O"Neal: Interview). The 
historical play of African-Americans 
experiences in the United States was 
acted out on the back porch of the 
freedom school building. Kristy 
Powell described the experience: 

The audience almost became a part 
of the play. Small boys climbed on 
to the porch to go to the bathroom 
in the middle of a scene, dogs and 
hens paraded in front of the stage 
and there was an intimacy and 
informality about the performance 
that underlined for me the 
impression that the play was woven 
out of the very stuff of these 
people"s lives. (SHSW: Lynd) 

Powell (SHSW: provided a 
description of her own teaching 
experience trying to a 

ive curriculum with tradit­
teaching methods. Powell taught 

two classes at Ruleville, African­
American to 13-14 year olds 
and reading to those students at or 
above a 5th grade reading level. Her 
method of teaching African-American 
history was to introduce a topic by 
telling a story, then talk about the 
topic in some detail, show 



then have the students reading 
something on the topic. This 
generally took a day. She would find 
as many resources as she was able and 
for the next two or three days she 
would allow students to freely 
interact with the topic through the 
resources. Some students "did 
historical, some creative writing, 
some dre w pictures, or copied poems, 
or copied historical documents. » 

At the end of each unit, she would 
display every student .. s work on the 
back porch of the school building. 

Powell's reading class was an 
example of a remedial academic class 
aimed at incorporating aspects of the 
civic curriculum intended to help 
students not only to read but also 
read in order to critically examine 
Mississippi society. Powell's choice 
of content included readings on 
AfricanAmerican history found in Ebony 
Magazine, (a African-American oriented 
popular magazine), Frederick Douglas' 
articles, Martin Luther King, Jr. 's "I 
Have a Dream" speech, poems such as 
Margaret Burrough's "What Shall I Tell 
my Children Who are Black?," and 
copies of the local freedom school 
newspaper, Freedom Fighter. She 
followed a standard procedure used at 
that time in many of the basal reading 
systems: 

1. Introduce the piece to be read, 
arousing interest, supplying 
background, explaining new 
concepts. In the process of doing 
this introduce any words that you 
think are new or difficult, or 
perhaps merely basic to 
understanding the reading, and 
write them on the blackboard, as 
you use them. 

2. Have the class read the passage 
silently section by section, posing 
a question to direct and motivate 
their reading before each section, 
and discussing the answers briefly 
at the end of each section read. 
How long each section to be read 
should be will depend on many 
things, notably the skill of the 
group. I found that a reading, 3/4 
page of typed quarto long, 
consisting of 3 or 4 paragraphs, 
was enough to do in one hour-- long 
lesson, and we generally read it 
silently paragraph by paragraph. 

3. 

4. 

Read the 
orally--­
in turn. 
Discuss 

whole. 

whole passage through 
usually around the class 

of passage as 
(SHSW: 

21 

Powell believed that both the 
reading content and her training 
procedures allowed students to 
participate in very pertinent and 
moving discussions comparing the 
reading content to the existing 
conditions in Mississippi. 

Mileston Freedom School 

The theme that highlighted Mileston 
freedom school's use of instructional 
methodology was student collective 
involvement in critically examining 
their existing community (SNCC: Reel 
65). Students were actually involved 
in writing for and producing a school 
and community newspaper, creating and 
dramatizing a play for the community, 
canvassing and registering African­
American adults to vote, and preparing 
for the Meridian Student Convention. 
The Mileston Minute, the freedom 
school newspaper, came out in at least 
three editions (SNCC: Reel 65). The 
four to six page paper contained 
student stor ies of local people 
involved in community work, critical 
essays about labor conditions for both 
African-Americans and poor whites, 
articles on African-American history, 
editorials on beliefs on the concept 
of freedom, and numerous poems ranging 
from thoughts on African-American 
history to African-American self­
discovery. This was a designed 
activity to involve students in both 
interviewing others and writing about 
those and other experiences. Teachers 
hoped these exper iences prepared the 
students for effective community 
service. 

