Temporary, alternative free schools for American Southern blacks
Freedom Schools[1] which took place in the mid-1960s, were temporary, alternative, and free schools for African Americans and other minorities prominent in the South, but notable in all parts of the United States. They were originally part of a nationwide effort during the Civil Rights Movement to organize African Americans to achieve social, political and economic equality in the United States. The movement consisted of a series of programs that emerged to challenge the inequalities of segregated Southern education, transforming learning into a tool for liberation and empowerment while providing knowledge, critical thinking skills, and continues to influence modern educational and social movements. The curriculum was different from what was taught in public schools, going beyond just reading and writing, but also exploring African American history, Civic Engagement, and the philosophies of nonviolent resistance, considering it's association with the Civil Rights Movement. Encouraging students to think critically and explore their creativity. [2]
Almost 40 Freedom Schools were established and served over 2,500 students in one summer, which also included older generations, such as parents and grandparents. Classes were held in church basements, community centers, or homes due to threats to safety and lack of resources. Most teachers were activists, and African Americans and whites contributed to the success of the Freedom Schools.[3] While these schools had an influential mark in history and modern education, many remain unknown or left to the past. Yet as we know, history repeats itself, with modern accounts of segregation in the United States and around the world. It's crucial to remember the accounts of the past, as they influence the future and allow one to navigate through present injustices. Similar to how Freedom School advocates and students were resilient, persistent and dedicated in their stand against de facto segregation in Education. People must now unify against injustice reflecting the words of key Civil Rights Leader Dr. Martin Luther King, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". [4]
Origins
Despite the Supreme Court's ruling of 1954 in the Brown v. Board of Education case striking down segregated school systems, in the mid-1960s Mississippi, and many other states, still maintained separate and unequal white and "colored" school systems. On average, the state spent $81.66 to educate a white student compared to only $21.77 for a black student. Mississippi was one of only two states in the union that did not have a mandatory education law and many children in rural areas were sent to work in the fields and received little education at all. Even the curriculum was different for white and black. As a typical example, the white school board of Bolivar County mandated that "Neither foreign languages nor civics shall be taught in Negro schools. Nor shall American history from 1860 to 1875 be taught."
Students faced more de facto segregation during the decade following the Brown v. Board of Education precedent than before. Many white schools were half full, while schools reserved for African Americans, Latinx and other minorities were overcrowded, underfunded and understaffed. In severe cases, students would go to school in shifts in order to avoid overcrowding and to fit the limited staff. While many schools showed significant progress in terms of integration, providing access to better resources, higher quality of education and opportunities for African American students with test scores showcasing how the performance gap between African American and White children began to decrease which demonstrated the impact of equal access to education. [5] However, some schools refused to integrate African American and White children. With some schools referring to extremes, such as shutting down public schools for years, to avoid following the precedent set by the Supreme Court decision. [6]
In late 1963, Charles Cobb, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activist, proposed the organization sponsor a network of Freedom Schools, inspired by examples of the concept used previously in other cities. In the summer of 1963, the county board of education in Prince Edward County, Virginia had closed the public schools rather than integrate them after having been sued in a case following Brown vs. Board of Education, and so Freedom Schools emerged in their stead. In September, 1963, about 3,000 students participated in a Stay Out for Freedom protest in Boston opting instead to attend community-organized Freedom Schools. On October 22, 1963, known as Freedom Day, more than 200,000 students boycotted the Chicago Public Schools to protest segregation and poor school conditions, with some attending Freedom Schools instead. Subsequently, on February 3, 1964 in a similar Freedom day protest, over 450,000 students participated in a boycott of the New York City public schools in what was the largest civil rights demonstration of the 1960s, and up to 100,000 students attended alternative Freedom Schools.
While these movements were significant and necessary, change didn't come so easily. Many schools remained segregated till the late 1960s.[7] Yet with each boycott, African Americans and minorities were closer to integrated education systems. Yet up until that point, Freedom Schools led by SNCC and NAACP advocates filled the gaps in education that districts were avoiding or contributing to. So while they were boycotting, students were also receiving an education in churches, community centers, or homes led by boycotting teachers or Civil Rights Advocates. This allowed students to get a better understanding of their Civic Duty by involving themselves in the fight for desegregation. While also fighting to mend the underfunded educational systems influenced by racial hierarchy that didn't empower African American youth as it didn't involve African American history or culture. Making students feel systemically inferior from their education to witnessing what's happening politically to being treated differently by people around them.
