Voter Registration
The struggle for freedom in Mississippi
can only be won by a combination of action
within the state and a heightened awareness
throughout the country of the need for massive federal intervention to ensure the
voting rights of Negroes.  This summer's
program will work toward both objectives.
Voter registration workers will operate in every rural county and important
urban area in the state. These workers
will be involved in a summer-long drive to
mobilise the Negro community of Mississippi
and assist in developing local leadership
and organization.
Forty thousand dollars must be raised
for a Freedom Registration campaign.  The
registration campaign which was launched in
February will be implemented by summer
workers.  Freedom Registrars will be established in every precinct, with registration
books closely resembling the official books
of the state.  The Freedom Registration
books will servo as a basis for challenging
the official books and the validity of
"official" federal elections this fail.
Finally, voter registration workers
will assist in the summer campaigns of
Freedom Candidates who will be running for
congressional office.
Freedom Schools
An integral part of SNCC's voter
registration work is the development of
leadership for politically emerging communities.  Freedom Schools will begin to
supply the political education which the
existing system does not- provide for Negroes
in Mississippi.
The summer project will establish ten
daytime Freedom Schools and three resident
schools.  The daytime schools will be attended by 10th, 11th, and 12th grade
pupils; the schools will operate five days
a week in the student's home towns.  Instruction will be highly individualized -
each school will have about fifteen teachers and fifty students.  The program will
include remedial work in reading, math and
basic grammar, as well as seminars in political science, the humanities, journalism and
creative writing. Wherever possible, studies
will be related to problems in the students'
own society.
The three resident schools will be attended
by more advance students from throughout the
state.  The program will be essentially the
same as that of the day schools, with emphasis
on political studies.
The students who attend the schools will provide Mississippi with a nucleus of leadership
committed to critical thought and social
action.
Community Centers
In addition to the Freedom Schools, Community
Centers will provide services normally denied
the Negro community in Mississippi.  Staffed
by experienced social workers, nurses, librarians and teachers in the arts and crafts, the
centers will provide educational and cultural
programs for the community.  Instruction will
be given in pre-natal and infant care, and
general hygiene; programs will provide adult
literacy and vocational training. The thirty
thousand books now in SNCC's Greenwood office
library will be distributed to these centers,
and others will be obtained. The centers will
serve as places of political education and
organization, and will provide a structure to
channel a wide range of programs into the
Negro community in the future.
Research Project
The program of voter registration and political organization will attempt to change the
fundamental structure of political and economic
activity in Mississippi.  In order to accurately picture this structure, extensive research must be done into Mississippi's suppressive political and economic life.  Skilled
personnel are needed to carry out this program
both from within and outside the state.
White Community Project
The effort to organize and educate Mississippi
whites in the direction of democracy and decency
can no longer be delayed.  About thirty students, southern whites who have recently
joined the civil rights movement, will begin
pilot projecfs in white communities.  An attempt will be made to organize poor white areas
to make steps toward eliminating bigotry,
poverty and ignorance.
Law Student Project
A large number of law students will come to
Mississippi to launch a massive legal offensive
against the official tyranny of the state.  The
time has come to challenge every Mississippi law
which deprives Negroes of their rights, and to
bring suit against every state and local official who commits crimes in the name of his
office.
Trained Personnel Are Needed
For applications write: Mississippi Summer
Project, 1017 Lynch Street, Room 10, Jackson,
Mississippi.  (Applications must be received
by mid-April)
Development of the Mississippi Project
Although the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee has active projects in thirteen
Southern states, it has achieved its most dynamic success in the state of Mississippi. A
state where individual political life is nonexistent, where the economic condition of a
vast majority of the population is appalling,
the home of white supremacy, Mississippi has
become the main target of SNCC's staff and
resources.
In August, 1961, SNCC went into Mississippi
under the leadership of Project Director Robert
Moses.  Overcoming violence and hardship,
SNCC workers have been able to expand their
activity into all five of Mississippi's congressional districts.  By fall, 1963, SNCC had
joined with CORE, SCLC, the NAACP and many voting and civic groups in forming a statewide
organization, the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), and through COFO conducted a
Freedom Vote campaign in which 80,000 disenfranchised Negroes cast ballots for Aaron
Henry for Governor.
Preparation for real democracy calls for
additional programs in the state. Literacy
projects have been instituted, and food and
clothing drives.  But much more comprehensive
programs are needed to combat the terrible
cultural and economic deprivation of Negro