The Mileston play, "The American 
Negro," was very popular with the 
students who produced it and the 
community for whom it was performed 
(SNCC: Reel 65). The performance of 
"The American Negro" was the 
culminating activity in a community 
meeting advocating political 
invol vement. The play depicted the 
experiences and conditions of African­
Americans in a historical context. 
The first scene showed a variety of 
Native Africans blacks free, happy, 
and proud to be a "dark and beautiful 
race. .. Then the scenes changed to 
slavery, Nat Turner"s revolt and a 
mother and child chopping cotton 
talking freedom and being whipped for 
such ideas. Scenes changed to the 
Civil War and to a segregated South. 
The scene then changed to a composite 
end of both world wars to make the 
world (but not the South) safe for 

and the next to the last 
scene, two African-American men 
talking of lost sons and lost freedoms 



when the Ku Klux Klan rushed in to 
kill them both. In scene 7, the 
narrator stepped on the stage and 
talked directly to the audience: 

I am the American Negro. 
You have seen my past; you have known 

my past. 
And you have seen the trouble I"ve 

seen. 
Today we have seen many men die 
Because they stood for their rights. 
Today we have seen three men disappear 
For joining in our fight. 
Tomorrow many more will die. 
And many more will suffer, 
But we"ve begun and we are not turning 

back 
And someday, somehow we shall 

overcome! 
(SNCC: Reel 65) 

Finishing his speech, he invited 
the community gathering to join in 
with the cast and sLng "We Shall 
Overcome." Edith Black, a volunteer 
teacher who witnessed the performance, 
wrote that the audience was clearly 
moved (SNCC: Reel 65). 

In many of the Mississippi 
communities involved in the freedom 
summer project, there were both 
freedom schools volunteers and voter 
registration volunteers. Unfort­
unately, the two groups at times were 
in conflict due to the value each 
group placed on their own program 
(McAdam, 1988). Those conflicts, 
however, did not exist at Mileston 
(SNCC: Reel 65). Both groups worked 
together to help the Mileston 
community overcome the prevailing 
repressive conditions. The freedom 
school students participated after 
classes in canvassing the African­
American neighborhoods, showing adults 
how the fill out voter registration 
forms and obtaining commitments to go 
to the town courthouse and register to 
vote. Because of this experience, the 
students came to realize the 
importance of voter registration in 
Mileston. In the freedom school 
classes the students discussed the 
possibilities of contacting the many 
African-American laborers on the 
surrounding plantations around 
Mileston. To accomplish this 
objective, the high school students 
organized the Mileston Action Group 
(MAG) to carry out voter registration 
after the summer volunteers left. 

Preparation for the Meridian 
Freedom School Convention provided a 
number of opportunities for students 
to learn leadership skills, how to 
propose and make changes, and how to 
articulate thoughts (SNCC: Reel 65). 

22 

The entire school wanted to draw up a 
political platform (reports do not 
describe the content of the platform) 
for the three chosen delegates to the 
convention. Mock precinct meetings 
were staged in the classes in which 
students and teachers discussed local 
and political issues. Those issues 
the student thought to be more 
important were then discussed in small 
groups. These small groups researched 
and prepared motions on their 
positions. Then the small groups came 
together and debated their positions 
until they were able to hammer out a 
representative platform. The platform 
was eventually presented and voted on 
at the Meridian Freedom School 
Convention. 

