Freedom Summer: The Savage Season of 1964 That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy

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Penguin, Jun 10, 2010 - History - 384 pages
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A riveting account of one of the most remarkable episodes in American history.

In his critically acclaimed history Freedom Summer, award- winning author Bruce Watson presents powerful testimony about a crucial episode in the American civil rights movement. During the sweltering summer of 1964, more than seven hundred American college students descended upon segregated, reactionary Mississippi to register black voters and educate black children. On the night of their arrival, the worst fears of a race-torn nation were realized when three young men disappeared, thought to have been murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. Taking readers into the heart of these remarkable months, Freedom Summer shines new light on a critical moment of nascent change in America.

"Recreates the texture of that terrible yet rewarding summer with impressive verisimilitude." -Washington Post
 

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User Review  - larryerick - LibraryThing

Despite 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 ... Read full review

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - shannonkearns - LibraryThing

There 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 ... Read full review

Contents

BOOK ONE Crossroads
CHAPTER TWO Not Even Past
CHAPTER FOUR The Decisive Battlefield for America
CHAPTER FIVE It Is Sure Enough Changing
CHAPTER SIX The Scars of the System
INTERLUDE Another SoCalled Freedom Day
CHAPTER EIGHT The Summer of Our Discontent
CHAPTER NINE Lay by Time
CHAPTER TEN The Stuff Democracy Is Made Of
CHAPTER ELEVEN Give unto Them Beauty for Ashes
Photographs
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About the author (2010)

Bruce Watson is an award-winning journalist whose articles have been published in Smithsonian, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Examiner, Yankee Magazine, and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2003.

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