This year marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer—a grassroots organizing effort to register African-Americans to vote. Voter registration was the cornerstone of the summer project, for good reason. One example: although approximately 17,000 black residents of Mississippi attempted to register to vote in the summer of 1964, only 1,600 of the completed applications were accepted by local registrars. Highlighting the need for federal voting rights legislation, Freedom Summer’s efforts created political momentum for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This law, which abolished literacy tests and poll taxes designed to disenfranchise African American voters, and gave the federal government the authority to take over voter registration in counties with a pattern of persistent discrimination, comes up for renewal every 10 years. Today, threats to voting rights still exist nationwide with the recent adoption of voter ID laws and other forms of voter suppression.
In recognition of Freedom Summer’s 50th anniversary, Carnegie Corporation has launched the campaign @freedomnow, which will take place during the last two weeks of June and the first week of July. We will bring to life some of the dramatic days that changed America, using Twitter to highlight key milestones of 1964 interspersed with related thoughts and activities of our grantees who are carrying on the fight. Scroll down to find a compilation of historical and contemporary words and actions.
Carnegie Corporation of New York has long recognized the need to protect and strengthen voting rights in this country. Read more about this work:
Geri Mannion, Program Director, U.S. Democracy, Talks about Voting Rights
A Vision of Social Justice: Carnegie Corporation in the 1960s and Beyond
Electoral Reform: Charting the Course to Voter Engagement
The Brennan Center for Justice: A Bipartisan Champion of Democracy Comes of Age
The Lost (And Found) Voters of Hurricane Katrina
Encouraging the Latino Vote
Democracy’s Moment: Moving from Crisis to Positive Change
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