EVALUATION 

Little was said about the role of 
evaluation in freedom schools (Norma 
Becker: Questionnaire). Sandra 
Adickes (SHSW: Adickes), a Hattiesburg 
freedom school teacher, claimed a 
major reason why Freedom schools were 
such an exciting educational adventure 
was there were no report cards. It 
would appear the curriculum makers not 
only wanted to avoid traditional 
teaching methods but also traditional 
evaluation/testing techniques. 
Traditional testing was as oppressive 
as traditional methods as it forced 
students to be afraid and submissive 
and caused loss of self-worth (SHSW: 
Allen). It was suggested in one 
curriculum report that testing was an 
unfortunate fact of life and, 
therefore, needed to be taught to 
students within the context of 
domination and submission so students 
would be able to counteract test 
results (SNCC: Adickes Curriculum 
Report - Reel 67). Another curriculum 
report (SHSW: Allen) suggested not to 
formally test students because testing 
did not accomplish much as a teaching 
device, therefore, it was a waste of 
time at best. At worst it was 
detrimental to students because 
testing usually served to discourage 
students. 

Reports indicate many teachers used 
little or no formal testing SHSW: 
Ooiman; Futorian: Interv ). 
However, they found it necessary to 
assess what students did and did not 
know in order to help students build a 
better life for themselves 
(Sutherland, 1965). In other words, 
evaluation had to build and promote. 
Deborah Flynn (SNCC: Reel 6) came to 
realize her responsibility in 

writ was to 
"upgrade" students in improving their 



language and communication skills. 
She found students needed to be part 
of the evaluation process. It 
promoted self-growth as her students 
evaluated each other"s writing 
assignment. She also found this 
collaborative effort built community 
relations. 

Another reason for informal 
evaluation was to have students 
critically examine themselves and 
their ideas in light of new knowledge 
in order to promote self-growth. 
Jerry Tecklin (SHSW) provided such an 
example. One of his students, 
Deloris, writing on the topic "What 
are some problems Negroes will face in 
the future?", believed that for 
African-Americans to become equal and 
to gain their freedoms based on the 
principles that all men are created 
equal as written by Abraham Lincoln, a 
war was needed. She continued to 
discuss some problems African­
Americans need to overcome in order to 
become free. She claimed it was 
beginning to happen and the whites 
were trying to stop African-Americans 
from being equal. "But when it does 
happen it is going to be a lot of 
trouble in the State of Mississippi." 

Tecklin made the traditional 
grammar corrections and wrote on the 
paper next to "Lincoln" the correct 
information: "All men created equal 
written by Thomas Jefferson." 
However, these technical corrections 
were the least of Tecklin"s concern. 
He wanted to deal with Deloris"s 
hostility. Instead of lecturing her 
about her feelings, he provided her 
with a number of questions to 
critically examine those feelings. 

Is war between whites and blacks 
the only way to get your freedom? 
Do you know of another way? You 
have a good idea of what is wrong 
in Mississippi but might there be 
better ways of improving 
conditions. Why don't whites want 
Negroes to learn? Keep trying to 
ask yourself these questions. 

(SHSW: Tecklin) 

This type of evaluation promoted 
growth and harmony, demonstrating 
teacher love and concern for the 
student. Deloris needed to know some 
of her information was incorrect. She 
also needed to know her feel and 
opinions were of worth. Tecklin 
provided that knowledge in his 
questions not in his juyucmc 

It could be argued the Meridian 
Freedom School Convention was a 

23 

of final exam (Gillard, 1965; Lynd, 
1965; SHSW: Zinn) . Seventy-five 
delegates representing all of the 
freedom schools came together for 
three days in August to hammer out a 
youth political platform to be used in 
conjunction with the Mississippi 
Freedom Democratic Party. Cornelia 
Mack (SHSW: Parks) in a letter to 
family and friends wrote how the 
student convention was a culminating 
activity of the freedom schools: 

I wish I could convey to you the 
excitement of the convention. 
Imagine a thousand or so high­
school students, most of whom have 
been raised in poverty and have 
gone to poor schools, few of whose 
relatives have ever voted, who know 
policeman in general as people to 
avoid in time of trouble and white 
men as people who may have fathered 
their great grandparents and 
cheated their grandparent and 
parents. Next, give these young 
people a month in a freedom school, 
discussing, arguing, debating, 
learning about the Declaration of 
Independence and the Constitution 
and about Negroes who have 
struggled for better conditions for 
their people, and discussing, 
arguing, and debating. Finally, 
transport seventy-five of the 
brightest of them from many parts 
of the state to one room in 
Meridian and step aside. You, as 
one of some hundreds of freedom 
school teachers, gave them an 
initial nudge and they have taken 
off. 

