S7 E8: Freedom Summer at 60: The Fight for Voting Rights Continues

Episode Transcript

Kanya Bennett
Welcome to Pod For The Cause, the official podcast of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund where we take on the critical civil and human rights issues of our day. I’m your host, Kanya Bennett, coming to you from our nation’s capitol, Washington, D. C. It is still hot and getting even hotter with the summer presidential campaign season well underway. The upcoming 2024 election this November has democracy on the ballot and it is up to all of us to save it. One sure way to stand up for justice and equality as well as civil and human rights is to vote. That’s right, vote. V- O- T- E. Today’s episode will focus on the vote and is dedicated to the Mississippi Summer Project, better known as the 1964 Freedom Summer, upon its 60th anniversary. Freedom Summer was a movement born from a century of segregation and racism endured by Black Mississippians who were prevented from voting or holding public office. This meant they had no political or economic power. This state campaign would have national implications too, resulting in the passage of major national civil rights laws. In the summer of 1964, the Mississippi State branches of four major civil rights organizations, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC, the Congress of Racial Equality or CORE, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or NAACP, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or SCLC were organized around the primary goal of getting as many Black Mississippians registered to vote as possible. That summer, 1, 000 out- of- State volunteers of various races and creeds came together with thousands of Black Mississippians to raise awareness around voting rights. However, Freedom Summer efforts were not well received by local officials. A thousand people were arrested, 80 volunteers were beaten, dozens of Black churches homes and businesses were bombed and some freedom fighters lost their lives in this effort. Justice Freedom Summer kicked off on June 21st, 1964. Black Mississippian James Chaney and White New Yorkers, Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were kidnapped and murdered. While the goal of significantly increasing the number of Black Mississippians registered to vote was not immediately reached after Freedom Summer, the nation was sympathetic to this fight for enfranchisement. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 would become law that July and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would be enacted the following year. As we navigate the 2024 presidential campaign season this summer, Freedom Summer at 60 is a critical point of reflection. Just like 60 years ago, the fight and fate of our democracy is paramount and it’s up to us, the electorate, to vote in order to save it. Joining me in today’s conversation to discuss the pivotal 1964 Freedom Summer campaign and subsequent wins and losses in the pursuit of voting rights for all Americans are three modern day freedom fighters. Today’s guests are civil rights advocates and historians whose knowledge and expertise we will surely benefit from. First, let me welcome Michael Morris, director of two Mississippi museums, the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Welcome, Michael.

Michael Morris
Thank you for having me.

Kanya Bennett
Next, let me introduce Jarvis Dortch, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi. We are proud the ACLU is a coalition member of the Leadership Conference and happy to have you here today. Jarvis, welcome.

Jarvis Dortch
Thank you for inviting me.

Kanya Bennett
And finally, let me acknowledge Waikinya Clanton, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mississippi state office. SPLC is another coalition member with which the Leadership Conference is proud to have. Waikinya, we are happy you could join us today. Welcome.

Waikinya Clanton
Thank you all for having us.

Kanya Bennett
Michael, let’s start with you. Talk to us a little bit about the two Mississippi museums and as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer, how did the museum’s exhibits on this pivotal event educate and inspire visitors about the ongoing fight for voting rights?

