The Mississippi Freedom Project (MFP) is an archive of

oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

collected by the

Samuel Proctor Oral History Program The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP) is the official oral history program at the University of Florida. With over 6,500 interviews and more than 150,000 pages of transcribed material, it is one of the premier oral history programs in ...

at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. The ongoing project contains 100+ interviews online and focuses on interviews with civil rights veterans and notable residents of the Mississippi Delta. The collection centers on activism and organizing in partnership with the Sunflower County Civil Rights Organization in

Sunflower, Mississippi Sunflower is a town in Sunflower County, Mississippi, Sunflower County, Mississippi. The population was 1,159 at the 2010 census. Demographics 2020 census As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 964 people, 424 households, and 278 famil ...

Project history and annual research trip

SPOHP director Paul Ortiz began conducting oral history field work in the Mississippi Delta in 1995 as a graduate research coordinator of the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

-sponsored "Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South" project at the Center for Documentary Studies, and maintained a relationship with the Sunflower County Civil Rights Organization, a local civil rights veteran group. Since 2008, the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program has traveled to the Delta on annual research trips with undergraduate students, graduate students, and program staff for the Mississippi Freedom Project to collect oral histories of the local movement. In 2014, SPOHP returned to the Delta on its annual trip for 50th anniversary celebrations honoring movement veterans of Freedom Summer from June 23–29. During the trip, the Mississippi Freedom Project conducts oral history interviews in partnership with the Sunflower County Civil Rights Organization, and frequently works with research allies including the McComb Legacies Project, Friends of Justice, Fannie Lou Hamer Civil Rights Museum in Belzoni, MS, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Belzoni, Museum of African American History in Natchez, MS, Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center, Sunflower County Freedom Project, and Civic Media Center, as well as

George A. Smathers Libraries The George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida constitute one of the largest university library systems in the United States. The system includes eight of the nine libraries of the University of Florida and provides primary support ...

at the

. The Mississippi Freedom Project research team is guided in their research by lifelong civil rights activist Margaret Block, who grew up in Bolivar County and worked with SNCC throughout the Delta with leaders including

Stokely Carmichael Kwame Ture (; born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the Unite ...

Amzie Moore Amzie Moore (September 23, 1911 – February 1, 1982) was an African-American civil rights leader and entrepreneur in the Mississippi Delta. Early life Amzie Moore is one of the lesser known Civil Rights Movement leaders, but was extremely in ...

Fannie Lou Hamer Fannie Lou Hamer (; Townsend; October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting and women's rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was the co-founder and vice-chair of the Freedom De ...

, Bob Moses,

Hollis Watkins Hollis Watkins is an activist who was part of the Civil Rights Movement activities in the state of Mississippi during the 1960s. He became a member and organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1961, was a county organ ...

, and her brother, Sam Block, during voter registration drives and citizenship school initiatives. Block is the main leader and instructor for SPOHP's MFP tour of the Delta, frequently speaking at panel events and leading driving tours of historical sites that are significant to the movement and Mississippi history, including Mound Bayou,

Dockery Plantation Dockery Plantation was a cotton plantation and sawmill in Dockery, Mississippi, on the Sunflower River between Ruleville and Cleveland, Mississippi. It is widely regarded as the place where Delta blues music was born. Palmer, Robert (1981). '' ...

, Indianola, MS, Ruleville, MS, sites surrounding Emmett Till's murder in Tallahatchie County, and others, including Winterville Mounds. The next research trip will take place June 15–20, 2015.

Collections

The Mississippi Freedom Project oral history collections focus on history of the civil rights movement in the Mississippi Delta from veteran activists and notable residents. In Summer 2013, UF's

approved a mini-grant proposal to transcribe the SPOHP's Mississippi Freedom Project collection. The grant improved online access to the Mississippi Freedom Project collection, sponsoring the processing of over 50 interviews, creation of educational podcasts, and development of expanded online media content. Over 70 interviews are now available as of July 2014, timed to coincide with Freedom Summer anniversaries. "I Never Will Forget", an edited volume of 60 oral history interviews with civil rights veterans in Sunflower County, was published in June 2014 for the Freedom Summer reunion. Major topics include: *

Civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

* Jim Crow laws *

Citizens' Councils The Citizens' Councils (commonly referred to as the White Citizens' Councils) were an associated network of white supremacist, segregationist organizations in the United States, concentrated in the South and created as part of a white backlash ...

Segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of humans ...

* Integration *

Sharecropping Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) *Women in SNCC, with interviews from Peggy Klekotka *

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

(CORE) *

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...

(SCLC) *

Council of Federated Organizations The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) was a coalition of the major Civil Rights Movement organizations operating in Mississippi. COFO was formed in 1961 to coordinate and unite voter registration and other civil rights activities in the sta ...

(COFO) *

COINTELPRO COINTELPRO (syllabic abbreviation derived from Counterintelligence, Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of Covert operation, covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation ( ...

(Counter Intelligence Program) * Black Panther Party * Labor union organizing * Selma to Montgomery Rights March *

United Food and Commercial Workers International Union The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada in industries including retail; meatpacking, food processing and manufacturing; hosp ...

*History of

Sunflower County, MS Sunflower County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 29,450. Its largest city and county seat is Indianola, Mississippi, Indianola. S ...

, Bolivar County, MS, McComb, MS, Jones County, MS, and more. Th
Mississippi Freedom Project archives
include over 135 interviews, 76 are available online as of July 2014: *Liz Fusco Aaronsohn *James Abbott *Reverend Dr. Alan Bean and Nancy Bean *Margaret Block *Nathaniel Boclair, Jr. *Earnest Brown *Otis Brown *Bertha Burres *Florine Carter *Gelda Chandler *Thelma Collins *Allen Cooper *Gloria Dickerson *Darron L. Edwards *Tanya Evans *Charles Featherstone *Delta State Equal Rights Panel (2009) *Emma Golden *Heather Hudson *Tommy Farmer *Dennis Flannigan * Lawrence Guyot, Jr. *Anita and Arrack Jefferson *Everlyn Johnson *Hattie Jordan *Margaret Kibbee *Foster King *Karen Jo Koonan *Lilly Lavallais *Tommie Novick Lunsford *McKinley Mack *Atavis Minton *Greg McCoy *Charles Modley *Justine Moser *Benjamin Nance *

Rosa Parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "th ...

(with UF Libraries' James S. Haskins Collection) concerning the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and other events leading up to Freedom Summer *Sheriel Perkins *Elmo Proctor *David Rushing *Charles Scott *Isaac Shorter *Helen Sims *Valerie Simpson *Willie Spurlock *Eddie Steel *Jerry Tecklin *Ryan Thomas *Carver Randle *Akinyele Umoja *

*Dorsey White *Stacey White *Jakylla Williams *Kelvin Williams *Bright Winn

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

Samuel Proctor Oral History Program official website

Mississippi Freedom Project Archives at UF's Digital Collections

Samuel Proctor Oral History Program Oral History Archives at UF's Digital Collections

Samuel Proctor Oral History Program YouTube Channel
Oral history African Americans' rights organizations Civil rights movement History of African-American civil rights

Project history and annual research trip

Collections

See also

References

External links