On the 50th anniversary of the historic “Freedom Summer” and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Project Vote Legislative Director Estelle Rogers remembers the struggle for equal rights (and begging her parents to join the voter registration efforts in Mississippi) and how the struggle continues today.
“The recent anniversaries of the civil rights movement have left me awash in memories, some of adolescent disappointment and impatience to make my own decisions, some more poignant….
“Freedom Summer was all about voting. In 1964 Mississippi, voting-eligible black citizens were required to fill out a 21-page application and answer a question about any of the 285 sections of the state constitution to the satisfaction of the white registrar. The state, not surprisingly, had the lowest percentage of black voter registration of any state in the country. Plagued by intimidation and deadly violence all summer, the volunteers of Freedom Summer did not succeed in registering many voters, but they did catapult the injustices in the south to daily media coverage, much of it vividly moving. I was not there, but I was mesmerized by the black and white film and the horrifying sounds. For so many people, including myself, it was a political awakening to the evils of racism….
“It took me 40 years after that to focus my legal career on voting rights. Astonishingly, we are fighting discriminatory voting laws all over again, albeit on a much more subtle level. It seems that every move toward racial equality has been met with an equal and opposite move backward….But having seen it all before, I am impatient. I can only hope that it won’t be another 50 years before the demagoguery is ended once and for all.”
Read more of Ms. Rogers’ story at the American Constitution Society blog.