Michael Morris
Absolutely. Again, thank you for having me. When I think about the exhibits that we have in our Civil Rights Museum that speak to Freedom Summer, that speak to 1964, when I think about Gallery 6 and Gallery 6 is called I Question America, and that’s a quote directly from Fannie Lou Hamer’s riveting testimony during the Democratic National Convention in 1964. But what we actually do in that gallery is we start the conversation in the fall of 1963 when about 83,000 Black Mississippians participated in the Freedom Vote campaign and essentially what happens is they place a Black individual and a white individual on a mock election ballot to demonstrate that African Americans were indeed interested in participating in the voting process. On that ballot was an individual by the name of Ed King who was running for lieutenant governor. At the time, he was the chaplain at Tougaloo College and then he ran alongside Aaron Henry who was a Black pharmacist from Clarksdale, Mississippi who ran for governor. And like I said, this was a real, real big moment in terms of movement history because as I said, 83, 000 people participated in that. That gallery continues to talk about some of the most pivotal events that took place that summer including those murders of those three civil rights workers that you mentioned, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney. But I think it’s important to note that if you ever do get a chance to visit our museum, we’ve got an exhibit in a replica Black church in which visitors can go in and hear directly from the voices of the veterans themselves. And I think that’s the thing I’m proudest of the most in terms of our museums is that you get a chance to hear from these veterans and how they tell the story of themselves. That’s what comes to mind for me.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Michael for giving us that taste of history there, what is offered at the museums, especially as we’re commemorating Freedom Summer right now. I want to turn to you Jarvis, the ACLU of Mississippi has been dedicated to promoting, defending, and extending civil rights and civil liberties to all Mississippians since 1969, just a few years after Freedom Summer, at a time when recently gained civil rights laws would need protecting. Reflecting on the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer, what do you see as the most significant achievements and challenges that have emerged since then in the fight for voting rights?

Jarvis Dortch
I took a little bit of time and looked at the prospectus that the organizations that made up COFO put together to kind of describe what was going to be happening in Mississippi and describe the condition of Mississippi. And what struck me was a lot of what I was reading, I was like, is this current or is this from 1964? Because a lot of the same challenges are the same, but you have to acknowledge that we’ve come a long way, that more people will register to vote, as a result of this, that we have more Black elected officials in Mississippi than any other state, and that the Freedom Democratic Party forced the National Democratic Party to open up and reflect on what was actually their values and did that show up and how they were organizing as a party. For me, the challenge is, and I think this comes up whenever there’s some progressive gain, it’s going to be some pushback that comes with it and a backlash, political, illegal, and we saw that after a advancement of civil rights and that means that we’re left with some of the same challenges. The issue is being able to sustain what wins we get and then plan for what’s next and don’t take for granted that these wins are going to stay in place and that there aren’t people planning to push back on whatever gains do have.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Michael. And that really tees up the question that I want to raise with you Waikinya, the Southern Poverty Law Center is right exactly that. It’s southern and describes its work as a catalyst for racial justice in the south, and I know you’re charged with overseeing these efforts in Mississippi in particular, but we know that SPLC has impact well beyond the country’s southern region. I’m hoping you can talk a little bit about how our voting rights have been compromised by the courts and legislatures, not just there in Mississippi, but just locally and nationally. And then how is SPLC responding to those attacks?

Waikinya Clanton
Thanks, Kanya. You’re absolutely right. What we’ve seen since the overturning of Shelby v Holder has really been an attack on justice and democracy and freedom here in this country. I was explaining this to someone a while back about why the work of SPLC is so important because if you look really intently on what’s happening in the states, it is shaping the rest of the nation. So Shelby v Holder focused on pre- clearance and the Voting Rights Act and then we saw the erosion of what happened in Alabama. You saw the erosion of what happened with proposition 4 in Florida. You’ve seen the various attacks on voting rights right here in the state of Mississippi. That lays the framework for a lot of what we’re experiencing on the federal level so much around what has shaped and fabricated our country has been derived from the state. And so the work that we do here at the Southern Poverty Law Center in partnership with our friends over at ACLU and Mississippi Center for Justice, the NAACP and so many others is really concentrated on why the voice of the people must always rise to the top, why we must always ensure. Jarvis mentioned earlier that the work, when he was looking at the foundation and the structure of how COFO came to be and the shaping of that Federation of Organizations and why they were so important, it resonates with us, particularly today in Mississippi, is because we’re fighting those same fights. We’re fighting for equal access to the ballot. We’re fighting to ensure that people with disabilities have the support that they need. We’re fighting for early access to the ballot so that we get early voting because people here in the state of Mississippi work 9:00 to 5: 00 jobs, work from 7:00 to 7: 00 sundown job, and so that means that they have to have more access to the ballot. We are looking to figure out ways that we can get rid of what we call a modern day poll tax on the way that we even absentee ballot vote, right? We have to have, people who don’t know this, in the state of Mississippi, we have a multifaceted process when it comes to voting absentee. We have to request an application, it has to be notarized, it has to be then sent back. We have to get a ballot. That ballot also has to be notarized. Every time you get that notarized, you have to pay for that. And in one of the poor states in the nation, that’s unacceptable. We’re talking about free fair access to the ballot. And in places like Mississippi, our job, our charge is to constantly find ways that we can challenge those things in pursuit of equality and justice for all Americans, because we know as so goes, Mississippi goes the rest of the nation. And so we have to make sure that we are doing the work here on the ground first to prevent it from being a nationwide catastrophe.

