Please see the attached for information about the upcoming activities at QC to commemorate Freedom Summer. Following is a message from Mark Levy, circulated by Dean Scott.
From:
Mark Levy [mailto:mlevy697@earthlink.net]
Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2014 9:51 AM
To: Mark Levy
Subject: "Freedom Summer 1964" -- Planning for Spring Anniversary Events at QC
The 50th anniversary of Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964 will
be recognized on campus during QC’s Spring 2014 Semester. It was one moment in a still ongoing struggle, but it had special connections to Queens College. Campus events are planned. This
is a preliminary announcement -- and request to start planning to participate.
We hope you can:
a) Integrate aspects of its story into your Spring Semester course work;
b) Bring and/or assign students to attend related campus events;
c) Sponsor additional activities of your own that are related to your department;
d)
Not just commemorate an event from fifty years ago, but show the
leadership role that young people played in the Movement and its
connections to the issues
of today.
A
number of QC students back in 1964 joined the summer project that came
to be called “Freedom Summer” and travelled south to support the voting
rights
campaign and struggles against discrimination by local Mississippi civil
rights groups. Some came back, some sadly did not. The Rosenthal
Library Clock Tower commemorates that effort – and the loss of three
young activists who were part of it.
There will be two specific and special events
about Freedom Summer that we hope you can actively support:
1. The February 23rd
and 24th performances of a play called “Freedom High”
– written by playwright Adam Kraar, produced and directed by Prof.
Susan Einhorn, acted using current QC students
and alumni – is set at one of freedom summer orientation sessions as the
volunteers are being prepared to go to Mississippi and the
“disappearance” of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner is dramatically
announced. The volunteers and local activists have to deal
with strong feelings and complex choices. The performances are
co-sponsored by CERRU and Jewish Studies. A panel discussion will
follow.
2. On March 13th, QC will
be hosting a preview performance and talk by award-winning documentarian Stanley Nelson who just completed a new PBS film titled “Freedom Summer” – which will be aired on TV in June. (Nelson made the powerful documentary
a few years ago about the Freedom Riders.)
Two preliminary notes: A) Experiences last semester with several
events showed that faculty integration of materials and/or assignment of
attendance made
a significant difference to the success of the event, so we are really
counting on you; B) Black History Month’s calendar will be filled with a
number of other civil-rights related events. We will share that info
with you soon, as well as info about events
slated for April.
In December and January of 1964, SNCC and other civil rights groups
made the decision to have a Summer Project in Mississippi that would
include voting rights
campaigns, freedom schools, community centers, and other related
efforts. In a matter of a very few short months, they had to: a)
recruit, select and train 1,000 volunteers (students, ministers,
lawyers, doctors and nurses, musicians, actors, etc.); b) organize
support in the North to turn the political and media spotlight on the
state of Mississippi and give material and financial support to those
working in the state; c) find local homes, churches, and other places
where the volunteers could eat, sleep, and work;
d) devise communication and security systems for this ambitious
project. The activists who organized and led all of this, it is
critical to remember and emphasize with our classes, were in their
late-teens and early-20’s! Quite a lesson and example for our students, in itself.
We will send you dates, times and locations of events soon.
Please forward this email and/or distribute the attached letter version to those you think might be interested.
-- Mark
PS
-- If you and/or your department want to initiate and sponsor another
event, invite a speaker to a class or discuss recommendations for
readings,
videos, music, etc., or help co-sponsor one of the events mentioned
above, contact Mark Levy at mlevy697@earthlink.net
Mark Levy,
Special Assistant to the President for the Civil Rights Initiative -- 2013-2014
Queens College/CUNY, Flushing NY 11367
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