Summer 1964 was known as the “Freedom Summer.” Americans, Black and white, southern and northern, eager to defend the right of all Americans to vote, planned to register Black people for the upcoming election. Because only 6.7% of Black Mississippians were registered, Mississippi became a focal point. Under Bob Moses, a New York City teacher who began voting work in Mississippi in 1961, volunteers set out. Just as they were getting underway, on June 21, three voting rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, disappeared near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Ronald Reagan choose to give his first speech after being nominated by the Republicans for president in 1980 in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was a racist dog whistle about states rights.
LBJ said “those who founded our country knew that freedom would be secure only if each generation fought to renew and enlarge its meaning..." Six 'Originalist' SCOTUS Justices disagree.
So one can be “unalterably opposed” to any form of discrimination, but not willing to end the damn filibuster so laws can be passed, or at least brought to a vote. They should at least be forced to actually filibuster IN PERSON!!
I don't believe we should write off the civil rights era as a bust. It was an era when ordinary people found courage and inspiration to face down a vicious racist system that had been in place for hundreds of years. Every generation has its own challenges. This is another moment when we must all stand together against another vicious enemy that has vowed to erase the dream of American. This must be another freedom summer!
Holy cow once again. I was in high school for most of the time you have written about here. I was a strong student and went on to a great university, and, once again, you have taught me more in this essay about my own life than I knew yesterday. With ongoing appreciation to you. Time off I hope.
I was eleven in 1964 and grew up in Virginia, the bastion of *Massive Resistance.* My parents were deep-dyed Republicans and segregationists. My county of Culpeper would not integrate our schools for two more years. We watched the news every evening, and I remember all these events, tho thru the lens of my young understanding. When I read President Johnson’s words I can hear his voice. Where is an LBJ today? I am married to a trump loyalist and my heart is torn every day for my country. My actions are very limited, but I can contact my senators, Rubio and Scott, and my representative, Daniel Webster. But what is the most effective way? I barraged them with email when Ukraine was invaded, with no response beyond the automatic ones. What can I do better?
Heather, this is breathtaking. I am reminded of that summer, I was 15 and wanted to go to Mississippi. My mother put her foot down and told me to picket the bank on the corner where we lived in NYC and who refused Black families mortgages. “I’m not letting some southern sheriff kill you!” And then, the three civil rights workers were murdered. I will never get over it…
This touched me so much. I have tears because we are at another turning point as a nation. It is a reminder that the people can demand change, demand justice. I have already been to two prochoice marches. I think it is time for our nation to speak up, before it is too late, to save democracy. The Supreme Court has too much power. We have a narrow window to come together before we lose our freedom. We must speak up loudly and boldly. Your essay is a strong reminder of the pain our country has faced and the turning point when people demand justice and a strong leader fought for that justice. Please do not quit writing. Your writing is a constant inspiration.
My family moved to Atlanta in June of ‘64 the day I graduated from HS near Portland OR, while I was born and raised in Detroit I spent my HS years in the west, I had a front row seat to the integration of the Deep South, moving here was like moving to another planet. I have lived and worked from one end of this country to another. I live in the South today because this is where my parents spent their last days, and I wanted to be near them as well as my extended family who for the most part live here. Georgia is changing, slowly but it is changing, a lot of that change is because of people like me that were raised elsewhere and now live here. Having a highly educated population, while it doesn’t guarantee evolution, has certainly helped Georgia become bluer. The mid-terms this fall and the general in 2 years are going to determine if we continue to have a country that we will want to live in. Stay tuned, it looks like it’s going to be close.
I do not usually write comments but as I read Heather's analysis it energizes me to write something and I have done so twice before this comment. Today in history and during the protests against the war in Viet Nam was a time when America was trying to live up to the idea of liberty and justice for all. The nomination and defeat of Goldwater was the beginning of the movement which has taken hold today and instead of just a few states it seems to be growing around the country and is based, for the most part, on lies and deception. Until recently we had a government with checks and balances with the Supreme Court holding the needle steady for those freedoms. It now seems, through the help of the Republican Senate, the Court has decided to join those seeking to divide the country and to take away, not only personal rights, but also the ability for our nation to protect the planet and who knows what else is on the chopping block. It is now up to us to change the bend of time and right the ship. Get out and work to register and get people to vote and spread the word of Heather Cox Richardson and her logic.