Kanya Bennett
Absolutely, Waikinya. And so Michael, let me go back to you and pick up on a few of the threads that Waikinya just articulated. There are a couple of things that struck me. So obviously this discussion around Mississippi really being ground zero, right? So Mississippi potentially could be a model, good or bad for the rest of the country. And right now, what we’re seeing is Mississippi being a model for how to disenfranchise voters. Well, can you also talk about Mississippians working 9:00 to 5: 00 jobs, having limited time, lots of obstacles presented to them, making it tough to vote, making it tough to carry out a lot of day- to- day activities. Michael, when I think about the museums and the sort of outlets, those provide Mississippians ideally other people from throughout the country coming, internationally coming and sort of appreciating the history. But when I think about these museums as sort of pillars for Mississippians and you have just a small amount of time to get to reach Mississippi folks, talk to us about how the museum attempts to do this. How does it attempt to sort of connect the past and the present efforts to secure voting rights in Mississippi and also nationally?

Michael Morris
Let me just say for the sake of your audience, most folks might not know that our museums are two Mississippi museums. The Museum of Mississippi History, Mississippi Civil Rights Museum are operated by the state of Mississippi, and so our Civil Rights Museum is actually the first state sponsored civil rights museum in the country. That’s thanks to individuals in the Mississippi Black Caucus individuals like Jarvis Dortch who once served there fighting and trying to make sure that that happened. And so one of my goals ever since I’ve stepped into this role, I’ve only been in this role since last August, but it is really connecting with our movement veterans that we’re losing every day it seems like to me. And so for example, it was just last fall that we lost an individual by the name of Hollis Watkins who was a SNCC veteran and somebody that was a movement activist even all the way up until the end of his life. He’s also somebody that contributed and lit his voice to our museums. And so when you go to the centric gallery, he was a singer and so he actually recorded freedom songs to put in the centric gallery of our museums. And before he passed away, he was somebody that we would invite to come to the museums and make those connections between the past and the present because of his work with Southern Echo, but also because he was actually a SNCC veteran, but also because he was a part of those first efforts to elect individuals to hire office. And so for example, he was the campaign chair person for Jesse Jackson during his second round for president. My job in many ways is to use our veterans here that are still alive, use their voices, and talk about what their vision is for the America that we have today. That’s kind of how we connect locally. Our facilities are open for anybody to rent, so we have a lot of facility use, programs that take place at the museums. We do a lot of public education. We lead a lot of school tours. Another thing that we’ve done is we’ve created an endowment here at the museums at the Department of Archives of History to eliminate any barrier for any K to 12 student to be able to see these museums across the state. And that’s important because our state has a lot of districts that will be considered poor. Not only are we eliminating tickets to be able to come to our museums, we’re also paying for gas, for school business, and also lunches because I believe that once more of our students, white and Black in this state understand and have a richer and fuller understanding of the struggle for civil rights in the state. We have an opportunity to create a new future for our state. The last thing I’ll mention is the fact that just last week, we were the recipients of NEH grant, the National Endowment of the Humanities, Landmarks of America History grant, where we actually are bringing down 60 teachers from around the country plus Puerto Rico to come here during this entire summer and learn about Freedom Summer, and these are individuals, like I said, from all around the country. And just last week, I had the opportunity to take them to McComb, Mississippi, which is where the first Student Nonviolent Coordinating project took place where they had a chance to spend time with civil rights veterans there. And then I got a chance to take them up to the Mississippi Delta to the sites related to the murder of Emmett Till and et cetera. And so that’s another way in which the department in which these museums are trying to have a national input in terms of having an impact on teachers from around the country and helping them to understand their importance of figures like Bob Moses or Hollis Watkins and now they’re inspired. This is what kind of touched my heart is hearing them say they can’t wait to go back to the classroom at top to the kids about individuals like Bob Moses on Hollis Watkins.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you so much for sharing that great work, Michael. And what a wonderful example of how Mississippi can model good practices for not just the state but for the rest of the country. Let me turn to you, Jarvis. We’ve been talking a little bit about sort of connecting past and present and when we first started this conversation, there was some talk about 2024 in comparison to 1964, and we’re still tackling a lot of the same voter suppression tactics. And so I want you to talk a little bit about sort of what we’re up against and how the ACLU, the ACLU of Mississippi, the ACLU nationally is in this fight and how are we bringing folks along to push back?

