Activism, grass roots Educational Programs and segregated high schools during the Civil Rights Movement. His manuscript, the Freedom Schools, is currently under contract with Columbia University press, forthcoming in april 2016. He is coed to have of the freedom coed to have of the Freedom School newspapers which was just released from the University Press of mississippi. His research has also been published in history and education journals including publications in the journal of africanAmerican History, the history of education quarterly, South Carolina historical magazine and the journal of social studies research. Dr. Hales service is connected broadly to civil rights initiatives, connected to quality education as a constitutional right, the Freedom Schools, the algebra project and the young peoples project. He currently serveses on the board at South CarolinaState University and the penn center in South Carolina. Dr. Jon hale. Aram goudsouzian is at the university of memphis where he teaches courses on modern africanAmerican History. He has a ph. D. From purdue university. His books include down to the cross roots civil rights, black power and the meredith march against fear, 2014, and king of the court, university of California Press 2010 and Sidney Poitier man, actor, icon. Dr. Aram god size january. Devery s. Anderson is a graduate of the university of utah and is the editor or coeditor of four books on mormon history, two of which won the christensen award from the Mormon History Association in 2006. His book, emmett till the murder that shocked the world and propelled the Civil Rights Movement s the product of ten years of Exhaustive Research and writing. His research took him to the south and chicago on over a dozen occasions where he interviewed witnesses, family members of both emmett till and his accused killers and spent countless hours in libraries and archives. He has spoken on the till case throughout the United States and the united kingdom. He lives in Salt Lake City and is an editor at signature books. Devery anderson. And were going to begin with d. Tiyi morris. Thank you, dr. Luckett. Good afternoon, everyone. Id like to begin with a quote by mary mccloud bethune. She once decade next to god, we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living. Id like to use that as a frame for the work that i do, because my focus is on women, black women specifically. And i think its also relevant especially given that im the only woman on the panel [laughter] that i make sure that we center women in our discussions this afternoon. So my book, woman power unlimited and the black freedom struggle in mississippi, is about the jacksonbased organization woman power unlimited. The organization was founded in 1961 by mrs. Clary collins harvey, and it was founded because the freedom riders came to town, and she wanted to support them both emotionally as well as materially. She had the opportunity to attend the first trial for the freedom riders, and at that hearing she noticed that some of the individuals were shivering. They didnt have their coats and sweaters with them. And so this mothering instinct kicked in. Mrs. Harvey was middleaged at the time, and many of the freedom riders were collegeaged students, so they were young enough to be her children. And so this mothering instinct kicked in, and she decided she needed to take care of them, and she mobilized other women throughout jackson to really engage in this practice of nurture answer as resistance. So that motherhood in the typical sense that we think of that has simply a nurturing, caringfor role, but trying to take care of these individuals so they could be engaged in the Civil Rights Movement. When the freedom riders where are we leased in prison, women limited was there to meet them, and to help them this their ensuing struggle. Because mrs. Harvey was able to mobilize these women so quickly, they began to take on other initiatives. They were involved this the mainstays of Civil Rights Activism, photo registration as well as school desegregation, but they also brought a humanist agenda that really made them unique in the context of the Civil Rights Movement, and much more progressive, i would say, than many of the oh organizations other organizations of the time. They were flexible, and they did not perpetuate many of the organizational issues that really had been keeping women on the periphery of maledominated organizations. For example, they didnt charge deuce, was they didnt want deuce, because they didnt want to limit anyones participation. They had meet thanksgiving various locations. Sometimes they would be in the masonic temple, various local black churches. So, again, they created an organization that was designed to insure that they had the greatest participation from local women. In addition to these kind of key activism points of the Civil Rights Movement, they were involved this womens strike for peace, they also engaged in antipoverty initiatives, they participated in freedom summer and helped create an Organization Called wednesdays in mississippi. So, again, they had this very broadbased understanding of what it meant to be a Civil Rights Activist. Another unique aspect of the organization was that many of the organizers were middle class women, they were middleaged women, and they were entrepreneurs. Mrs. Harvey owned a funeral home in jackson thats still in existence, mrs. Amy logan sold Beauty Products to black women, and mrs. Jesse