Marcia Moore: Did we make a difference? Well I think if you look overall at raising the country's consciousness of what was going on, not only in Mississippi, because we said, even at that time, there is so much racism in the country, it's just more subtle in the North than it is in the South. But in the South there are these things that you can do to start raising people's awareness.

(music)

Newspaper article about the Freedom Summer volunteers. The Title reads "After A Summer of Civil Rights Work" The article starts with a large quote that reads “Some Hope, Some Change’ in Mississippi”.

Stanley Nelson: I think there's so many lessons to be learned from the Freedom Summer. On the very surface it's a history lesson, this is what happened, it's really important that you know. But I think the big lesson for me is that a group of young people changed the country and changed the course of history by their sheer courage and bravery and it didn't take that many. There were like 700 to 800 kids and that changed Mississippi and it worked and it just took a bunch of committed people along with the residents of Mississippi who were willing and waiting and just needed some help in getting the foot off their necks. For me, you know, that's the important lesson is that the world can be changed, that we can make change.

(Carlton Reeese sings “We’re Marching On To Freedom Land”)

Thousands of people walk down a two lane highway as police stand to the side and traffic moves in the other direction.

Patti Miller: I really did not want to leave. I had developed a sense that it was purposeful what we were doing and the relationships that I developed with the children and with the family I stayed with, the thought of just going back to a life without that kind of depth of purpose was hard.

Little black girls sitting on a street curb smiling up at the camera.

A close up of a little black girl smiling at the camera.

A young black family dressed smartly standing outside their front door smiling at each other and the camera.

A picture taken from a second storey window showing men and women gathering on a street corner outside of a store.

A newspaper article about Patti Miller and her work with the Freedom Summer volunteers. The title Reads “Rights Worker Tells of Dixie Assignment” with the quote ‘Amaszed at the Forgiveness in the Negro Community’

Shell Stromquist: People in the community saw this as a moment when things could change or begin to change. And they were determined, they were determined that this moment not be lost.

(Mississppi John Hurt sings “Here Am I, Oh Lord, Send Me”)

An older black gentlemen standing below a handmade sign that reads "Freedom Is".

Lenray Gandy: That summer stood out. It made a big change in our city. We all, not just the kids, but other people began to realize that we were human, we did have a right to do things. Some people said that the white volunteer workers who came to us abandoned us or the other side might have said they were agitators. But actually they lit a fire, they started something great here and we started to do things ourselves. Blacks started to protest on their own, started to boycott and started to try to make a way to have rights here in this city.

(Betty Mae Fikes sings “This Little Light of Mine”)

Two men, one white and one black, stand talking to a police officer as he sits in the front cab of a delivery truck.

Grandy: We call the people who came freedom fighters and we wanted to be freedom fighters too.

(Betty Mae Fikes sings “This Little Light of Mine”)

Young people from Mississippi walk arm and arm down a road.