Jarvis Dortch
We don’t see the same type of violence in preventing people from trying to register to vote or to vote, but we do see techniques or laws that are passed to make it harder for people to even stay on the rolls as Waikinya said, make it harder to vote by just making it an impossible task to be able to get to a polling place between 7:00 to 7: 00 when you’re working full time. And we’ve seen the deliberate attempts by state legislatures to limit Black voting power either through the redistricting process or something that’s going on in the south, including Mississippi, is by taking local control away from elected officials, especially Black mayors and cities for Black leadership. We saw that with the city of Jackson with the effort to create this unique unelected, unaccountable court system within the city and to also place the city under the jurisdiction of a state controlled police department, which is still happening. So you see a lot of that not just happening in Jackson or in Mississippi but throughout the south with these attacks on those type of rights. But I always think about going back to the’60s or even later than that, that democracy is pretty new to Mississippi. People can think that this election, when you talk about the idea of authoritarianism or that people are going to lose their rights and the democracy is on the line, you have to just look at the way some of these states operate to see how that will play out. It’s not the same as Nazi Germany, but when you can take away someone’s political power and make it so their vote really doesn’t count for anything, you’re essentially taking democracy away because you can go vote. We can tell people all the time, go vote, go vote, go vote, and then a state legislature comes in and takes everything that your local folks that you’ve elected can do. Take that away. We’re up against that, being able to reaffirm to people that there’s a reason for you to vote, there’s a reason for you to stay active. One of the things we did during the 2023 election process is we did a campaign geared towards Black voters in Hinds County by reminding them that they have a say or voice in what happens in the Mississippi Capitol. The numbers are there for the voters in Hinds County to be able to pick the governor of Mississippi, and if you’re able to pick the governor of Mississippi, you’re able to choose, that governor is able to select who’s over the State Capitol Police. This governor can put Black people into a position where they have more power and more say what happens with our state government. That to me is very important because you see a lot of Black folks in our state that have kind of accepted that we’re not going to have a say in what happens with our state legislature or state government and that they don’t understand that the numbers are that close for statewide office that you can have a big influence. The last election was decided by 26,000 votes. Those votes can come from Black folks in our state. I think it’s like a double- edged sword to tell Black folks that it is up to us to make this happen. And then also you’re putting it on them to save democracy, but we see it over and over again that it has to be us, that we have to do it, and that we have to step up. And if we can do it in Mississippi, I think that shows the rest of the nation that it can be done everywhere.

