The Legacy of a Freedom School

In 1964, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee decided to establish Freedom Schools as part of its Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi. With a curriculum developed by dedicated educators, SNCC workers, and an equally dedicated staff of teachers and student volunteers, the schools provided a learning experience and teaching style that revealed to students who had known only the "stay in your place" experience of segregated education what schools should, and could, be. The achievements of the students involved in Freedom Summer lifted the expectations of students who followed them and hastened the end of segregated schools in Mississippi. In Legacy of a Freedom School, Sandra E. Adickes recalls her experiences working with the SNCC, reminding us all of the powerful Freedom Summer.