mosley owned a shoe store. They were middle class women, these primary organizers, and they didnt have to worry about the same level of economic retaliation from whites that many other blacks had to worry about if they engaged in Civil Rights Activism. They were wellrespected members of their community, they were known in their churches, they had years of organizing experience prior the freedom riders arrival in jab jackson. So they were the perfect women to actually nurture these young activists to be involved and to mobilize activism around the the city and as well as around the state. Ultimately, woman power unlimited was a group of black women who had a very unique and progressive definition of what social activism meant and what social justice meant. So they were unique in the context of the Civil Rights Movement, but they were not really unique in the context of this legacy of black womens activism. Ultimately, they were doing what black women had done for generations, taking care of their families and communities and insuring that the black community could survive to see another day. So one of the things i attempt to do in the week is to con in the book is to contextualize their activism, building on the generations of their foremothers and then laying a foundation for the work that black women are doing to the. And so today. So they are, like fannie lou hamer, ella baker, other black women activists who have been willing to risk their lives and livelihood for the collective good of the black community and to create a really, truly democratic and humanist society. I think these black women are unique and really important. And even though they dont take center stage when we think about traditional definitions of leadership, typically the scholarship p has tended to focus on those who occupy the host visible leadership positions, right . And women oftentimes are not included in that. But what my work attempts to do and what some of the current civil rights scholarship is doing is censoring the works of people, and in that context we really can see the contributions that women like those who were involved in woman power unlimited have made. So writing this book, again, has allowed me to censor black womens Civil Rights Activism also as leadership efforts and mobilization efforts that were central to the mississippi movement. Woman powers Civil Rights Activism then is best understood as this legacy of black womens activism in which leadership has been consistent and valuable. A legacy that is being continued with activists in the black lives Matter Movement and the say her names movement as well. So woman power is so important not only to our understanding of American History and civil rights history, but really to our understanding of humanity. Because it demonstrates the selflessness that black women have had in order to create this humanist and just society. And they as an organization and, i think, the book stands in opposition to the devaluation of black womens lives in activism. Thank you. [applause] dr. Jon hale. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for, thank you for attending todays session. My name is jon hale, im coming from the college of charleston in South Carolina. And as many, if not all of you know, this summer we lost nine lives in the basement of the ame Emanuel Church in charleston which was a catalyst to taking on on the Confederate Flag in South Carolina and other states across the south, so i was a little shocked and surprised coming from charleston were still grieving and trying to understand the ways to move forward from this tragedy and to see two Confederate Flags displayed here on the courthouse, it just reminds me how important the work of all the panelists here is and the work we have to do in mississippi to continue to challenge the use of the flag today [applause] so i want to start out, im actually the second editor on here and the lead author or the lead editor, dr. William stuff key, whos at university of North Carolina in chapel hill, was unable to attend this weekend, but he was certainly the mover and shaker, if you will, behind this book project. And he sends his regrets that he was unable to make it today. But he did want, he did instruct me, if you will, on a few things to say, and he shared with me a document which is also very relevant at this period in time because its written by or submitted by julian bond to sawnton lynn, the coordinator of all the Freedom Schools which this book is about in 1964. But julian bond in this letter is writing to dr. Lynn, and he writes, and i quote there are two ideas that are particularly pressing. One is including a week on the Freedom Schools. This book could be printed in our own presses and could be sold very cheaply, 50 cents to a dollar, if we could get that much for them. In any case, the most important thing would be to, would be to collect the material collected this summer and ideas into one single place permanently and to include some opinion and thought that they would give others ideas and perhaps encouragement for the future. For the Freedom School book, i had thought of doing can it by chapters. One by you, one by charlie cobb, one giving factual material on the Freedom Schools, a chapter illustrated on the two schools that were built and several chapters on materials including poems, essays, newspapers, etc. , that were published and and written by Freedom School studentings. And thats the end of the letter. So julian