Also American
OppressionJune 1964

Mississippi Police Systematically Attack Freedom Summer Workers

During 1964 Freedom Summer, Mississippi law enforcement arrested over 1,000 civil rights workers, beat volunteers in jail cells, and fired into homes where workers stayed. In Hattiesburg, police used electric cattle prods on Black residents attempting to register to vote. The Council of Federated Organizations documented over 450 separate incidents of racial violence that summer.