Freedom Summer records, Civil Rights Heritage Center Collections
Title
Freedom Summer records, Civil Rights Heritage Center Collections
Description
Beginning in 2000, Indiana University South Bend History professors Dr. Les Lamon and Dr. Monica Tetzlaff offered students a unique and often life changing experience. Students would board a charter bus and, for two weeks, visit some of the people and places in the deep South that made an impact on the United States Civil Rights movement. The idea was to recreate the famous “Freedom Rides” of the 1960s, where Northerners would board busses and protest Civil Rights injustices (e.g. segregated lunch counters) to show solidarity with those Southerners most affected.
Freedom Summer continued every other year from 2000 until 2008, then again in 2011, 2016, and 2018. Students toured such places as the Lorraine Motel (where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated), the Edmund Pettus Bridge (where African American protestors were met with police dogs and sprayed with fire hoses), the Southern Poverty Law Center, 16th Street Baptist Church, and many others. The trip was considered a credited course, and students were required to read and submit papers detailing their experiences throughout the trip.
Freedom Summer continued every other year from 2000 until 2008, then again in 2011, 2016, and 2018. Students toured such places as the Lorraine Motel (where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated), the Edmund Pettus Bridge (where African American protestors were met with police dogs and sprayed with fire hoses), the Southern Poverty Law Center, 16th Street Baptist Church, and many others. The trip was considered a credited course, and students were required to read and submit papers detailing their experiences throughout the trip.
Creator
Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center
Date
2000-2020
Identifier
CRHC.FS
Collection Items
Photograph, Dexter Avenue Church
Photograph of the participants of Freedom Summer 2000 standing at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Subsequent students have had their photos taken outside this church as well.