The NAACP and Its Architects

American Experience

History Series / 13 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 E3

52m 20s

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 State of Mississippi in 1964

2m 57s

"The Citizens' Council was doing everything the Ku Klux Klan would have done. [...] I joined it because I believed in what they were doing and I believed in trying to preserve the society in which we lived." Watch "Freedom Summer" premiering June 24, 2014 on American Experience PBS.

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.

Tensions During Training

5m 16s

During training before Freedom Summer in 1964, tension between the mostly-white volunteers and the mostly-black SNCC staff became evident immediately. "We have to know you. We have to love you, but we don't understand you." "Freedom Summer" premieres on American Experience PBS 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.

Pete Seeger and Freedom Summer

1m 56s

Folk singer Pete Seeger was performing for a Meridian, Mississippi church congregation when he got word that the bodies of missing civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney had been found. American Experience interviewed him about this experience in April 2013. "Freedom Summer" premieres on PBS June 24, 2014.

Opposition to Freedom Summer

1m 51s

"People in the movement were willing to die, but we didn't want to die in obscurity. So if we brought in students, their colleges, their parents would focus on Mississippi." "Freedom Summer" premieres on American Experience PBS on June 24.

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.

Fannie Lou Hamer's Powerful Testimony

3m 40s

Former sharecropper Fannie Lou Hamer's Congressional testimony is so powerful that President Johnson calls an impromptu press conference to get her off the air. But his plan backfires. Watch "Freedom Summer" on American Experience PBS on June 24, 2014.

Training for Mississippi

3m 4s

"Is it responsible to bring all those kids into the state, most of whom are probably far too naive to understand what they were getting into in terms of the violent nature of the place." Watch "Freedom Summer" premiering June 24, 2014 on American Experience PBS.

"Miss Mississippi" Finds Trouble

3m 27s

"I went downtown one day, and friends that I had known for 10 years would turn and walk away from me, or hang their heads. Some would speak and walk on as if I had leprosy or something." Watch "Freedom Summer" on American Experience PBS on June 24 at 9/8c.

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.

Freedom Summer's Widow

1m 16s

"I wish to become an active participant rather than a passive onlooker. As my husband and I are in close agreement as to our philosophy in the Civil Rights struggle, I wish to work near him in whatever capacity I may be most useful. My hope is to someday pass on to the children we may have a world containing more respect for the dignity and worth of all men than that world which was willed to us."

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.

On a Hair Trigger

2m 15s

Local Mississippi leadership prepared themselves psychologically and militarily for Freedom Summer. The Ku Klux Klan rose up as one that April. Mississippi was on a hair trigger. Watch "Freedom Summer" on American Experience PBS on June 24, 2014.

What Was Freedom Summer?

3m 35s

In 1964, a group of civil rights organizations hosted The Mississippi Summer Project, a campaign that would later become known as "Freedom Summer." "It is very important to me that I play my role in civil rights for the U.S. and most of all for myself," wrote one volunteer. "Freedom Summer" premieres on American Experience PBS on June 24 at 9/8c.

How Many Beatings Have You Taken?

1m 44s

Fannie Lou Hamer helped fight for better representation among Mississippi Democrats in 1964. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell of New York City asked for compromise. He didn't know who Fannie Lou Hamer was. Watch "Freedom Summer" on American Experience PBS on June 24, 2014.

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