Tonight we worship women. As one wise subject said, her pal said dryly, men have not been doing all that well of late.
Women would do for a few decades... there is a lot to unscramble... and we all know it.
Liz Cheney, no doubt dealing quietly with the sins of her father, W and the rest of the Bush family, has at last stood tall and she deserves our respect, and should be reelected and elevated. Wyoming, you know what to do... start by apologising.
Casady Hutchinson is really first. She makes me feel better. WE ARE PROUD OF CASADY HUTCHINSON AROUND HERE. She has dealt with staggering stress and the usual Trump Tricks from within the scummy GOP... as they have tried to turn her in for saving us. That same element has attracted Cassidy’s followers.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is next, and she should arrange to award Cassie Hutchinson for her stunning performance.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, our new and greatest Justice of the Supreme Court... is the most noble of tonight’s women. She has endured in the face of gale force winds of prejudice and is about to enter the Cave where truth goes to die... and prejudice is codified... and periodic intervals by a few pin heads that think they are fooling us.
The fabulous Cassidy Hutchinson, questioned by co-chair Cheney, has demonstrated that she is more than able to sort out the criminal element in this Republican White House and the power structure in Washington, DC, and she HAS emerged to teach the nation and her compromised miserable seniors a lesson in ethics, courage, and patriotism... showing her grasp of the constitution and common sense... and her gentle contempt for Mark Meadows, Pasquale A. Cipollone, Mike Pence, the former president, as Sir Rudy, Rudolph William Louis Giuliani, son of a Sing-Sing jailed convict, and lying Rep. Jim Jordan, who is accused of molesting wrestlers under his care, and so, so many others are guilty of sedition, terrorism, criminal trespass and much more - and all, all, and must be prosecuted... along with the man that promulgated all this and is guilty of so much more, former president Donald John Trump, the only president in history that has hidden his transcripts and been impeached twice.
And let’s thank our favourite midnight historian for her labours... I would jump for joy if Heather Cox Richardson found a way to flavour her labours with depth where it comes to describing the pain of being Black in America today - for the depth of our prejudice has not changed since our founding - we have simply altered the rules now and then to follow the arc of history as slowly as possible, to please Texas and many others, as we disgrace ourselves... and cannot seem to find the way Cassidy Hutchinson as found... which is as sad as it is enraging. As they said over Pennsylvania in the last airliner to fall... before the DOD directed flying bomb, Let’s Roll.
I was eight in 1964, a white child in Indianola, MS. I can attest to the determination that was already taking root among white men like my father to undo all the good that was being done. The last vote he ever cast was for Donald Trump, and he would be thrilled with the current SCOTUS decisions. I am sixty-five, in good health, and hoping to live long enough to see this court’s despicable revisionism undone.
It appears the radical right is bent on circumventing precisely what our constitution intended to prevent: authoritarian rule by a select few, that authoritarians select church. All under a loose narcissistic definition of liberty.
I was on a scholarship to Montana SU in 1963-64. Most of the scholarship consisted of board and lodging with a fraternity. "Being there" doesn't mean I can do without this fine history lesson. I quit my pledge to become a member of the fraternity when I learnt it was only for whites. I'm still glad I did, at the age of 19, but it was hard to let these nice guys down; and they were scrambling every month to pay for my stay. I found it weird that the fraternity had been allowed to enter a program for international understanding, and I did not want it to be said of me that I ever was a member of a racist organization.
Even as a 13-year-old, I was caught up in the fervor of 1964. Life magazine and the CBS Evening News were my conduits to the outside world. After the Cuban Missile Crisis and JFK assassination in 1962 and 1963, I began feeling connected to life beyond the lakes and orange groves and ocean beaches of Central Florida.
I remember going to see LBJ speak at a campaign stop in the parking lot of a shopping center in Orlando. And his landslide victory and a huge Democratic majority in Congress produced a stunning number of victories for civil rights and so much more. Back then, many Republicans voted with Democrats to offset the votes of Southern Democrats.
After my high school integrated without the rancor so common elsewhere in the South, it left with me the impression that America would always be moving forward, striving to make the country and people's lives better.
And now I'm an old dude perplexed by our rapid demise despite so much promise, so much ability to do good. How is it possible that Goldwater's radical words in 1964 — “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And…moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue” — came roaring to life 57 years later on Jan. 6? And all based on the biggest lie in U.S. political history, a lie that keeps metastasizing.
