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Miami University’s “Finding Freedom Summer in Oxford, Ohio” project has won $40,000 in funding and support from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) for several events in fall 2009.
Freedom Summer was an effort launched by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Council of Federated Organizations in 1964 to increase voter registration of African Americans in Mississippi who were denied access to the democratic process. More than 1,000 volunteers gathered in Oxford, Ohio, at Western College for Women (now part of Miami’s campus) to receive training for Freedom Summer. For two weeks participants trained and then traveled to Mississippi to register voters and organize Freedom Schools.
The NEH also designated Miami as a “We the People” project to promote and strengthen the teaching, study and understanding of American history, culture and the democratic principles that guide our country, according to Mary Jane Berman, director of Miami’s Center for American and World Cultures (CAWC) and co-organizer of the event.
“We’re honored to be chosen as a “We the People” project,” Berman said. “The project will provide discovery-based learning opportunities and sites of exploration and engagement of Miami University students and others.”
The events for fall 2009 commemorating this part of American history coincide with Miami’s yearlong bicentennial celebration.
The Freedom Summer National Conference and Reunion, Oct. 9-11, will feature participants who formerly served as Freedom Summer activists, area residents, Miami and local high school students and educators from other universities. The conference will explore the broader meaning of Freedom Summer within the context of a global phenomenon of citizenship participation and activism.
“Finding Freedom Summer: A Retrospective,” will exhibit Oct. 1-31, displaying various images and materials from the Mississippi Freedom Summer Collection on Miami’s Oxford campus at the Western College Memorial Archives.
“Down in Mississippi,” a new play with performances Oct. 1-4, 8-10, explores the heart of the Civil Rights movement as three college students in 1964 gather at Western College for Women before heading into the national spotlight in rural Mississippi. Miami’s department of theatre and the CAWC commissioned the play from nationally recognized Carlyle Brown, a writer/performer and artistic director of Carlyle Brown and Company in Minneapolis, and collaborated with the Miami’s Performing Arts Series and department of music.
“Our connection to the site of Western College helps us create a living memorial to the Mississippi Summer Project, allowing us to walk in the shoes of those from 1964,” said Ann Elizabeth Armstrong, associate professor of theatre at Miami and co-organizer of the event. “By continuing different kinds of exhibits and performances, including plays, walking tours and other cultural events, we hope to bring this history to life and speak effectively to a wide community.”
According to Nishani Frazier, assistant professor of history at Miami and co-organizer of the event, while the NEH grant is a financial catalyst for institutionalizing Western College’s historical role in Freedom Summer, it has far greater relevance than a source of funding.
“Recognition by NEH reminds the Miami University community and informs the broader national public that this site is not just of local significance but of national import in furthering our understanding about the black freedom struggle of the 1960s,” said Frazier.
“Down in Mississippi” also is co-sponsored by Miami's Bicentennial committee, the Western College Alumnae Association and the Institute for Learning in Retirement.
For more information, visit freedomsummer.
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