{"id":3904,"date":"2024-07-30T08:32:24","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T12:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/art-museum\/?p=3904"},"modified":"2024-08-13T08:04:09","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T12:04:09","slug":"remembering-freedom-summer-1964-to-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/art-museum\/2024\/07\/remembering-freedom-summer-1964-to-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Freedom Summer: 1964 to 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Steve Schapiro (American, 1934-2022); We Shall Overcome, 1964<\/em>; Silver gelatin print, 16 x 20 inches; Partial Gift of Stephen Schapiro and Art Museum purchase with contributions from the Kezur Endowment Fund; 2019.23.1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of Freedom Summer 1964, and the training that took place in Oxford, Ohio on the campus of the Western College for Women. Moments @ the Art Museum<\/em> provides a short background to Freedom Summer, and also a summary of the Art Museum\u2019s activities this Fall as we prepare to reopen on August 27, 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom Summer, also known as the Mississippi Summer Project, was a 1964 voter registration effort sponsored by civil rights organizations including the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Aimed at increasing Black American voter registration in Mississippi, the Freedom Summer workers included Black Mississippians and hundreds of out-of-state, predominately white volunteers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 800 volunteers were trained in June 1964 at the Western College for Women, now part of Miami University’s Western campus. They learned not only how to help register Black Americans to vote, but to peacefully resist violence that they knew would be encountered in the South. They also set up Freedom Schools, Community Centers and libraries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The three civil rights workers who were murdered in Mississippi in the summer of 1964 are represented in a painting based on the FBI\u2019s missing persons poster from that time. 
Philip Morsberger, 1964; Missing <\/em>No. 1, Oil on Canvas. On Loan to the Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum from Butler Institute of Art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Three young civil rights workers \u2014 James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner \u2014 were murdered in Mississippi by members of the Ku Klux Klan soon after leaving Oxford. Miami University honors them with the outdoor memorial located on the Western Campus close to the Art Museum. The Western College Campus is recognized by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center<\/a> as a Freedom Station, and the Freedom Summer \u201864 Memorial is a National Historic Landmark. Freedom Summer\u2019s legacy continues in Oxford and you can read more about Freedom Summer, find educational resources, and learn about its continuing impact on the Office for Transformational and Inclusive Excellence<\/a> (OTIE) website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Freedom Summer ’64 Memorial, Western Campus; Designed by Robert Keller, Miami University Architect, 2000. 
Photograph by Scott Kissell; University Communications and Marketing, Miami University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A short RCCAM video titled Remembering Freedom Summer<\/em><\/a>, (view below) narrated by former Student Body President Nyah Smith \u201824 provides an overview of this history and legacy, and invites viewers to visit the Freedom Summer \u201864 Memorial<\/a>. Please note that for visitors with accessibility needs, the memorial can be accessed from adjacent street parking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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