"Freedom Summer," was started in the summer months of 1964. It was organized by four of the major civil rights organizations at the time (CORE, SNCC, NAACP, and the SCLC) to help blacks in Mississippi register to vote.
At the time it was legal for blacks to vote in Mississippi, but white groups such as the KKK invoked fear through violence, thus suppressing the black vote. There were also fail-safes set up in Mississippi to keep the black community from being able to register to vote. An example of this was a 21 question test that was given over any part of the U.S. Constitution. It had to be answered to the approval of a white questionnaire giver, and if it was not to their standard then the black applicant was denied-- this was a frequent occurance.These civil rights organizations organized many "Freedom Rides". This is where many of the activists loaded up in buses or cars and drove down to Mississippi to organize voting booths, picket train stations, and march with the black community. The organizers and volunteers focused on Mississippi because there were only 6.7% of the eligible black voters that had registered to vote, the lowest in any state at the time.
These "Freedom Rides" turned out to be very dangerous. Many of the buses were ambushed by KKK members and the civil rights activists inside beaten. In one instance on "Sunday, May 14, 1961—Mother's Day—scores of angry white people blocked a Greyhound bus carrying black and white passengers through rural Alabama. The attackers pelted the vehicle with rocks and bricks, slashed tires, smashed windows with pipes and axes and lobbed a firebomb through a broken window. As smoke and flames filled the bus, the mob barricaded the door. "Burn them alive," somebody cried out. "Fry the goddamn niggers." An exploding fuel tank and warning shots from arriving state troopers forced the rabble back and allowed the riders to escape the inferno. Even then some were pummeled with baseball bats as they fled." (Smithsonian) Many civil rights activists were jailed under the charge of breaching peace, and received horrible treatment in jails where beatings were common.Because of the potential violence that was involved during the "Freedom Summer", the volunteers were trained in non- violent tactics which taught them to protect themselves and dissolve violent situations. The Freedom Riders were viewed as invaders by the Mississippi natives and this would eventually lead to the death of the three CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) workers in June of 1964.