The student delegates brought with 
them political resolutions drawn up by 
students in each freedom school (See 
the process of the Mileston Freedom 
School; SHSW: Zinn). In a number of 
workshops and general assemblies they 
vigorously discussed and sorted out 
the various freedom school resolutions 
until a cohesive platform was 
developed and accepted by all 
delegates (Lynd, 1965; SNCC: Reels 39; 
67; 68; SHSW: Friesen). One 
resolution provides an example of what 
the students did. The resolution 
calling for academic freedom for 
teachers into a lively 
debate as JoAnne Grant 
(1964) : 

When some students proposed a 
resolution on academic freedom, for 
teachers, I debate developed 
over whether meant a teacher 
might be free to force his ideas on 
the students. Others argued 
freedom for teachers to teach 

and voter 
Still others argued for unqualified 



academic freedom so teachers could 
teach "different forms of 
government." One said: "I hear all 
this about communism. I want to 
learn it in school." Focus of the 
discussion on education was the age 
and of teachers: "How can 
we listen to a teacher talk about 

and and voter 
when afraid to 

(p. 5) 

Gulfport Freedom School 

The only of a freedom school 
to discuss the role of evaluation was 
Gulfport (Gillard, 1965). There was 
no formal evaluation of student work. 
There were a number of to assess 
student development: () teacher 
observations of changes in student 
behavior, (2) students" public 
presentations of their work; (3) 
student writing skills evident in the 
freedom school newspaper; (4) student 
speaking skills shown in the debates 
and discussions; and (5) student 
reading skills observed in the books 
read and discussed. If there was a 
final exam it was the political 
platform written by the student 
delegates for the Meridian Freedom 
School Convention. 

Ruleville Freedom School 

Although not described as an 
evaluation activity, the Ruleville 
Freedom Festival, on the last day of 
school, showed characteristics of 
public presentations as a form of 
possible assessment (See SHSW: Lynd; 
SHSW: Tecklin). The program of the 
Festival included a student puppet 
play on the valiant knight, Bob Moses 
(SNCC Field Secretary) vs. the wicked 
witch, Segregation; student play, 
"Uncle Tom's High School," telling the 
story of the Ruleville student protest 
and picket; choral readings of Eve 
Merr iam • s poems i three freedom songs 
written by students, two of 
students' poems on the Montgomery Bus 
Boycott, ending with everyone 
"We Shall Overcome." 

CLASSROOM MAHAGEMENT 

While 
evaluation 
there 
about 

was said about 
Freedom schools, 

of teachers 
need for 
form of 
students 

less 
A 

24 

Interview). That may be true because 
attendance to the freedom schools was 
totally voluntary. In some incidents, 
freedom schools were 

on with the 
who 

to be there. Classroom 
to be minimal. At 

not knowing what to 
as the teachers 

... '>1'""" . .,,, .... , ) • As the 

want 
also 

to be drawn out, the curriculum 
teaching methodology to 
them both busy and as 

to bored and 
"Our school," noted 

Sandra Adickes SHSW) , "was by any 
definition a school no 
attendance sheets absentee post 
cards truant officers or report 
cards - just perfect attendance." 

There were reports that indicate 
there were motivational problems and 
discipline problems which led to some 
difficulty in operating the schools 
(SNCC: Reels 64; 68). Ooiman (SHSW) 
described such a situation: 

Only one daytime encounter worth 
recording-that with two 
professional women teachers (late 
20"s) who have driven away two 
fellow teachers and are in deep 
conflict with a third. They are 
disciplinarians, very structure­
conscious and appallingly unsuited 
for a Freedom School situation. 
TheY've "suspended" three students. 
Incredible. They insist on a this­
hour-we-do-this-and-as-the-next­
hour-strike-we-change-to-this-set­
up: The long suffering fellow 
working with them now (only a 
college sophomore) promises not to 
quit, but neither will he remain 
silent in his protests, sticking up 
for the suspended students, arguing 
for a more flexible, relaxed 
program that won't smack so much of 
"school" in its formidable 
sense-very mixed feelings about 
those women. 