It's beginning to look, as the professor wrote so profoundly, that the South has indeed won the Civil War.
Ronald Reagan choose to give his first speech after being nominated by the Republicans for president in 1980 in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was a racist dog whistle about states rights.
LBJ said “those who founded our country knew that freedom would be secure only if each generation fought to renew and enlarge its meaning..." Six 'Originalist' SCOTUS Justices disagree.
So one can be “unalterably opposed” to any form of discrimination, but not willing to end the damn filibuster so laws can be passed, or at least brought to a vote. They should at least be forced to actually filibuster IN PERSON!!
I don't believe we should write off the civil rights era as a bust. It was an era when ordinary people found courage and inspiration to face down a vicious racist system that had been in place for hundreds of years. Every generation has its own challenges. This is another moment when we must all stand together against another vicious enemy that has vowed to erase the dream of American. This must be another freedom summer!
Holy cow once again. I was in high school for most of the time you have written about here. I was a strong student and went on to a great university, and, once again, you have taught me more in this essay about my own life than I knew yesterday. With ongoing appreciation to you. Time off I hope.
I was eleven in 1964 and grew up in Virginia, the bastion of *Massive Resistance.* My parents were deep-dyed Republicans and segregationists. My county of Culpeper would not integrate our schools for two more years. We watched the news every evening, and I remember all these events, tho thru the lens of my young understanding. When I read President Johnson’s words I can hear his voice. Where is an LBJ today? I am married to a trump loyalist and my heart is torn every day for my country. My actions are very limited, but I can contact my senators, Rubio and Scott, and my representative, Daniel Webster. But what is the most effective way? I barraged them with email when Ukraine was invaded, with no response beyond the automatic ones. What can I do better?
Heather, this is breathtaking. I am reminded of that summer, I was 15 and wanted to go to Mississippi. My mother put her foot down and told me to picket the bank on the corner where we lived in NYC and who refused Black families mortgages. “I’m not letting some southern sheriff kill you!” And then, the three civil rights workers were murdered. I will never get over it…
This touched me so much. I have tears because we are at another turning point as a nation. It is a reminder that the people can demand change, demand justice. I have already been to two prochoice marches. I think it is time for our nation to speak up, before it is too late, to save democracy. The Supreme Court has too much power. We have a narrow window to come together before we lose our freedom. We must speak up loudly and boldly. Your essay is a strong reminder of the pain our country has faced and the turning point when people demand justice and a strong leader fought for that justice. Please do not quit writing. Your writing is a constant inspiration.
My family moved to Atlanta in June of ‘64 the day I graduated from HS near Portland OR, while I was born and raised in Detroit I spent my HS years in the west, I had a front row seat to the integration of the Deep South, moving here was like moving to another planet. I have lived and worked from one end of this country to another. I live in the South today because this is where my parents spent their last days, and I wanted to be near them as well as my extended family who for the most part live here. Georgia is changing, slowly but it is changing, a lot of that change is because of people like me that were raised elsewhere and now live here. Having a highly educated population, while it doesn’t guarantee evolution, has certainly helped Georgia become bluer. The mid-terms this fall and the general in 2 years are going to determine if we continue to have a country that we will want to live in. Stay tuned, it looks like it’s going to be close.
I do not usually write comments but as I read Heather's analysis it energizes me to write something and I have done so twice before this comment. Today in history and during the protests against the war in Viet Nam was a time when America was trying to live up to the idea of liberty and justice for all. The nomination and defeat of Goldwater was the beginning of the movement which has taken hold today and instead of just a few states it seems to be growing around the country and is based, for the most part, on lies and deception. Until recently we had a government with checks and balances with the Supreme Court holding the needle steady for those freedoms. It now seems, through the help of the Republican Senate, the Court has decided to join those seeking to divide the country and to take away, not only personal rights, but also the ability for our nation to protect the planet and who knows what else is on the chopping block. It is now up to us to change the bend of time and right the ship. Get out and work to register and get people to vote and spread the word of Heather Cox Richardson and her logic.
Tonight we worship women. As one wise subject said, her pal said dryly, men have not been doing all that well of late.
Women would do for a few decades... there is a lot to unscramble... and we all know it.
