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.

52m 54s

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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."

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