Kanya Bennett
Absolutely, Jarvis. Waikinya, when I think about Freedom Summer at this moment in 2024, I think about the 1964 Democratic National Convention at which, and I know Michael touched on this earlier, Mississippi activist, Fannie Lou Hamer gave an impassion plea for voting rights for Black Mississippians and we’re in the midst of political party national conventions. What is SPLC’s plea to both parties with respect to voting rights? We heard a little bit about what Jarvis would say, but what would you say Waikinya?

Waikinya Clanton
SPLC, the nonprofit in 501( c)( 3), we do have a 501( c)( 4) PAC and IE that are affiliated with the work that we do at the Southern Poverty Law Center. But I think as Waikinya, as someone who has worked in national politics before, I think my message to both parties is to remember who you’re fighting for. Remember that it is we the people and not ye the people, not be the people but we the people. And what that means is that people should be at the center of our decision making, right? Not political ideology, not partisan politics, but really the true needs and assessments of people. The role of government is to protect and provide for people. And right now, what we’re experiencing in our country is a level of divisiveness that we cannot tolerate, right? A house divided will not stand, and I think that is really important for us to remember that we are the United States of America, not the fragmented state of America, not the red state blue states of America, but the United States of America. And what that really means in a time where people are finding it very difficult to make their ends meet, they’re finding it very difficult in the age of technology to adjust. They’re finding it difficult to feed their families and clothe their children and to ensure that there’re going to be resources. We’re in a country where the minimum wage is still$ 7 and 25 cents. In some places, that is an atrocity. You’re paying almost as much as you would for a mortgage as you are for rent in this country. And so I think we really have to examine how do we get here, examine how we’re dealing with the public health crisis that we have here in this country, whether it is related to various health disparities, but whether it’s related to crime, whether it’s related to racism, how are we dealing with the public crisis that we have here in this country. There’s too much happening around us, rather not to be really focused on why people feel disenchanted with that process. This idea of democracy is important. It is important that we understand and that people understand that when we talk about the fabric of this nation and the shaping of this nation, that we all play a role in designing and defining democracy every day for ourselves. That if we truly are the land of the free and the home of the brave, we have to ensure that that is so for all of us, not for some of us. If we’re a place of equal opportunity, we’re a place of future then destiny, then we should realize what that really means to bring that into focus for everyday people, because it is important that people believe in the country in which they live, that they believe in the government in which they have, and that they can’t trust that no matter who’s in the office, that they’re going to be okay. Right now, that’s a huge uncertainty that too many people in our country have. And I think we’ve seen what hate had the ability to do in this country. People feel so emboldened to have such a great disdain for life that we can’t even find space for empathy anymore in our country, and I think that’s really dangerous. I also think that it is further dangerous to want to control how people live in this country from a place of dictatorship that is extremely dangerous. It’s extremely dangerous to want to dismantle and disloot our education system in this country that we are finding it. And Jarvis could probably speak to this a little bit more because he’s been a legislator, but I find it extremely difficult to process that people think that it’s okay to take money away from public education. I find it extremely troubling that our government finds it okay to return money to feed children over the summer. I find it disturbing in so many ways in which we are living and operating right now. And I think furthermore, when you think about Mississippi in particular, a place that has one of the largest poverty rates in the nation, almost 20% of our population live in persistent, prevalent poverty here in the state of Mississippi. A third of those people are children. What does that say about us if we don’t care about the faith and the future of children in this country? And that’s all being perpetuated from a position of extreme privilege. I believe too many people find it too easy to pass blame, but you can’t pass blame onto a child. We have a responsibility to the people here in this nation, and I think both parties would do well to realize that.

