The cornerstone of all Freedom Project activities is the summer Freedom School. Fellows spend five weeks at the LEAD Center in Sunflower and one week attending creative classes at the University of Mississippi, followed by an extended education field trip.
The intensity and rigor of the Freedom School forges a sense of unity and mission among Freedom Fellows and helps instill the values and culture of the Freedom Project.
At Freedom School, Fellows follow a structured curriculum that combines traditional academic subjects (reading, writing, and mathematics) with performance and project-based courses (public speaking, drama,visual arts, and fitness). Classes are taught by experienced teachers aided by college-aged interns. At the close of the summer, Fellows present a special Freedom Day for the community.
Freedom School is not designed to merely “keep young people off the streets.” The components of the program demonstrate to students the power of an achievement-oriented education. First, through its emphasis on intensive academics based in the context of the Civil Rights Movement, Freedom School instills essential study skills and self-confidence. Second, it connects young people to their communities through Freedom Day productions. Third, it provides students with an outlet for their creative and physical energies via the drama, media production, and fitness classes. Finally, the extended educational field trips show them the world that awaits them if they remain dedicated to their educations. Ultimately, the intensive summer program gives our young people the chance to live and learn differently.
“The Freedom School has helped me as a person become more disciplined and more capable of approaching people.” – April Hannah, Freedom Project Class of 2008
Freedom Tours
Following Freedom Summer, first and second year Fellows participate in “Freedom Tours.” First year students read the book Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody, which chronicles a young woman’s participation in the Freedom Movement of the 1960s. They then participate in a Civil Rights tour visiting many of the places referred to in the book, including Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Alabama as well as Tougaloo College and various sites in between.
Second year students read the book, Jubilee by Margaret Walker, which chronicles the story of a woman from the ante-bellum period through reconstruction. They then participate in a Civil War tour visiting battle sites from Vicksburg to New Orleans.
On both of these tours, as on all Freedom Project trips, students camp in national and state campgrounds, where they learn to pitch tents, cook outdoors, and bond with one another.
