1963 Freedom Vote
Freedom Summer was only possible because of years of earlier work by numerous African Americans who lived locally in Mississippi. In 1963, SNCC organized a mock "Freedom Vote" designed to demonstrate the will of Black Mississippians to vote, if not impeded by terror and intimidation. The Mississippi voting procedure at the time required Blacks to fill out a 21 question registration form and answer to the satisfaction of the white registrar, a question on interpretation of any one of 285 sections of the state constitution. Volunteers set up polling places in Black churches and business establishments across Mississippi. After registering on a simple registration form Voters would select candidates to run in the following year's election. Candidates included Rev. Edwin King of Tougaloo College and Aaron Henry, from Clarksdale, Mississippi. Local civil rights workers and volunteers along with students from Stanford and Yale, organized and implemented the mock election, in which tens of thousands voted.
Read more about this topic: Freedom Summer
Famous quotes containing the words freedom and/or vote:
“This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)