Documentary Film: Freedom Summer By Stanley Nelson

ianna Mutter
Dissent in America
Emil Studinski
November 19th, 2015
Freedom Summer Freedom Summer is a documentary film directed by Stanley Nelson. It chronicles the summer of 1964, often called the Freedom Summer. During the month of june in 1964 over seven hundred students from all over the country rode buses to Mississippi with the goal to register as many African Americans to vote as possible. During the time of intense discrimination and the Jim Crow laws of the south, African Americans were most likely not able to vote in elections. The freedom summer not only got Mississippi African Americans the right to vote but their first real political voice. The film immerses the viewer in the landscape of Mississippi in 1964, it shows the political tension and the dangers faced by those surrounding the mission of the Freedom Summer. The beginning of the film sets the mood of Mississippi during the start of the civil rights movement. Stanley Nelson uses newsreels from Mississippi in the early sixties to demonstrate how deeply racism and discrimination were ingrained into political and social climate of the south. Terrorism was a key tool for white racists in the south to keep blacks from voting. Political and economic policies for voting also kept blacks effectively disenfranchised (Freedom Summer). This environment lead to the

The documentary shows the diligent planning and training that occurred before any buses were loaded up. The students that were leaders of SNCC realized, somewhat, that danger would be present in trying to make a drastic social change. SNCC knew that they had to be tedious in choosing students that would be a part of this movement. These young adults had to have a stable demeanor and a certain wisdom about them (Freedom Summer). Those chosen would then go through a training process before leaving for