Freedom Now, “Summer of ’64,” Meridian, Mississippi

After training in Oxford, OH, volunteers were sent to postings across the South, including the town of Meridian, MS. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), one of the collaborating organizations behind Freedom Summer, provided T-shirts to volunteers. As evidenced in photographs by other Freedom Summer photographers, some of the volunteers wore CORE shirts while in Mississippi when speaking with Black residents about voting rights or when working, in the CORE office in Meridian, MS. This provided an identity to the organization while many of the volunteers worked in communities assisting with voter registration and setting up Freedom Schools. On the back was a simple, yet powerful statement: FREEDOM NOW.