bond in 1964 called for a book like this. Im glad that julian bond could see this book before he passed away last sunday, and he wrote a nice review for the book as well which were extremely grateful for. I must admit that our editor, craig gill, who its been an honor to work with him, im glad he didnt read this first, because julian bond only wanted a dollar per book, so were happy [laughter] you know, it can sell for a little bit must have. More importantly, of course, what he was calling for is a comprehensive social history of the Freedom Schools or a perspective of the Freedom Schools from the students themselves. Because many times or many author books coming out on freedom summer, sometimes theyre whitewashed. We get the perspective of the white volunteers who, yes, they did risk their lives, but thats not necessarily telling the complete story of the Freedom School. So this book, what we attempted to do was to uncover every Freedom School and newspaper published during the summer of 1964 and collect them in this one volume here in order to provide a students perspective on the Freedom Schools and freedom summer. And, therefore, to honor the integrity of the Freedom School students. There are about 2500 Freedom School students who attended over 40 Freedom Schools during the summer of 1964. So in order to honor their integrity, id like to read just some direct samples from the students themselves and just to give you a sample of some of the profound work that they published during that summer. And please keep in mind that these students are between the ages of, you know, 815 years old writing this, and theyre publishing this and circulated around the state of mississippi. And collectively, the Freedom School newspapers were the largest collection of civil rights newspapers during that summer. The first selection ill read from is a poem entitled now is the hour submitted by edith murray moore. Now is the hour. No other time will do. For us to go and get what belongs to me and you. Now is the hour to stand for what is right. Together we know we will win the fight. Now is the hour that we must say farewell to tears and hardships. Freedoms better, i can tell. As you notice in miss moores poem, theres a sense of urgency and a call to action for all students. And as you read through the collection of newspapers, you see that students are often times urging older adults to participate. And in many ways theyre often not only encouraged, but sometimes theyre shaming older adults into participating. One such student who tried to encourage adults to participate was a student, 16yearold joyce brown whos from mississippi which earned the unfortunate nickname of the bombing capital of the confederacy, because mccomb and the homes in mccomb or were bombed repeatedly throughout freedom summer. And the Freedom School was actually bombed and destroyed during the course of the summer. And she was wrote this she wrote this poem, and ill read part of it here. And actually attended school outside in the trees as they were waiting for their home to be repaired. And she writes i came not for the fortune, nor the fame. I seek not to add glory to an unknown name. I came by day to fight for whats right. I shant let fear, my monstrous foe, conquer my soul with threat and woe. Here i am come and here i shall stand, and no amount of fear my determination can sway. In a bombed house, i have to teach my school because i believe all men should live by the golden rule. To a bombed house, your children must come because of your fears of a bomb. And because youve let your fear conquer your soul, in this bombed house these minds i must try to mold. I must try to teach them to stand tall and be a man when you, their parents, have cowered down and refuse to make a stand. And the final selection ill read today is a passage entitled why i deserve freedom by 15yearold albert evans. I am a black man and, because of my color, i am deprived of the human rights which are given to me by god and promised to me by the United States. I live in a country of free people, yet i am not free. If necessary, i will die in order to have freedom for my people. Today i am the worlds toot stool, but tomorrow i foot stool, but tomorrow i hope to be one of its leaders. By attending Freedom School this summer, i am preparing for that tomorrow. And ill close with those words. As in some ways a haunting reminder as we still see people gunned down in the streets of america, right . Who are continuing to risk their lives to fight for what is promised in the United States constitution, by we the people of the United States. And i appreciate this opportunity to present this material today, and i strongly encourage all of us to consider what the perspective of the students are today, the young people in Todays School and the potential that they have to help make this a true democracy. Thank you. [applause] dr. Aram god size january. Good afternoon. My book is called down to the cross roots civil rights, black power, and the meredith march against fear. Let me begin near the beginning. June 6, 1956, just south of hernando, mississippi, and james maine divot is walking down meredith is walking down highway 51, famous for integrating ole miss four years earlier which sparked riots, but this walk is mores the endeavor of more or less the endeavor or a solitary man. Hes on the second day of a planned trek for which hes outlined two goals. The first to, quote, challenge that allpervasive fear th