Key Figures
Charles Cobb Jr.:
Charles' road to activism began when he participated at a sit-in as a student at Howard University, invited by the Congress of Racial Equality. He was invited to a workshop that was held in Houston, Texas in August 1962. After that sit in, he recalls facing numerous dangerous situations in the name of equality. Staying in Mississippi with SNCC to be an advocate for equality in the Civil Rights Movement. His key contribution was for the Freedom Schools which was part of the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project. Claiming the schools should "Fill an intellectual and creative vacuum in the lives of young Negro Mississippians" (Cobb Jr.) [8]
Robert 'Bob' Moses:
After seeing the sit in movements and racial activism that SNCC was involved in in the 1960s. He left his job at a private school in New York and moved to Mississippi, joining the fight for racial equality and justice. Within SNCC he became a central leader and organizer. [9] Specifically for the 964 Freedom Summer Campaign, he played a major role in planning and coordinating the project under the Council of Federated Organizations or COFO which established the Freedom Schools. [10] Throughout his work with SNCC, he said he discovered how working with SNCC made "him part of a family". [9]
Ella Baker:
Ella Josephine Baker was a leader in the Civil Rights movement and mentored hundreds of youth. In the Spring of 1960, she was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's executive director and watched as students attempting to attend colleges and universities rebranded the Black Freedom Struggle. She wanted the activists to meet and work with each other using the money from SCLC. [11] She organized a conference at Shaw University urging the students that the movement was so much larger than being able to eat at a segregated restaurant. Wanting them to realize how much work it would take to achieve equality. Through her numerous positions with the NAACP, SCLC and SNCC, she pushed for community-driven leadership which influenced how the Freedom Summer and Freedom Schools were run. [12]
Septima Poinsette Clark:
Septima Clark, also known as the "Mother of the Movement",as she laid the foundations for the Civil Rights movement, was a community teacher at an African American school on Johns Island and an advocate for human rights.[13] She often pursued her education during summer breaks, at one point studying under W.E.B. Du Bois at Atlanta University prior to earning her BA from Benedict College in Columbia and her MA from Virginia's Hampton Institute. Throughout her advocacy, she worked with the YMCA and participated in a lawsuit led by the NAACP that led to equal pay for African American and White teachers in South Carolina. After losing her position as teacher, Myles Horton hired her as Highlander's direct of workshops. At her new position, she taught people basic literacy skills, their civic duty as U.S. citizens and how to vote. When Highlander was forced to close by the state of Tennessee, the SCLC had established the Citizenship Education Program which was influenced by Septima Clark's workshops on citizenship. Eventually becoming the SCLC'S director of education and teaching, leading teacher training and developing curriculums. Her commitment to education, laid the foundation for voter registration and empowerment efforts and demonstrated how education could be used as a tool for liberation through the encouraging and understanding of civic participation before the term "Freedom Schools" came to be. [14]
The project was essentially a statewide voter registration campaign, and the framers called for one thousand volunteers to assist in the undertaking. Activists made plans to conduct a parallel Democraticprimary election, because the systematic exclusion of black voters resulted in all-white delegations to presidential primaries. These efforts culminated in the creation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Both the official delegation and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party went to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
In December 1963, during planning for the upcoming Freedom Summer project, Charles Cobb proposed a network of "Freedom Schools" that would foster political participation among Mississippi elementary and high school students, in addition to offering academic courses and discussions. Activists organizing the Freedom Summer project accepted Cobb's proposal and in March 1964 organized a curriculum planning conference in New York under the sponsorship of the National Council of Churches. Spelman College history professor Staughton Lynd was appointed Director of the Freedom School program.
Over the course of Freedom Summer, more than 40 Freedom Schools were set up in black communities throughout Mississippi. The purpose was to try to end political displacement of African Americans by encouraging students to become active citizens and socially involved within the community. Over 3,000 African American students attended these schools in the summer of 1964. Students ranged in age from small children to the very elderly with the average approximately 15 years old. Teachers were volunteers, most of whom were college students themselves.[16]
With few exceptions, Freedom School teachers were amazed at the enthusiasm of their students. One volunteer wrote home:
“Dear Mom and Dad, The atmosphere in class is unbelievable. It is what every teacher dreams about—real, honest enthusiasm and desire to learn anything and everything. The girls come to class of their own free will. They respond to everything that is said. They are excited about learning. They drain me of everything that I have to offer so that I go home at night completely exhausted but very happy.” [17]
Political and Educational Objectives
The Freedom Schools were conceptualized with both political and educational objectives. Freedom School teachers would educate elementary and high school students to become social change agents that would participate in the ongoing Civil Rights Movement, most often in voter registration efforts. The curriculum adopted was divided into seven core areas that analyzed the social, political, and economic context of precarious race relations and the Civil Rights Movement. Leadership development was encouraged, in addition to more traditional academic skills. The education at Freedom Schools was student-centered and culturally relevant. [18] Curriculum and instruction was based on the needs of the students, discussion among students and teachers (rather than lecturing) was encouraged, and curriculum planners encouraged teachers to base instruction on the experiences of their students.
