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Lädt ... Freedom Summervon Doug McAdam
   1960s (241) Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch.  rsutto22 | Jul 15, 2021 |  keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
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In June 1964, over one thousand volunteers--most of them white, northern college students--arrived in Mississippi to register black voters and staff "freedom schools" as part of the Freedom Summer campaign organized by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Within ten days, threeof them were murdered; by the summer's end, another had died and hundreds more had endured bombings, beatings, and arrests. Less dramatically, but no less significantly, the volunteers encountered a "liberating" exposure to new lifestyles, new political ideologies, and a radically new perspectiveon America and on themselves. Films such as Mississippi Burning have attempted to document this episode in the civil rights era, but Doug McAdam offers the first book to gauge the impact of Freedom Summer on the project volunteers and the period we now call "the turbulent sixties." Tracking down hundreds of the originalproject applicants, and combining hard data with a wealth of personal recollections, he has produced a riveting portrait of the people, the events, and the era. McAdam discovered that during Freedom Summer, the volunteers' encounters with white supremacist violence and their experiences withinterracial relationships, communal living, and a more open sexuality led many of them to "climb aboard a political and cultural wave just as it was forming and beginning to wash forward." Many became activists in subsequent protests--including the antiwar movement and the feminist movement--and,most significantly, many of them have remained activists to this day. Brimming with the reminiscences of the Freedom Summer veterans, the book captures the varied motives that compelled them to make the journey south, the terror that came with the explosions of violence, the camaraderie and conflicts they experienced among themselves, and their assorted feelingsabout the lessons they learned. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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 Google Books — Lädt ...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)976.200496073History and Geography North America South Central U.S. MississippiKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt: (3.86)
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Historical in fact, but never dry, it's the story of many of the young people, most white college students from the north, taking their idealism south with them to bring freedom and justice to sharecroppers and the forgotten and forlorn members of that society. And it's a story of hatred and violence and prejudice, and overcoming adversity as well. Since it's a story from fifty years ago, only Social-Security eligible citizens may remember much about this time. For others, it may be a new or an untold story about American society and the ending of 'Jim Crow'.
My knowledge of the story is based mostly on a Gene Hackman movie titled "Mississippi Burning" from the late 1980's. The movie is centered on the disappearance (murder) of three of these young civil rights workers. While included in the book, the story is much more encompassing than this tragic crime. The description of black life, the KKK, the reforms of the Civil Rights legislation under President Johnson, and the reforms of society are an important lesson of history for us all, and provide a good background in understanding political and societal issues which to some extent, remain to this day. Taunts of "communist influences" by "outsiders" and arguments of "States rights vs. Federal Government intrusion" and "the desire to maintain our Christian values" are voiced in policy debates to this day, but have parallels and legacy originating from this period and as told in in McAdam's story. It's also a story of inspiration and hope and overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges, and how a few strong individuals, willing to make sacrifices, can bring about big changes.
As the book jacket states, "It is must reading for anyone seeking to understand the legacy of the '60s".
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