Freedom Summer (Civil Rights Movement)

The author’s latest title in the Civil Rights Movement series (earlier ones focused on Emmett Till, the Scottsboro Boys, and Selma) spotlights SNCC’s 1964 Summer Project. Better known as “Freedom Summer,” the project famously brought white students to Mississippi to register blacks to vote and to help organize Freedom Schools. The brevity of the book and the complexity of the issues involved result in sometimes confusing coverage, and some readers may think the author overstates the impact of the project. That said, Aretha does bring immediacy and passion to idealism by quoting extensively from his interviews with both white and black volunteers. He also expands his coverage to include the establishment of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and, to his credit, candidly acknowledges the sometimes difficult interactions between privileged white volunteers and impoverished blacks.