Kathy Emery, Sylvia Braselmann, and Linda Gold who edited and introduced the book titled Freedom School Curriculum describes the movement's political and educational objectives as being around questions and activities that encourage discussion and enforce the relationship between school and students' lives. [19] This emphasizes how the school was student-focused, not merely sticking to a curriculum without consideration of the students. Education in this movement was meant to be relevant to students’ lives and allowed them to think for themselves while making connections to real-life events. In comparison to other systems that focused on memorization and getting through the curriculum. This system focused on understanding and relating lessons to the social and political events at the time. Education had always been an integral part of African American freedom, desegregation, and empowerment. Following the era of Jim Crow, education became a form of resistance where the enslaved would receive education from Christian missionaries, newspapers, etc. As they were prevented from receiving a proper education as White masters feared they would realize slavery wasn't as humane as they tried to convince themselves it was nor was it religious in any fashion. Which would give them hope for freedom and inspire resistance. [20]
Curriculum
Curriculum development revolved around The Curriculum Conference, which consisted of teachers and directors discussing the type of education that would be taught at the freedom schools. The teachers were to write an outline for their curriculum planning. They were told to keep in mind what life was like in Mississippi and the short amount of time that they had to teach the material. The curriculum had to be teacher-friendly and immediately useful to the students, while being based on questions and activities. Josh Davidson who contributed to the article titled, "Exploring the History of Freedom Schools -- Civil Rights Teaching" was quoted saying, "Through reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and civics, participants received a progressive curriculum during a six-week summer program that was designed to prepare disenfranchised African Americans to become active political actors on their own behalf" (Davidson).[21] This quote demonstrates the design of the Freedom School curriculum, how it was intended to cultivate intellectual and life skills. Not preparing students for a world of labor in factories, but a life where they could be active political actors. Where they could challenge de jure and de facto segregation, participate in democracy, advocate for their rights, and challenge the current system of racial hierarchy. The primary focus was questions and discussion rather than memorization of facts and dates. Instructions to teachers included:
In the matter of classroom procedure, questioning is the vital tool. It is meaningless to flood the student with information he cannot understand; questioning is the path to enlightenment... The value of the Freedom Schools will derive mainly from what the teachers are able to elicit from the students in terms of comprehension and expression of their experiences.
Since the curriculum conference brought together citizens of different backgrounds and origins, the final curriculum outline incorporated material from different origins and consisted of three different sections.
The three sections of the Freedom School curriculum were the Academic Curriculum, the Citizenship Curriculum, and the Recreational Curriculum. The purpose of these sections was to teach students social change within the school; regional history; black history; how to answer open-ended questions; and the development of academic skills. The Academic Curriculum consisted of reading, writing, and verbal activities that were based on the student's own experiences. The Citizenship Curriculum was to encourage the students to ask questions about the society. The Recreational Curriculum required the student to be physically active.
In most of the schools, the Citizenship Curriculum focused on two sets of inter-related questions for class discussion:
Why are we (teachers and students) in Freedom Schools?
What is the Freedom Movement?
What alternatives does the Freedom Movement offer us?
What does the majority culture have that we want?
What does the majority culture have that we don't want?
What do we have that we want to keep?
First year
Freedom Schools opened during the first week of July 1964, after approximately 250 Freedom School volunteer teachers attended one-week training sessions at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. The original plans had anticipated 25 Freedom Schools and 1,000 students; by the end of the summer, 41 schools had been opened to over 2,500 students.
