Freedom Summer For Young People

Starred review from September 1, 2020
Grades 6-10 *Starred Review* This compelling book tells of Freedom Summer. In 1964, a coalition of civil rights groups put an ambitious project into action, recruiting college students to volunteer in Mississippi, where voting rights for Black residents were routinely suppressed through intimidation and violence. Quickly educated about the situation, trained in nonviolence, and sent South, the students worked within Black communities, teaching literacy and encouraging a grassroots voting-rights movement. The disappearance and murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman happened just before the volunteers arrived. A sobering beginning for the students, the event became a flare that for months drew national media attention to Mississippi. Based on Watson's adult book, Freedom Summer (2010), this volume offers young people a detailed, concise, well-researched account of a significant civil rights program. Profiles of the projects' leaders as well as individual student volunteers (along with passages from their letters home) add more perspectives. Illustrations include well-chosen archival photos and intriguing documents. An underlying sense of urgency pervades the writing as the narrative progresses, reflecting the tension building throughout the summer as an array of forces, including the Klan, the FBI, and competing political factions, came into play. A fascinating account of a pivotal civil rights initiative.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)