Bay Area

‘Freedom Movement – a Musical’ Depicts The Mississippi ‘Freedom Summer’ of 1964

Published

6 years ago

March 19, 2020

In 1964, “Freedom Summer” or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a voter registration drive aimed to increase the number of Black voters in Mississippi.

On Feb. 8th, “Freedom Movement – A Musical”, was performed at the Cornerstone Community Church in Marin City as a fundraiser for the Hannah Freedom School. It brought the audience back to 1964 when racism in the South was intense, and the civil rights movement was active in Mississippi.

Bettie Hodges Shelmire, Executive Director of the Hannah Freedom School, says that the school’s genesis came from the Civil Rights Movement in the Mississippi Summer of 1964.

Racial violence against Blacks was intense, as Blacks were not only lynched but many Black churches and homes in Birmingham, Alabama, were bombed, including the 16th Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, 1963, where four girls were killed and several other people were injured.

Only 6.7 percent of eligible blacks were registered to vote in Mississippi in 1964. In response, Congress began to pass important new civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Shelmire says that less than 5% of Black people in the South voted, even though they were given the right to vote by the 15th amendment.

Approximately 800 mostly white volunteers, originating from the then Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, joined the African Americans in Mississippi to fight against voter intimidation and discrimination at the polls. The Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized the movement.

The volunteers started Freedom Schools to counter “sharecropper education” received by the Black people and poor whites, who through reading, writing and arithmetic, history and civics, could learn to participate in the voting process.

Freedom Schools were eventually adopted by Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). According to childrendefense.org, Edelman advocated for disadvantaged Americans her entire professional life. Under her leadership, CDF has become the nation’s strongest voice for children and families. The CDF’s Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a healthy start, a head start, a fair start, a safe start, and a moral start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

There are 185 CDF Freedom Schools, which include the Hannah Freedom School in Marin City.

The office address for the Hannah Freedom School is 825 Drake Avenue, Marin City, CA 94965. Their mailing address is 3001 Bridgeway, #422, Sausalito, CA 94965. For more information, please call (415) 887-9740.

Godfrey Lee

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

Published

4 days ago

September 7, 2026

Oakland Post

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Activism

Youth-Led Black August Event Brings Past to Present at East Oakland Boxing Association

The mission of Youth Alive! Is to “break the cycle of violence, heal trauma, and uplift a thriving community of leaders, to save lives in Oakland and beyond” by serving “as mentors, youth leaders, counselors, case managers, intervention specialists and violence interrupters,” working “to help violently wounded people heal themselves and their community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

August 29, 2026

Post News Group

Dawna Williams, EOBA executive director speaks to attendees at the Black August Eperience on Aug. 21. Photo courtesy of Carolyn Flynn of EOBA.

By Jana Lang Propel Youth Reporter

Youth-Led Black August Event Brings Past to Present at East Oakland Boxing Association

The East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA) and Youth Alive! came together on Aug. 21 to share with their community all that Black August means to them.

Held on EOBA’s patio at 816 98th Ave. in Deep East Oakland, the two organizations hosted their second annual Black August Experience, featuring a food tasting, financial literacy and mindfulness workshops, and voter registration with the League of Women Voters Oakland (LWV).

Black August is known as a time to uphold the legacy of prisoners who protested their conditions by fasting, fighting, and educating themselves on the economic and political circumstances that contributed to their incarceration.

According to its website, “EOBA is a multi-service youth and community development hub that goes far beyond the ring. While rooted in the discipline of boxing, for nearly 40 years EOBA has also integrated robust programs in workforce development, food justice, afterschool enrichment, financial literacy, mentorship, and wellness.”.

The mission of Youth Alive! Is to “break the cycle of violence, heal trauma, and uplift a thriving community of leaders, to save lives in Oakland and beyond” by serving “as mentors, youth leaders, counselors, case managers, intervention specialists and violence interrupters,” working “to help violently wounded people heal themselves and their community.”

Through Coro California, another leadership organization serving young people across the state for 80 years, they gained a broader understanding of Black August.

EOBA Executive Director Dawna Williams spoke about how much she learned about Black August from the youth who created it. “I let them educate me,” she said. Instead of talking about prison reform and mass incarceration, Williams and youth interns found that Black August meant so much more. “We would have done a disservice if we had just focused on who the people were and what their situation was…We tried to take their message from back in the day and make it relevant to the young people today. What do they need to know?”

Youth interns created and placed posters around the patio to help participants understand how traditional Black foodways, civic engagement, financial literacy, and the power of education are relevant to Black resistance today.

An EOBA member described Black August with Youth ALIVE! as “a whole vibe. “This year we added the Fun Zone for the kids, because you really cannot go wrong with a Fun Zone. I also loved seeing everyone chillin’ in the outdoor lounge, catching some Vitamin D and just enjoying a Friday evening together.”

The food tasting, a popular event from last year, featured traditional Black foods such as black-eyed peas, johnny cakes, and fried chicken. Led by Williams, the tasting included a talk about how these traditional foods were made and why they are forms of Black resilience.

The “‘Plate of History’ was a favorite of the online writers. “Fun, educational, and did I mention delicious? Our Taste of History cook, Angela Southall, served up some good eats while connecting food to history and culture.”

The writer also commended the “League of Women Voters Oakland for their civic leadership and for getting our young people informed, ready, and registered to vote.”

Overall, it was a “good Friday event in East Oakland,” the writer said.

Upcoming Black August events: Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), will host “Black August: The Arc of Liberation” at Oakland City Hall on Sat. Aug. 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The websites for East Oakland Boxing Association, Youth Alive! and CORO are sources for this report.

Jana Lang is an Oakland resident, teacher, gardener and poet participating in the Propel News Initiative.