Freedom Schools were established with the help and commitment of local communities, who provided various buildings for schools and housing for the volunteer teachers. While some of the schools were held in parks, kitchens, residential homes, and under trees, most classes were held in churches or church basements.[22] Attendance varied throughout the summer. Some schools experienced consistent attendance, but that was the exception. Because attendance was not compulsory, recruitment and maintaining attendance was perhaps the primary challenge the schools faced. In Clarksdale, Mississippi, for instance, the average student attendance during the first week was fifteen, the second week was eight, but at any point during the summer the school may have had in attendance as many as thirty-five students. It was not uncommon for adults to attend class regularly.
Instruction was changed based on local conditions. In rural communities where students were expected to work during the school day, classes were often held at night. In schools that maintained traditional school hours, typically in urban areas, citizenship curriculum and traditional academic courses were offered in the morning and special classes such as music, drama, and typing were offered in the afternoon. In many instances, entire school days would be devoted to voter registration efforts. It was imperative for SNCC activists that students would be invested in civil rights activity because this cadre of students was expected to remain in the state to enact social change.
At the conclusion of the Freedom School term, activists and students organized a student-led conference on August 8, 1964, the day after the funeral of James Chaney, one of the victims in the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. The conference was held in Meridian, Mississippi, at the former Meridian Baptist Seminary. The school was described as "the palace of the Freedom School circuit."[23] Each Freedom School sent three representatives to the conference to form a youth platform for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The student delegates discussed issues related to jobs, schools, foreign affairs, and public accommodations and proffered recommendations for the state party. By the end of the conference, students prepared a statement that demanded access to public accommodations, building codes for each home, integrated schools, a public works program, and the appointment of qualified blacks to state positions.
Freedom School teachers and students remained committed to the Freedom School concept. In early August 1964, plans were being made to continue the Freedom Schools during the upcoming school year, and some volunteer teachers had already agreed to stay. Students decided, however, during the Freedom School Conference in early August to not continue the schools. Yet students implemented the leadership and activism experienced during the summer in their own schools. Some students returned to school and demanded better facilities and more courses. Students in Philadelphia, Mississippi, returned to school wearing SNCC "One Man, One Vote" buttons—for which they were expelled.[24]
Freedom Library Day School, Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Freedom Library was founded by John E. Churchville in 1964.[25] Over the next few years he began to offer evening classes and eventually converted the library into a school. Upon the founding of this school, he prepared a short set of essays which were published in the book, What Black Educators Are Saying, edited by Nathan Wright Jr. and published in 1970.[26] This essay includes much of Churchville's thoughts on the state of the Black Power movement as well as his ideas for the pedagogy of his new Freedom School. He denigrates the ideas of both the cultural and progressive nationalist movements as being facades and without teeth. For him, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement which called for total and complete revolution both here and everywhere on earth, was the most accurate and true to its principles. They identified both intragroup and intraindividual issues facing black people in America and the only way to truly become a revolutionary was to be born-again; acted on by an outside power which began to rid you of these deficiencies. The schools themselves were based on a simple set of priorities. If education is the indoctrination of the young into an ideological system, then the Freedom School must reeducate black children to reject the dominant ideology and construct a new system. To do this, the first element of pedagogy to be established must be the new ideology of the school. After this, teachers must be found who can bridge the gap between identity and alienation, being object lessons for their students both inside and outside the classroom. Finally, the curriculum was designed to explain the objective situation of black people and teach the tools and skills to deal with this reality. The curriculum as described by Churchville was merely a vehicle for teaching revolutionary truth; the content was mostly irrelevant as it was the analysis which would demonstrate the reality. The school was raided by the FBI on August 13, 1966 on suspicion of harboring militant groups. After the raid, Churchville dropped out of activism.
