JACKSON, Miss.– Most of them were just college students then, fighting to make a better place of a racially torn Mississippi. Wednesday, Mississippi lawmakers passed a resolution honoring those brave young folks who made possible the 1964 Freedom Summer.
“It’s a small token of our appreciation as a state to the work that people like you did 50 years ago,” said Senator John Horhn, D- Jackson. “We know that… all of you put your lives on the line to bring about change and we can never thank you enough.”
During Freedom Summer, civil rights activists worked to register blacks to vote and to establish schools in Mississippi. Many of the volunteers were beaten and three of them, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Channey, were murdered.
Civil rights veteran Hollis Watkins told Senators it was an honor to be in the state capitol “which is a house where I was not welcomed several years back.” Receiving the resolution he said shows “we’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.”
Events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer will be held in Mississippi this June
