How Mississippi Turned Education into Liberation | Activist History

In 1954, the US Supreme Court struck down segregated school systems in the case “Brown v Board of Education.” However, by the mid-1960s, some paces in the South, such as Mississippi, still had segregated school systems and taught curriculum that often left out the Black experience. The Mississippi Freedom Schools were developed in 1964 as part of a massive Freedom Summer campaign focused on voter registration drives and educating Mississippi students for change, organized by COFO (the Council of Federated Organizations, a coalition of civil rights groups). The idea was that if education is the indoctrination of the young into an ideological system, then the Freedom School must reeducate Black children to reject the dominant ideology and construct a new system.

Thousands of university students in the north traveled south to help organize the Freedom Schools and set up shop in donated church basements, homes, and community centers. Classes emphasized critical thinking, Black American history, and how to challenge systemic oppression. In contrast to the authoritarian and segregated public schools, Freedom Schools used a student-centered approach where students could participate in the forming of the curriculum, and teachers were encouraged to base their lessons on the lived experiences of the students. Overtly political, Freedom Schools served as a tool to spread liberatory education and train future potential activists while filling in the gaps left by the government. Freedom Schools were a fantastic success with over 40 schools created and over 3000 students in attendance in the summer of 1964.

The legacy of the Schools has been long-lasting. At the end of the summer, Freedom School students formed a conference to create a youth platform for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Teachers and students remained committed to the model and took the lessons from the summer back with them when they returned home. Today many “Freedom Schools” exist across the nation, modeled after the schools from 1964, in order to harness education as a tool for liberation.