The NAACP and Its Architects

American Experience

History Series / 15 Seasons

American Experience, TV's most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Watch Latest: S37 E1

1h 52m / TV-14

First Days Story Project

3m 47s

The crowdfunding campaign will support community engagement and the creation of additional digital content around Rory Kennedy's "Last Days in Vietnam." The "First Days Story Project" will enable American Experience to collect stories from nearly 200 people in six cities across the U.S., answering one of the major questions raised by the film — What happened to those who fled?

Dorie Ladner - "The Activist"

5m 31s

Inspired by the work of Medgar Evers, Dorie Ladner has dedicated much of her life to the work of the civil rights movement. Deeply affected by the murder of Evers as well as the four little girls killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, Ladner welcomed the help and the attention that Freedom Summer volunteers brought to Mississippi in 1964.

Daisy Harris Wade - "The Voter"

4m 20s

In 1964 Daisy Harris Wade not only took to the picket lines to protest the exclusion of blacks from the voting rolls, she also opened her home to volunteers who came to Mississippi that summer. Born and raised in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and the mother of two young sons, Wade was determined to secure the right to vote not only for herself, but for generations to come. "Freedom Summer" June 24

Mark Levy - "The Teacher"

5m 20s

Upon arrival at Antioch University in 1957, Mark Levy quickly became involved in the civil rights movement, and later at Queens College he met Freedom Summer organizers, who recruited Levy and his wife to head up one of the Freedom Schools in Meridian, MS. Levy's photos of that summer seeded a large collection at Queens College, where he is also committed to sharing the story of Freedom Summer.

Herbert Randall - "The Photographer"

5m 55s

Herbert Randall was a 28-year-old professional photographer when he recruited to go to Hattiesburg, MS to document Freedom Summer. He saw firsthand the danger the Freedom Summer volunteers were in, and felt compelled to share those images with the world. His work is chronicled in a book called "Faces of Freedom Summer". He says there will always be a need for the struggle to be documented.

Roscoe Jones - "The Preservationist"

6m

Having worked to integrate lunch counters and the public library, Roscoe Jones stood ready to go to work when Freedom Summer volunteers arrived in Meridian, MS. He was at the office for the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), when word arrived that Cheney, Goodman, and Schwerner had gone missing. Today, he hopes to preserve buildings in Meridian that tell the story of the movement.

Anita Walton Moore - "The Librarian"

6m 19s

The first black woman to earn a masters degree in library science from the University of Mississippi, Anita Walton Moore went on to become the head librarian at Rust College, the oldest Historically Black College in Mississippi. There, she has worked to preserve books and documents from 1964's Freedom Summer. "Freedom Summer" premieres June 24, 2014 on American Experience.

John Howell - "The Publisher"

6m 42s

John Howell is the publisher of the "The Panolian," the local paper of Panola County, MS. His father was the publisher during Freedom Summer in 1964. Howell reflects on the little coverage given to the events of the civil rights movement, and the publishing of names of those who registered to vote. He also talks about the evolution of the paper and his own views. Freedom Summer premieres June 24.

Julius Lester - "The Folk Singer"

7m 32s

Julius Lester was teaching guitar and performing as a folk singer in New York City when he decided to go to Mississippi during Freedom Summer. Lester tells of his role in energizing the people gathered at those meetings and setting the stage for the organizers who called the crowds to action. He also reflects on the ever-present danger for participants in Freedom Summer.

Charles McLaurin - "The Foot Soldier"

7m 48s

In the summer of 1964, Charles McLaurin led a group of Freedom Summer volunteers in an effort to register voters in rural Mississippi. In 2014, he journeyed back to the small towns he worked in that summer, recounting how infiltrating the small town of Drew, Mississippi landed him and others in a small country jail and the ways in which Fannie Lou Hamer inspired the volunteers.

Barney Frank - "The Politician"

5m 6s

Long before he became a Congressman from Massachusetts, Barney Frank volunteered for the Freedom Summer project in 1964. As a teenager in New Jersey, Frank had been deeply affected by the murder of Emmett Till, and Frank became aware of how ingrained racism was in society. He went to Mississippi because he "couldn't justify not going."

Freedom Summer - Short Clip 1

23m 27s

This clip picks up from the first month that the campaign started in earnest. Volunteers arrived in Mississippi with the disappearance three volunteers - two white, one black - casting a dark shadow over their mission.

Freedom Summer Preview

30s

For 10 weeks during the summer of 1964, over 700 students from the North joined activists on the ground for a massive effort that accomplished what had been impossible so far: force the media and the country to take notice of the shocking violence and massive injustice taking place in Mississippi. Freedom Summer premiers on PBS American Experience on June 24, 2014.

Seeking Radical Change

2m 38s

A New York City teacher, Bob Moses went to Mississippi and helped organize the largest grassroots civil rights campaign the country had ever seen. "Freedom Summer" premieres on American Experience PBS on June 24 at 9/8c.

Freedom is Not Free

2m 49s

Fannie Lou Hamer stood up and challenged the movement. After registering to vote, she and 17 others were arrested, and she had to leave her home and her job. Of "the people of Mississippi, the Negroes," she said, "We are not satisfied and we haven't been satisfied a long time." "Freedom Summer" premieres on American Experience PBS June 24.

Freedom Summer Extended Preview

1m 45s

Freedom Summer of 1964 was marked by sustained and deadly violence, including the notorious murders of three civil rights workers, countless beatings, the burning of thirty-five churches, and the bombing of seventy homes and community centers. Premiers June 24, 2014 on PBS American Experience.

The Risk

2m 6s

"We didn't have the very complete understanding of what that risk was. But what impressed me was that there were black Mississippians who did know, who did know how dangerous it was." Watch "Freedom Summer" premiering June 24, 2014 on American Experience PBS.

Three Missing Workers

4m 38s

"Learning that three of our members, two of whom were white, had disappeared really blew away all my ideas that possibly we would have protection from the fact that the majority of the summer volunteers were white. I knew now that that was not the case: that everybody was in grave danger, and that these Mississippians would kill all of us, white and black." "Freedom Summer" premieres 6/24/14.

Searching for the Bodies

2m 51s

After three civil rights workers went missing in Mississippi on June 21, 1964, Rita Schwerner (the wife of missing Mickey Schwerner) played an important role in getting the press and the nation to pay attention to the case. "Freedom Summer" premieres on American Experience PBS June 24 at 9/8c.

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