| Mississippi Becomes a Democracy |
Mississippi Becomes a Democracy, produced by Askia Muhammad, tells the story of the 1960's voter registration drive in Mississippi that culminated in Freedom Summer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's move to unseat the regular delegation to the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City in 1964.
Provocative, fascinating and fast-moving - the hour long documentary is a reminder that the fight for civil rights was tumultuous and complex, with ramifications still felt today. Mississippi Becomes a Democracy transports listeners back to the sixties in Mississippi and then brings them to Mississippi today. The documentary brings the story to life through a combination of archive tape and recent interviews with legendary civil rights activists. Interviews with some of the major organizers, including Bob Moses and Fannie Lou Hamer, show how the events of that year set the stage for sweeping reforms. Interviews with today's generation of black politicians in Mississippi show the fruit of those struggles and what remains to be accomplished.
Links:
Fannie Lou Hamer Project
The Fannie Lou Hamer Project is a part of a national grassroots movement that connects the history of earlier voting and civil rights struggles to the ongoing struggle for campaign finance reform.
Southern Echo
Learn about the work of Southern Echo, an organization dedicated to empowerment of black Mississippians through voter education, sustainable agriculture, and youth empowerment.
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
CORE seeks to establish, in practice, the inalienable right for all people to determine their own destiny--to decide for themselves what social and political organizations can operate in their best interest and to do so without gratuitous and inhibiting influence from those whose interest is diametrically opposed to theirs. CORE feels that the most important fundamental freedom for all people is the right to govern themselves. If this simple ideal can be realized, then other necessary freedoms will automatically follow.
Freedom Summer 2004
Commemorates the anniversary of the deaths of three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, Michael Shwerner and James Chaney, with a 21 day bus caravan visiting key cities and sites important to the civil rights struggle.
Books:
 Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65
by: Taylor Branch 1999
Pulitzer-Prize winning author Taylor Branch chronicles the incredible years of the civil rights movement in this second volume of a massive three-part biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
 Freedom is a Constant Struggle : Anthology of the Civil Rights Movement.
by: Susie Erenrich (Editor) 1999
Read Erenrich's rich compilation of first-person narratives, articles, songs, photographs and drawings capturing the year of the "long hot summer" of 1964.
 For Freedom's Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
by: Chana Kai Lee 1999
A biography of the legendary civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, whose fiery oratory garnered her national attention as a spokesperson for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
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