No classroom 
were in five 
schools under discussion 

the Jackson 
in these 

and the 
with 

teacher involvement and 
student attitudes toward 
created a motivated, 

environment. 

Jackson Freedom Schools 

The ine incident 



reported in these five schools 
occurred in the Jackson freedom school 
(Howe, 1965). Two boys got into a 
fist fight. After they were 
separated, Howe gave counsel on how to 
resolve problems to both the boys and 
provided a possible role classroom 
management might have played in the 
concept of freedom schools: "Now, look 
here, we have few rules in this 
school, but we do have one important 
one and that is we do not hit each 
other -- we talk. Understand? We talk 
here. This is a school for talking. 
Whenever you feel like hitting 
someone, remember to talk instead" (p. 
147) • 

ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES FOR A SOCIAL 
STUDIES EDUCATION MODEL 

Freedom schools were organized to 
provide curriculum and instructional 
opportunities for African-American 
students in order for them to promote 
social change in their respective 
communities. The pedagogical 
approaches of the freedom schools were 
to be the antithesis to prevailing 
traditional authoritarian content and 

methods. Instead of repressive 
teaching causing submissive, dominated 
students, the progressive teaching 
advocated by and, in many instances, 
implemented in the freedom schools, 
sought to empower students to 
critically examLne existing 
conditions, develop an unquestionable 
belief in themselves as capable 
persons and improve in academic 
confidence in learning and using 
useful information, contribute 
positively to their community, evoke 
creative, active participation in 
building community and espouse an 
appreciation of diversity and human 
dignity. These positive student 
experiences from the freedom schools 
seem to be pedagogical experiences 
that ought to be promoted by current 
social studies instruction. 

Below are a set of principles 
extracted from the freedom school 
experiences evidenced in the described 
freedom schools in this paper. These 
principles involve the pedagogical 
ideas of aims, curriculum instruction, 
evaluation, and classroom management. 
For each of these ideas, a set of 

.-----The Personal and Social Problems of the Students and Community-----, 

,..---------Goals and Purposes 

I Teachers I Democratic I I 
I Meaningful 'Instructional Self-

Academic Curriculum tYt~t!l9_q~ ____ . identity &. 

Learnling EC-vOalileU-ca-ftiv"-oen- - - -....... . -" Collective Self-deter-
"lL ¥ Classroom mination 
I Students I Management J 

Critical Thinking-- Respect for Collective 
Human Diversity Participation 

and Dignity 

• results that lead to 

Social action Increased personal awareness 
as a competant capable person ...... 1----1....... for community improvement 

Figure 1: Social Studies Instructional Model 

25 



principles derived from the freedom 
school experience is used to construct 
a possible model of social studies 
instruction. The model is depicted 
graphically in Figure 1 on the 
previous page. 

Aims 

At least five general principles would 
seem to be consistent with the freedom 
school's conception of social studies 
aims. These aims are: 

1. The need to promote critical 
thinking skills by examining 
existing conditions and experiences 
of individual communities in order 
to produce positive change. 

2. The need to promote academic 
learning in establishing a sound 
foundation of useful knowledge in 
social, economic, and political 
thought, systems, and skills to 
effect change. 

3. The need to promote appreciation of 
human diversity and dignity in 
establishing equality and justice 
for all humankind. 

4. The need to promote awareness of 
self identity, with determination 
and expression as a capable human 
being able to control one"s own 
life. 

5 . The need to promote act i ve , 
collective, participation in 
meaningful tasks to improve the 
quality of life for humankind. 