Lesser-Known Freedom Schools
Prince Edward County Virginia, 1963-1964:
The Prince Edward Free School was founded when the county closed its public schools to prevent integration. As a result, the community ran “free schools” to allow African American children to receive an education. The public schools were closed for a period of 5 years in an attempt to avoid the precedent set by Brown V. Board of Education. In response, African American and minority communities, civil rights leaders and organizers, and families built “free schools” run by community members. [27] A key location in the Virginia area was the Prince Edward Free School, which provided academic instruction, cultural education and raised student civic awareness and political understanding. The NAACP and local churches had provided space, teachers, textbooks, etc, and public schools were eventually reopened following a Supreme Court decision. While this school isn’t directly associated with the Freedom Schools under Freedom Summer, it follows in the examples of others. Being built on the resilience, and dedication of community members who found this education style a form of resistance against the segregation they were facing. [28]
Boston Massachusetts, 1963-1964 - Freedom Stay Outs:[29]
The Freedom Stay Outs were a series of protest days where students and families boycotted schools to resist de facto segregation through zoning and overcrowding policies. Students would attend the “Freedom Schools,” which were held in churches, basements, or community centers instead of attending their public schools. The first of these many protests took place on June 18, 1963. When this issue was taken up with the superintendent, Frederick Gillis, at the time, he claimed it was the result of residential patterns and the education system, and districts were not based on ethnic or religious factors. [30] Committee Chairwoman Louise Day Hicks refused to acknowledge that anything was wrong with the infrastructure or education system in these schools. As a result, community leaders, activists, clergy, and more formed the Freedom Stay-Out Committee, co-led by Noel A.Day and Reverend James Breeden, which had organized the Boston Freedom Schools. Noel. A Day had moved to Boston after receiving an education from Dartmouth in New York to be a social worker and later became a community organizer. Breeden was a priest at St. James Church in Roxbury, who was an activist, community organizer, and one of the 15 Freedom Riders arrested in Mississippi in 1961. Around 2 weeks later, another protest occurred, where 8,260 students skipped class and 3,000 attended classes at a Freedom School. [29]
1964 New York City Freedom Day Boycott:
Following the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, students faced an increase in segregation in the decade after the ruling as a result of redlining, zoning laws, and opposition to integration by parents and school systems. According to a source by Tenement Museum, the number of schools deemed segregated went from 52 in 1954 to over 200 by 1964. Public Schools in white neighborhoods were half full, while African American and Puerto Rican schools were overcrowded and underfunded. [31] Specifically, Harlem, a majority African American neighborhood had only one High School in the early 1960s and students were forced to attend school in shifts in order to avoid overcrowding. While also lacking libraries, gyms, and special education classes as well as English classes. By the early 60s, opposition to these conditions grew in New York with Milton Galamison, a pastor and civil rights activist being the leading voice in the fight for integrated schools. After years of constant protest and pressure for leaders to make a change. Leaders compromised claiming they would set a plan that would integrate some schools in the span of five years. Unsatisfied, numerous leaders organized a single day protest called the “Freedom Day Boycott”. On the day of the boycott, February 3rd, 1964, over 460,000 students either walked out of classes or stayed home entirely. With over 90,000 of those students attending “Freedom Schools” stationed in parks, churches, and homes directed by teachers who were boycotting as well.[32] This movement, being double the size of the March on Washington, was the largest protest of the Civil Rights Era. While this freedom school didn’t last more than a day, it’s crucial to mention because the smallest differences can lead to reform. Following the boycott, the Board of Education announced that they would start a program that would bus students from minority to majority neighborhoods to fill the under filled white schools. [33]
Legacy
The Freedom Schools, while they may be fewer than they were following the Brown v. Board of Education Precedent, still continue to influence modern education systems. Not only did their educational systems and curriculums shape modern education but they continue to inspire movements regarding desegregation, freedom and combatting misinformation. More recently, as book bans and censored history are being enforced within the education system. It's more important than ever, to counter these injustices as advocates, families and students fought to counter the de facto segregation in many areas following the Brown v. Board of Education court case. [34]
The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) operates a nationwide modern Freedom School program. This program is coordinated through the Children's Defense Fund's Black Community Crusade for Children initiative. The CDF Freedom Schools national program operates over 130 summer program sites in 24 states across the country serving nearly 7,200 children.[35]
The Philadelphia Freedom Schools[36] still persists as an independent community education initiative operating a modern version of the Mississippi curriculum with an emphasis on academic scholarship, social action and intergenerational leadership. Philadelphia Freedom Schools[37] are organized through a lead agency, Communities In Schools.[38]
In collaboration with the numerous movements during the Civil Rights era, the Freedom Schools were a response to the inequalities and oppressive conditions of the segregated system of education in the South. Not only did it provide students with critical skills such as reading and writing, but it went beyond that and provided students with a sense of identity, built their critical thinking skills, in order for students to become more civically and politically involved. It was a path to overcome de facto segregation and built a path toward social justice that even students could be a part of. Although the original program operated during the 1960s, its legacy continues to influence and inspire modern social movements and the education system. Showcasing how education can be tied to empowerment and liberation, and leads to change and a generation of students who can be active participants in the fight for equality, freedom, and justice.
William Sturkey and Jon N. Hale (eds.), To Write in the Light of Freedom: The Newspapers of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2015.
Jon N. Hale, The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016)
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