Audiobook14 hours
Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy
Written by Bruce Watson
Narrated by David Drummond
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
In the summer of 1964, with the civil rights movement stalled, seven hundred college students descended on Mississippi to register black voters, teach in Freedom Schools, and live in sharecroppers' shacks. But by the time their first night in the state had ended, three volunteers were dead, black churches had burned, and America had a new definition of freedom.
This remarkable chapter in American history, the basis for the controversial film Mississippi Burning, is now the subject of Bruce Watson's thoughtful and riveting historical narrative. Using in-depth interviews with participants and residents, Watson brilliantly captures the tottering legacy of Jim Crow in Mississippi and the chaos that brought such national figures as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Pete Seeger to the state. Freedom Summer presents finely rendered portraits of the courageous black citizens and Northern volunteers who refused to be intimidated in their struggle for justice, as well as the white Mississippians who would kill to protect a dying way of life. Few books have provided such an intimate look at race relations during the deadliest days of the civil rights movement.
This remarkable chapter in American history, the basis for the controversial film Mississippi Burning, is now the subject of Bruce Watson's thoughtful and riveting historical narrative. Using in-depth interviews with participants and residents, Watson brilliantly captures the tottering legacy of Jim Crow in Mississippi and the chaos that brought such national figures as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Pete Seeger to the state. Freedom Summer presents finely rendered portraits of the courageous black citizens and Northern volunteers who refused to be intimidated in their struggle for justice, as well as the white Mississippians who would kill to protect a dying way of life. Few books have provided such an intimate look at race relations during the deadliest days of the civil rights movement.
Related to Freedom Summer
Related audiobooks
Hattiesburg: An American City In Black And White Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPatriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stolen Justice: The Struggle for African American Voting Rights (Scholastic Focus) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMidnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Burning: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Make Our World Anew: Volume II: A History of African Americans from 1880 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhite Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girl in Black and White: The Story of Mary Mildred Williams and the Abolition Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jimmie Lee and James: Two Lives, Two Deaths, and the Movement That Changed America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Southern Horrors: Lynch Law In All Its Phases Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From Midnight to Dawn: The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow (Scholastic Focus) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Race Against Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Politics For You
Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 48 Laws of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Out of the Wreckage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An American Marriage: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Mercies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romney: A Reckoning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behold a Pale Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Can't Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Freedom Summer
Rating: 4.666666666666667 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
6 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Despite having already read a number of books about the degradations that the South, and Mississippi in particular, have inflicted upon the blacks after the Civil War, I was terribly moved by this book. In essence, this book is about the summer of 1964 in which great efforts were made to allow the blacks of Mississippi to have the same rights of citizenship that white people enjoyed. Rights that one would have thought they had obtained after being freed as slaves a century earlier. I could talk at length about this book's contents, but I'll limit it to just three of many reactions I had while reading it. First, the dynamics of the situation that this book covers are well related to that of the American troops that served in occupied Iraq, constantly dealing with the dangers of the insurgency. Unfortunately for the freedom volunteers in Mississippi, they had similar dangers, but without all the weapons and body armor to protect them. Second, there is a dramatic element to the author's writing that at first bothered me. This is a "history" and historians don't embellish the facts. But then it occurred to me, if one person is beaten to a pulp, shot dead, and chopped into pieces because another person regards the first person as no better than a mongrel dog, does it really step over the line if the writer goes a step further and points out that this might be a bad thing? And third, I don't recall ever reading another book in which each time I picked it up to start reading further, I found myself quickly awash in thoughts about a myriad of issues related to the story and my relationship to those issues. It was like an internal book club discussion being reconvened every new time I started reading. I had to stop myself and just read. And as compelling as my inner thoughts were, the new sections I would be reading were always even more compelling. Finally, even though the book ends with better news about the subsequent state of race relations in Mississippi, it was the day before I finished the book that CNN had a new story about black victims of hit-and-run accidents by whites and of incidents that the white authorities failed to investigate for over three years until CNN started pushing the matter. The reaction from one of the county sheriffs could have been word for word from the sheriffs that abused the freedom volunteers so badly back in 1964.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent both as history and as a gripping story. It is remarkable how many current House and Senate member took part... yet appear to have forgotten the lessons learned.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There is a lot to like about this book. The stories are interesting and compelling (although the narrative structure was sometimes muddy and confusing). I was very interested to read about this chapter in American history that I hadn't been aware of before. I was shocked to realize how recently these things happened, and also to realize that in some cases, attempts at bringing violent perpetrators to justice are still being carried out.This book raised a lot of questions for me about organizing, power and privilege, and the silence of a nation. It was disheartening to read about all of the dirty politics that were used to keep people from participating in "democracy". This is a book that doesn't provide easy answers and the lives within the ambiguity of the movement and it's aftermath. It's an important book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a good book on a very interesting topic. Watson chronicles the summer of 1964, "Freedom Summer," when hundreds of (mostly white) college students journeyed to Mississippi to join up with local black civil rights workers, in an effort to change Mississippi's Jim Crow voting laws. They were met with distrust, hatred, violence of all stripes, and even murder, from the local whites. This is an important, engrossing story. I'm not always sure about Watson's tone, as he has a flare for the melodramatic, and the truth is dramatic enough, especially as told in quotes from those who were there, without extra rhetorical flourishes. The organization of his narrative is sometimes jumbled, as well. While those few stylistic problems keep the book from being "perfect," it is nonetheless a great read, chronicling a time that seems impossibly far away, but was only half a century away from today. Recommended. Four stars.