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Miami University senior history majors Sarah Harden and Katie Stankiewicz may know more about the Freedom Summer Project of 45 years ago than many people twice their age.
What started as a history class project has turned into a documentary focusing on local people involved with events that took place during 1964 when more than 1,000 volunteers gathered in Oxford, Ohio, at Western College for Women – now a part of Miami’s campus – to receive training for Freedom Summer, an effort to increase voter registration of African Americans in Mississippi who were denied access to the democratic process. For two weeks participants trained and then traveled to Mississippi to register voters and organize freedom schools.
Harden and Stankiewicz have been working on “A National Event Through a Local Lens” for nearly a year, interviewing Oxford residents, reading letters of participants and collecting archival film and photos.
“They were young people who decided to become involved, and I think they are ideal reminders of our own potential as students,” Harden said. “However, they were not perfectly courageous champions of civil rights who never faltered in their support. I relate to them because they were real, they were afraid and they had doubts about what they were going to do, just as I would (if I were) to go to Mississippi and teach in the freedom schools and register people to vote.”
While the documentary is still a work in progress, Harden and Stankiewicz will unveil it at the national convention of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Cincinnati Oct. 3-4. The association founded Black History Month.
The students also will present the documentary during the Freedom Summer national conference and reunion at Miami Oct. 9-11. Nishani Frazier, co-director of the event and assistant professor of history at Miami, said Harden and Stankiewicz represent the essence of the engaged student.
“The documentary illustrates how even the smallest community can become a central character in acts of social justice,” Frazier said. “More importantly, their film reveals to many (who may be) unaware of the history of people in the surrounding community who attempted in their own way to change the world.”
Many of the participants in Freedom Summer 1964 are aging. The students wanted to preserve their thoughts and memories for future generations.
“The great thing about Freedom Summer is that people who participated in this event and the Civil Rights movement are still alive,” Stankiewicz said. “This is a rarity that we need to take advantage of and utilize. These people have invaluable memories.”
Stankiewicz adds that the lessons taken from 45 years ago can still apply today.
“You don't necessarily need to be an activist to make a difference, but it is our job as citizens to question what we think is wrong and make changes when we need changes,” Stankiewicz said. “Simple participation can go a long way. Always be informed.”
As part of Miami University’s yearlong Bicentennial celebration, “Freedom Summer: Unity and Change, Then and Now,” will take place Oct. 9-11 to pay tribute to and explore the impact of historic events of the Freedom Summer Project 45 years ago.
The three-day conference and reunion will host many of the local and national activists of Freedom Summer, including nationally known scholars and many other freedom fighters from the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. It also will explore the broader meaning of the movement within the context of citizen participation and activism.
To register, go online at www.muohio.edu/freedomsummer2009, call 529-8309 or email Dorothy Falke at falkeda@muohio.edu.
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