In 1961,
Mississippi was rigidly
segregated. There were virtually no black voters even though African-Americans comprised a large percentage of the population, the majority in some localities.
Bob Moses entered the state and the Mississippi Voter Registration Project began. The first black farmer who attempted to register was fatally shot by a Mississippi State Representative,
E.H. Hurst. Due to intimidation of witnesses, one of whom,
Louis Allen, was slain, Hurst was never prosecuted. Among the events depicted in the film is the
Freedom Summer of 1964, in which three civil rights workers were slain.
Freedom on My Mind combines personal interviews, rare archival film and television footage, authentic Mississippi Delta blues, and Movement gospel songs. It emphasizes the strategic brilliance of Mississippi's young, black organizers. Barred from political participation, they created their own integrated party the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. They recruited a thousand mostly white students from around the country to come to Mississippi, bringing the eyes and conscience of the nation with them. The students and the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party organizers put together a delegation of sharecroppers, maids, and day-laborers that challenged the all-white delegates in the
1964 Democratic National Convention. The film describes how their effort to replace the state's delegation was not accepted by the Democratic Party leadership, embittering the activists. Ultimately their efforts succeeded. In 1965 Congress passed the
Voting Rights Act, and by 1990,
Mississippi had more elected black officials than any other state in the country. ==Cast==