Liz Cheney, no doubt dealing quietly with the sins of her father, W and the rest of the Bush family, has at last stood tall and she deserves our respect, and should be reelected and elevated. Wyoming, you know what to do... start by apologising.
Casady Hutchinson is really first. She makes me feel better. WE ARE PROUD OF CASADY HUTCHINSON AROUND HERE. She has dealt with staggering stress and the usual Trump Tricks from within the scummy GOP... as they have tried to turn her in for saving us. That same element has attracted Cassidy’s followers.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is next, and she should arrange to award Cassie Hutchinson for her stunning performance.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, our new and greatest Justice of the Supreme Court... is the most noble of tonight’s women. She has endured in the face of gale force winds of prejudice and is about to enter the Cave where truth goes to die... and prejudice is codified... and periodic intervals by a few pin heads that think they are fooling us.
The fabulous Cassidy Hutchinson, questioned by co-chair Cheney, has demonstrated that she is more than able to sort out the criminal element in this Republican White House and the power structure in Washington, DC, and she HAS emerged to teach the nation and her compromised miserable seniors a lesson in ethics, courage, and patriotism... showing her grasp of the constitution and common sense... and her gentle contempt for Mark Meadows, Pasquale A. Cipollone, Mike Pence, the former president, as Sir Rudy, Rudolph William Louis Giuliani, son of a Sing-Sing jailed convict, and lying Rep. Jim Jordan, who is accused of molesting wrestlers under his care, and so, so many others are guilty of sedition, terrorism, criminal trespass and much more - and all, all, and must be prosecuted... along with the man that promulgated all this and is guilty of so much more, former president Donald John Trump, the only president in history that has hidden his transcripts and been impeached twice.
And let’s thank our favourite midnight historian for her labours... I would jump for joy if Heather Cox Richardson found a way to flavour her labours with depth where it comes to describing the pain of being Black in America today - for the depth of our prejudice has not changed since our founding - we have simply altered the rules now and then to follow the arc of history as slowly as possible, to please Texas and many others, as we disgrace ourselves... and cannot seem to find the way Cassidy Hutchinson as found... which is as sad as it is enraging. As they said over Pennsylvania in the last airliner to fall... before the DOD directed flying bomb, Let’s Roll.
I was eight in 1964, a white child in Indianola, MS. I can attest to the determination that was already taking root among white men like my father to undo all the good that was being done. The last vote he ever cast was for Donald Trump, and he would be thrilled with the current SCOTUS decisions. I am sixty-five, in good health, and hoping to live long enough to see this court’s despicable revisionism undone.
It appears the radical right is bent on circumventing precisely what our constitution intended to prevent: authoritarian rule by a select few, that authoritarians select church. All under a loose narcissistic definition of liberty.
(Sweden)
I was on a scholarship to Montana SU in 1963-64. Most of the scholarship consisted of board and lodging with a fraternity. "Being there" doesn't mean I can do without this fine history lesson. I quit my pledge to become a member of the fraternity when I learnt it was only for whites. I'm still glad I did, at the age of 19, but it was hard to let these nice guys down; and they were scrambling every month to pay for my stay. I found it weird that the fraternity had been allowed to enter a program for international understanding, and I did not want it to be said of me that I ever was a member of a racist organization.
Even as a 13-year-old, I was caught up in the fervor of 1964. Life magazine and the CBS Evening News were my conduits to the outside world. After the Cuban Missile Crisis and JFK assassination in 1962 and 1963, I began feeling connected to life beyond the lakes and orange groves and ocean beaches of Central Florida.
I remember going to see LBJ speak at a campaign stop in the parking lot of a shopping center in Orlando. And his landslide victory and a huge Democratic majority in Congress produced a stunning number of victories for civil rights and so much more. Back then, many Republicans voted with Democrats to offset the votes of Southern Democrats.
After my high school integrated without the rancor so common elsewhere in the South, it left with me the impression that America would always be moving forward, striving to make the country and people's lives better.
And now I'm an old dude perplexed by our rapid demise despite so much promise, so much ability to do good. How is it possible that Goldwater's radical words in 1964 — “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And…moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue” — came roaring to life 57 years later on Jan. 6? And all based on the biggest lie in U.S. political history, a lie that keeps metastasizing.
It's beginning to look, as the professor wrote so profoundly, that the South has indeed won the Civil War.
It appears the current SCOTUS has found that not quite empty can of acid and is not content with just one pool.