Kanya Bennett
Waikinya, I appreciate that impassioned plea and I do hope that folks appreciate the thinking here. Let me go back to you, Michael, and as I’m still processing some of what Waikinya just shared, but what really stands out though is the shared plight that many of us have as human beings. Obviously, there in Mississippi a shared history that people have as Mississippians, and obviously that is what the museum is of putting forward, wanting people to understand that there may actually be more commonality when you put the politics aside, that we’re all sort of working to live lives that afford us education and housing and healthcare and clean water, right, when I think about Jackson. Can you talk to us a little bit about how the museum brings people together outside of voting? Obviously every issue is on the ballot, but when we think about these various issue areas that are going to impact every single one of us, how is the museum able to showcase and shed light on some of those other issues that again, are all sort of though encompass when we think about what’s on the ballot?

Michael Morris
What comes to my mind immediately is every single Wednesday without fail, we have a program at noon called History Is Lunch and we invite an author, somebody that’s interested in public history or done some deep study on some subject to come and talk about some aspect of Mississippi history. And on the surface, that seems like a pretty basic form lecture series, but what really happens is we have speakers that come in like last week and talk about the history of the Mississippi River. And what that gives us an opportunity to do is to talk about the flood of 1927 and what are the implications of the flood in 1927 on the flood of 1979. What are the implications on that today in terms of our wired and drainage systems? And so we have, in my humble opinion, one of the most diverse audiences in the city on any given Wednesday. And what’s really fascinating to me is those programs are an opportunity for folks afterwards and during the program do question and answer to make these connections that we’re talking about here between the present and the past. Another thing I was going to say in terms of voting, because I just wanted to hoop and holler while Waikinya was talking. It’s a great book about Freedom Summer in the Mississippi movement called Local People by John Dittmer. And one of the most special moments in the book is when he’s describing these Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party precinct meetings that are held throughout the state. To me, when I discuss this book with those 30 teachers that came into town last week, one of the teachers pointed out how precious that particular portion of the book was in terms of our discussion about democracy. Those precinct meetings led to the delegates that would eventually go to the Democratic National Convention, but what we were really stuck on was the creativity of coming up with this independent party in the first place. And so that kind of creativity, that kind of thinking outside of the box about how our democracy should work is something that I hope every person that comes to our museum is inspired to do and to contribute to. At least that’s my hope, but I hope that kind answers your question. I think every Wednesday that program is an opportunity for folks from the community to come in and make these connections themselves and explain to me why the’27 flood is important today and why we have an Army Corps of Engineers of Vicksburg. It also gives us a chance to talk about the history of our infrastructure here in Jackson, which is another pressure topic. How do we get to where we are today? It didn’t just happen overnight. These are because of a series of decisions that were made over 80 years that we’ve gotten to the point where we are today.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Michael. That’s great and it sounds very intentional and the programming sounds like it’s going to get people exactly where they need to be. It may not happen overnight, but certainly steps towards better understanding and appreciation for the policies that we all benefit from, that we all should see. Jarvis, when I think about the road ahead, again, we have an election in front of us. Everything is on the ballot. Talk to us about what the ACLU of Mississippi is doing to ensure that we get to November in a smart and strategic way. Who are you bringing along? Who is carrying the torch? How are folks plugging in from community organizations, grassroots movements? Where should we be come November? How do we get there?

