Mississippi Archives

Missing persons poster created by the FBI in 1964, shows the photographs of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner.

June 21, 1964: Three Civil Rights Workers Murdered in Mississippi

James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were tortured and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

Aug. 6, 1964: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Convention

The MFDP held a State Convention with 2,500 people in Jackson, Mississippi.

Aug. 8, 1964: Freedom Schools Convention

The Freedom Schools Convention was held in Meridian, Mississippi

Aug. 22, 1964: Sharecroppers Demand Delivery of Full Suffrage in the U.S.

Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and the other members of the MFDP at the Democratic National Convention, questioned the nation about the lack of “one person, one vote” in the United States.

April 1, 1965: Blackwell v. Issaquena Board of Education

The civil rights suit of Blackwell v. Issaquena Board of Education was filed on behalf of 300 African-American students from several schools across Issaquena County in Mississippi who had been suspended for wearing and distributing “freedom” buttons.

Carter Children | Zinn Education Project

Aug. 12, 1965: Carter Family Insists on Rights Under Brown v. Board

Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter enrolled their children in schools in Sunflower County, Mississippi that had been illegally denied to African Americans. In retaliation, they were evicted from the land they sharecropped and their home was riddled with bullets.

Jan. 10, 1966: Voting Rights Activist Vernon Dahmer Murdered

Vernon Dahmer was killed when the Ku Klux Klan fired bombed his home. This was one day after Dahmer offered to pay the election poll tax for anyone who could not afford it.

James Meredith and Stokely Carmichael. Photo by Bob Fitch.

June 6, 1966: James Meredith and the March Against Fear

Air Force veteran James Meredith began the March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi.

June 10, 1966: Ben Chester White Murdered

Ben Chester White, caretaker on a farm, was brutally murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Natchez, Mississippi.

Charles Hamilton Houston, portrait by Robert Shetterly of Americans Who Tell the Truth.

Oct. 29, 1969: Supreme Court Rules Schools Must Desegregate

The Supreme Court ruled that schools in the U.S. had to desegregate “immediately,” instead of the previous ruling of “with all deliberate speed.”

May 15, 1970: Jackson State Killings

College student Phillip Lafayette Gibbs (21) and high school student James Earl Green (17) were killed by the police during an anti-war protest at Jackson State College.

Freedom Song

Film. By Phil Alden Robinson. 2006. 117 minutes.
Based on the actual history of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), student activism, and voter registration in McComb, Mississippi, during the Civil Rights Movement.