Curriculum 

At least six general principles 
would seem to be consistent with the 
freedom school's conception of a 
progressive social studies curriculum. 
These curriculum principles are: 

1. Directly relate the content to the 
experiences and situations of the 
students. 

:2. The content should be found in a 
variety of sources outside of 
standard text books. 

3. The quality of content should be 
the same for all students even 
though less able students may need 
the academic levels of the content 
modified. 

4. The development of the curriculum 
should be done by those teachers 
teaching in a given community in 
order to meet the existing needs of 
the students and the 

S. The content should provide 
for in-depth study to help 

26 

develop new inSights as they (1) 
master relevant information, (2) 
relate this new knowledge to the 
information they already have, and 
(3) attempt to apply these insights 
to current problems. 

6. The curriculum should promote 
equality and social justice for all 
humankind. 

Instruction 

At least six general principles 
would seem to be consistent with the 
freedom school's conception of 
progressive social studies 
instruction. These instructional 
principles are: 

1. Instruction should encourage 
expression, expose feelings, permit 
student participation, and develop 
group responsibilities. 

2. Instructional techniques should 
promote skills students can use to 
improve their existing conditions. 

3. Instruction should promote 
democratic principles of equality, 
choice, and justice. 

4. Instruction should promote 
community involvement. 

5. Instruction should include 
democratic methods such as 
discussion, creative writing, art, 
drama, group projects, role play, 
music, and social/community action 
projects. 

6. Teachers and students should become 
collectively involved in all 
aspects of instructional and 
curriculum as active agents for 
social change. 

Evaluation 

At least six general principles 
would seem to be consistent with the 
freedom school's conception of social 
studies evaluation. These principles 
are: 

1. Evaluation should build up and 
promote students" self-worth and 
academic and community learning. 

2. Students should be actively engaged 
in the evaluation of theirs and 
fellow students" work to promote 
critical examination and self-

3. If formal evaluations are to be 
given, students should be involved 
in the of those 
evaluations. 

4. Evaluation techniques should 
include teacher observations of 
students" behaviors and 

of students" works in 
ways in the 



5. Final exams might be suggested in 
the format of student presentations 
of their work (See Freedom Festival 
in the Ruleville Freedom School). 

6. Evaluation should include 
assessment of community 
involvement. 

Classroom Management 

At least three general principles 
would seem to be consistent with the 
freedom school f s conception of 
classroom management in social 
studies. These principles are: 

1. Classroom problems would be 
minimized through meaningful 
curriculum and progress~ve 
democratic instructional methods. 

2. Classroom problems would be 
minimized if teachers showed 
genuine respect for and trust in 
students and collectively, teacher 
and students would learn, examine, 
and solve problems. 

3. If a discipline problem occurs, 
classroom talk and dialogue should 
be the first approach to solve the 
problem. 

COMMENTARY 

For six to eight weeks in the 
summer of 1964, freedom schools, a 
vast educational experiment attacked 
the «intellectual waste lands« of 
Mississippi with a "pedagogical 
project" promoting student self­
discovery and articulating a vision of 
social justice. As an alternative to 
the traditional educational system, 
these schools trusted the minds and 
abilities of students, encouraged 
students to express, to do and to 
think, and engaged students in 
opportunities to make a difference in 
society. 

The students were taken seriously 
in the freedom schools. They were 
encouraged to talk, and their 
talking was listened to. They were 
assigned to write, and their 
writing was read with attention to 
idea and style as well as to 
grammar. were encouraged to 
sing, to dance, to draw, to play, 
to laugh. They were encouraged to 
think. (Fusco, 1964) 

This is not to say in 
school the ideal vision 
Cobb and others was 

freedom 
Charles 

implemented. Ev idence indicates 
otherwise. But the idea of the 
pedagogical in the 
Mississippi Schools do pose a 
possible to social studies 

27 

education and suggest student 
experiences that ought to be promoted 
by social studies instruction. 

