Book Excerpt! The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement

“The activists and young learners who made the Freedom Schools possible have greatly gone unsung. In the midst of imminent danger, they learned and experienced democracy while illustrating the efficacy of community participation in education. Hale rightly places them at the forefront of the struggle for freedom. His book reminds us of those who saved the nation’s soul.”

~Stefan M. Bradley, author of Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s

Today we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr., a key figure in the civil rights movement. In observance of his life’s work, we invite you to read the introduction to The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, by Jon N. Hale. In this work, Hale weaves a social history of the Mississippi Freedom Schools from the perspective of former students and teachers. Having turned their training into decades of activism, they speak on their locally organized, widely transmitted curriculum and offer key strategies for integrating the school system and politically engaging today’s youth.