Reviewed by: The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement by Jon N. Hale Dwana Waugh The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement. By Jon N. Hale. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. Pp. xvi, 300. $60.00, ISBN 978-0-231-17568-5.) In The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Jon N. Hale deftly argues that many civil rights advances "were not won in the halls of Congress on Capitol Hill but in the rooms of grassroots schools across Mississippi" (p. 71). Hale examines the development, implementation, and legacy of the Mississippi Freedom Schools from 1964 through [End Page 1018] the 1970s. The book explores seven Freedom School locations that served as viable, independent alternatives to the state's segregated public schools. Using Freedom Schools as a key vehicle for analysis, Hale identifies African American primary and secondary school students as crucial activists on the front lines for educational liberation. This book adds to the growing body of long civil rights movement scholarship. Hale uses organizational records, volunteers' memoirs, oral interviews, and a wealth of secondary sources to assert that Freedom School students learned participatory democracy from the everyday functions of their curriculum. The author's richly detailed account of the day-to-day work of Mississippi Freedom Schools demonstrates that black students studied and engaged in direct-action protest tactics, acted in plays dramatizing the stories of slain activists, canvassed for votes in their local communities, and advocated for the same academic curriculum that white students had in public schools. Remarkably, Hale traces the experiences of some of the volunteer teachers as well as a handful of students after the demise of the Freedom Schools. Many of the participants remained deeply committed to civil rights causes and activism. The author's examinations of the Freedom School curriculum and innovative pedagogy in chapters 4 and 5 are the most exciting aspects of this study. Hale illustrates the challenges posed by racial and gendered stereotypes. Organizers perceived Freedom Schools as a safer space for incoming white female volunteers. Many of the white volunteers brought their racial prejudices to bear by assuming the "inferiority of black education," often leading to an initial dismissal of students' academic abilities (p. 91). Between 1965 and 1966, the schools suffered from growing racial divisions between students and teachers. Students felt abandoned by some of the Freedom Summer volunteers who returned home in 1964. White volunteers who remained experienced fatigue and faced the shifting, separatist ideologies of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Yet Hale demonstrates that daily interactions between predominantly white teachers and predominantly black students shifted racial perceptions and resulted in candid, eye-opening conversations. While there is a dearth of studies of the day-to-day work within integrated schools, Hale's study offers an examination of early faculty desegregation not often reflected in desegregated schools until after the Supreme Court's decision in Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968). Freedom Schools provide insight into the early relationships between a black student body and white teachers as well as early implementation of "culturally relevant teaching" (p. 211). While Freedom Schools continued as an alternative to segregated public schools in Mississippi until 1966, the 1964 student-led Meridian conference decided that black students would organize around existing public schools. Students joined the Mississippi Student Union (MSU), a statewide, student-led union, which used direct-action tactics to demand equity within public schools. It is not clear how and why black students chose to abandon Freedom Schools. Students' choice of public education over alternative Freedom Schools may indicate their interest in compelling the state to act in behalf of their educational interests, undergirding Hale's argument for the continuity of students' civil rights activism. [End Page 1019] Hale's account is a welcome addition to the study of educational, civil rights, and southern history. Understanding the curriculum and pedagogy of Freedom School volunteers offers a glimpse into practical classroom strategy for diverse learners in this age of global diversity. Moreover, the study also signals a sense of hopefulness that training primary and secondary schools for participatory democracy can address the...
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