Jarvis Dortch
It’s a lot of work because it feels like we’re doing it every year in Mississippi. We have elections every year in our state, and that’s intentional to make it harder for turnout to influence who gets elected. It’s a difficult task. I was in Atlanta a month ago. We had our national ACLU meeting and Andrew Young was one of the speakers that came and gave us a message, and I can’t say exactly the words he used, but he was very blunt in a conversation he had with Martin Luther King got to leaving the White House and it reminded me that these were real people, real people doing real work and that sometimes when we’re working in coalition or community, it’s difficult because we’re all very passionate about our work and have different attitudes about things, but we analyze these folks, but they had the same type of issues that we had, but they focused on the work. I think there’s so much work to do in Mississippi that everybody, when we work together as much as we can to have an idea of where we want to get to, I think it’s achievable for us to change the state. For us in particular, we’ve been focused on voting rights since I came on board in 2020. Our national office has had a focus on voting rights, but for us, it’s about making sure that people understand that they have a say in what happens either in state government or federal government, that we have elected so many Black officials in our state that you just meet everyday Black folks that are like we’ve been voting and we don’t see a change in our condition to help them understand why that may be or why that’s not an excuse to take an election off. Sometimes taking elections off can cause a lot of harm, like somebody can do a great deal of harm in four years in office that the next person can’t fix in four years. So we have to understand what that process looks like. So for us, it’s about making sure that we’re working and providing as much legal resources as we can because we do have a national office that is capable of doing that with organizations like SPLC and MCJ, which is a local group, and there’s so many great organizers in Mississippi right now that it’s us understanding what is our role and what we can bring to the table. Focusing on that is I think the best way for us to be able to improve election outcomes and to make sure people understand the power in voting and the reason they need to turn out on election day.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Jarvis. Waikinya, what are you working on? How do we get to November? And obviously what did we do post- November? We won’t, we can’t, we shouldn’t predict sort of outcome now, but again, this is a sort of day to day, month to month, year to year campaign that we all should embark upon. So talk to us about how you’re showing up with SPLC, what work is ahead.

Waikinya Clanton
Kanya, thank you so much. And I believe that it was Fannie Lou Hamer, and Michael can quote me on this and correct me if I’m wrong, but she said that nobody’s free until we’re all free. In commemorating the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer, we have embarked on this multifaceted statewide campaign to mobilize and engage more than 60, 000 voters headed into this upcoming November election. We intentionally chose this because one, we wanted to honor those who have come before us, our freedom leaders who come before us with Freedom Summer of’64 and the Freedom Vote of’63 and the Freedom Rides of’61. We know we can keep going, right? Because we got freedom on the mind, must stayed on our mind here in Mississippi. We’re taking this year and really using that as our way to tap into some of these disaffected voters. People who feel like they’ve given up on the process that to Jarvis’s point earlier, their vote has been diluted so much that they don’t feel the need to be involved in this process. We are on this freedom quest to really ensure and reengage folks around the power of their vote in the state of Mississippi. Many people may not know this, but we’ve had more than 70,000, probably closer to 80,000 people who’ve been perished from our voting roles here in Mississippi. I think last year, we saw 30,000 of those last year, but over the last three years, there’s been 80,000 that have been purged from the roles. The work around voter suppression here is real. And so we’ve taken this year as a part of our charge to counter that with this intentional effort. And we’re so proud to have the partnership of ACLU, NAACP, inaudible the other amazing partners here in the state who joined us in this work, in this conquest to really one, push back against this system voter oppression that we’re experiencing here in the state, but also to reengage our people and to really underscore for them the significance and the power of their vote, right? Your vote is so powerful and if it wasn’t as powerful as we know that it is, people wouldn’t be trying to work every day to take it away from you. And so we are working every day to ensure that you have it. They’re working every day to ensure that they take it away. And so you have to meet us where we are and help us keep you active and voting in that work. In August, we will be hosting our first ever organizing and training summit called the Road to 60, but giving them the tools they need to go back into their communities and be a part of that change that we’re seeking, that’s going to help us really lay the groundwork because there’s so much work that has to be done. When you look county by county, there are so many competitive efforts that are happening and people need to know what they are. So we spend a significant amount of time, educating people on what’s happening in their respective counties. We spend time bringing them together for caucuses based on their region, and then we give them the baseline tools that they need for advocacy. So whether that’s voter registration, whether that’s digital organizing, whether that’s mobilization efforts and partnering with your churches and developing faith programs, our goal is to educate and turn out voters. And we’re doing that. We’re happy to be hosting at the two museum. So thank you, Michael and your team for all the help that you all been providing as well, because we see this as an all hands on deck effort, right? Our goal is to reach people where they are. So we’re thinking very innovatively about how we do that, how we reach young people in particular at SPLC. And Kanya, I’m sure you may know this already, but we’ve even launched this digital campaign called The South’s Got Now. So not only are we focused on the work here in Mississippi, but we’re also looking at our work at Alabama and Georgia and Florida and Louisiana because again, we set the model for the rest of the nation. And so in the spirit of those who flooded into our state in 1964 to help us register voters, we’re picking up that torch, right? We’re reigniting that fight for freedom and we’re finishing the job. They started it. They gave us the blueprint though now we’re carrying it on. We are destined to complete the unfinished business of civil rights right here in Mississippi, and I’m committed to ensuring that that happens in my lifetime.