In fact, the freedom school 
experience did bring new meaning to 
social studies instruction for one of 
the freedom school volunteers. Dan 
Hudson (SHSW: Demuth), a high school 
history teacher from Hartford, 
Connecticut and a freedom school 
teacher in Belzoni, Mississippi, was 
impressed with the content, use, 
student results of, and his personal 
instructional experiences with the 
civic curriculum and its suggested 
instruction strategies that he decided 
to change his own public school 
pedagogy approach in order to engage 
his history students with the similar 
aims promoted by the freedom schools. 
Hudson explained: 

The SNCC or FDP approach will have 
some influence on my teaching. 
If 11 be getting away from an 
authoritarian lecture posture to 
some kind of attempt to create an 
atmosphere conducive to freer 
discussion. It would be sort of 
the group working out problems and 
having discussions instead of my 
spoon-feeding them. 
I'll certainly make a much greater 
attempt to incorporate Negro 
history into American history. But 
I don"t want to spend a week on it. 
Instead I want to work it in so it 
becomes clear and natural that 
Negroes played a part in building 
this country. 

Social studies education appears to 
be in a malaise. It has become 
listless. There seems to be no or 
little direction. A conservative 
historical movement is beginning to 
dominate many social studies 
classrooms promoting academic 
knowledge with limited critical 
examination. Dialogue appears to be 
limited between this group and many 
social studies educators. In fact, 
social studies educators may have 
little or no impact on what is 
happening in social studies education. 
To counteract this movement, real 
discussion needs to take place on the 
direction social studies education is 

This is an attempt to add to 

NOTES 

Statistical information comes from 
Hinman- Smith, in progress. 

For more detail on the Oxford 
orientation see Rothschild, 1982. 



3 See SNCC: Reel 38, Freedom's Journal 
(McComb, Mississippi), August 24, 
1964: "Some Thoughts About Freedom 
School I want Freedom School to 
keep on. I like everything about 
Freedom School. I like art. I like 
Freedom School. I don" t 1 ike to get 
up in the morning to come to Freedom 
School. I like for Helen to read 
stories in Freedom School. I like my 
teacher in Freedom School. I like to 
sing the Freedom Songs." - Denise 
Ledbetter, 10 years old). 

4 There is information on many of the 
other schools. However, much of the 
information is about isolated events, 
yet, when pieced together prov ide a 
rich description of the overall 
freedom school effect. For such 
detail and a look at other freedom 
schools, see Perlstein, 1991; Himan­
Smith, in progress. 

5 Fannie Lou Hamer was a resident of 
Ruleville, Mississippi and an active 
member of the Mississippi Freedom 
Democratic party (Sugarman, 1966). 

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Collections of Unpublished Documents 

State Historical Society of Wisconsin 
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Sandra Adickes, Pam Allen, 
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Jake Friesan, Aviva Futorian, Rev. 
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1972. (1982). Sanford, North Carolina: 
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Zealand Listener ( 
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Teacher. New 
18): 5. 

Coordinating 

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Committee. (1964). Mississippi 
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Gillard, M.L. (1965). The Concept of 

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Hinman-Smith, D. (In Progress). "Does 
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Fusco, L. (1964). 

Freedom Schools: 
The Mississippi 

Deeper Than 
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17-19. 
Holt, L. (1966). The Summer That 

Didn't End. London: Heinemann. 
Howe, F. (1965). Mississippi's 

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Lauter, D. & Perlstein, D. (1991). 
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Lukas, J.A. (1968). Don"t Shoot - We 
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Lynd, S. (1965). The Freedom Schools: 
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McAdam, D. (1988). Freedom Summer. New 
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Perlstein, D. (1990). Teaching 
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Rothschild, M.A. (1982). A Case of 
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Shaver, J.P. (1987). Implications From 
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Sugarman, T. (1966). Strangers at the 
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Sutherland, E. (1965). Letters from 
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Zinn, H. (1964). Schools in Context: 
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