Freedom Summer for young people: the savage season of 1964 that made Mississippi burn and made America a democracy

"In the summer of 1964, as the Civil Rights movement boiled over, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) sent more than seven hundred college students to Mississippi to help black Americans already battling for democracy, their dignity and the right to vote.

The campaign was called "Freedom Summer." But on the evening after volunteers arrived, three young civil rights workers went missing, presumed victims of the Ku Klux Klan.

The disappearance focused America's attention on Mississippi.

In the days and weeks that followed, volunteers and local black activists faced intimidation, threats, and violence from white people who didn't believe African Americans should have the right to vote.

As the summer unfolded, volunteers were arrested or beaten.

Black churches were burned. More Americans came to Mississippi, including doctors, clergymen, and Martin Luther King.

A few frightened volunteers went home, but the rest stayed on i