Antioch College students, faculty, and staff on their way to Jackson, Mississippi sit in front of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change in Atlanta, Georgia.
Freedom Summer, 50 years later
- Published: August 11, 2014
50 years ago in the summer of 1964, a number of Antioch College students and alumni participated in the Freedom Summer project by traveling to Mississippi to help organize and operate Freedom Schools and to register African-American voters.
During their most recent break this June, several current Antioch students, faculty, and staff traveled to Jackson, Mississippi to participate in a conference both to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Summer project and to look forward to work they feel still needs to be done. The conference served as the first part of a class on community engagement offered by Kevin McGruder, professor of history, and Nick Daily, residence life manager. The class builds on the experiences students had in and outside of workshops at the conference to encourage students to create constructive plans to address unresolved issues they see in the college and their communities.
An article on the students’ experiences will appear in an upcoming issue of the Yellow Springs News.
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