Kanya Bennett
All right, Waikinya, on that charge, I think that that is a way to end this episode. So I want to thank everyone for being here today. And as I thank you and you all sign off, do let us know though if there’s anything else you’d like to add or if there’s an immediate way in which you want folks to plug into the work. So Michael, thank you so much for joining the conversation today.

Michael Morris
Yeah, thank you for having me, and I just want to encourage all of your listeners to make a stop in Mississippi, come and visit our museums. In order to understand America, you need to understand Mississippi, and I’d be glad to meet you.

Kanya Bennett
Jarvis. Thank you so much for being today. Anything you want to add?

Jarvis Dortch
Just to follow up on what Michael was saying, visit Mississippi, come buy a house in Mississippi in Jackson, a lot of people that can come back home and help change the states, so we’re open.

Kanya Bennett
And Waikinya, so happy to have you on today. Any last words?

Waikinya Clanton
Thank you so much for having me, Kanya. And listen, I’m not sure where we’re dropping this episode, but I’m going to invite all of you listening to join us in the work in Mississippi, particularly if you’re in town August the 15th through the 17th. We welcome you to join us on the Road to 60. There are so many amazing ways that you can plug into this work. Join us at the Jackson Convention Center. You can register at splcenter. org/ 60. That’s the number of summit and register to join us in person. Or if you’re virtual and you want to tap into the work of mobilizing and educating voters here in the state, email us at advocacy @ splcenter. org and sign up for one of our Super Tuesday activation. Every Tuesday between now and November, we are texting folks who are what we call high opportunity voters and asking them to go out, check the voter registration. The purchases are real. We were out for June 10th and we found a number of people who had just voted who when they went to check their registration had been purged since. And so we want to make sure that folks know that this is serious, that your vote matters so much, and then this is the time to really lean in and make it a family affair. Get everyone involved in the act of civic engagement.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you so much, Waikinya, and you heard it, folks, listeners, we need to get on down to Mississippi, as I was sharing with our guests earlier today, I’m from Chicago but via Mississippi.

Waikinya Clanton
You’re our cousin.

Kanya Bennett
Absolutely. So I’m going to make it a point to get on down there and learn some more about my roots and encourage our listeners to get on down there too. So thank you so much for this wonderful and rich conversation everyone.

Jarvis Dortch
Thank you.

Waikinya Clanton
Thank you all for having us.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you for joining us today on Pod For The Cause, the official podcast of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Leadership Conference Education Fund. For more information, please visit civilrights. org and to connect with us, hit us up on Instagram and Twitter @ civilrightsorg. You can text us, text civil rights, that’s two words, civil rights to 52199 to keep up with our latest updates. Be sure to subscribe to our show on your favorite podcast app and leave a five star review. Thank you to our production team, Shalonda Hunter, Dena Craig, Taelor Nicholas, Oprah Cunningham, and Eunic Epstein- Ortiz, my colleagues at the Leadership Conference. And shout out to Podville Media, our external production crew. And that’s it from me, your host, Kanya Bennett. Until next time, let’s keep fighting for an America as good as its ideals.

By opting in to text messages, you agree to receive messages from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. 4 msgs/months. Msg and data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP for cancel.