Freedom on My Mind

This is a very effective documentary which chronicles the civil rights struggle in the State of Mississippi during the 1960's. The alternating segments of interviews with actual participants and historical footage of the demonstrations and events at the time kept my interest to the end. I had not seen this film before and am very pleased that tcm was able to carry it. For me, not all documentaries succeed in what they set out to do, but this one did, at least in my view. It portrays a very important chapter of American history from which we can all learn.

As to the recent user review of January 18, 2017 describing the reviewer's personal experiences with racial segregation in central Florida, I will add that I grew up during the 1950's and 1960's in the northern town of Union, New Jersey and encountered many of the same racial prejudices there that the reviewer witnessed. The public schools were mostly segregated through the eighth grade, then through the sixth grade, and integrated in the upper grades only by financial necessity. The separation of the elementary schools, at least at my end of town, created resentment at the upper grades as the black students were clearly at an academic disadvantage following nine and then seven years of racial segregation. It wasn't until after I graduated from high school in 1967 when the federal government intervened and forcibly integrated Union's elementary schools. Beyond Union, most of the towns that surrounded us were completely off limits to African Americans. The towns that were most threatened by integration were the towns that were most affordable to black families who desired to leave Newark for a better life in the suburbs. Wealthier towns, such as Merrill Streep's native Basking Ridge (Bernards Township) were far more protected and insulated from the dramatic social upheaval that was occurring nearby because, for the most part, they were economically inaccessible to African American families from Newark who wanted to leave the city. I only write this because I have witnessed an enormous amount of hypocrisy and falsehood in my life, including my own, personal experiences regarding race as I was growing up in a northern town. I touched upon this theme in a novel that I recently wrote but that has not been finalized for publication.

"Freedom on My Mind" is an amazing documentary of a period of American history that makes the viewer cringe that it happened. Mississippi in 1960 was fully segregated with political leaders, like like Gov. Ross Barnett, providing an unblushing rationale.

The film really has two parts. The first, shorter part, focuses on Bob Moses and the voter registration drive. The second, larger section, examines the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and its efforts, led by Fannie Lou Hamer, to replace the Mississippi Dixiecrats at the Democratic National Convention in 1964.

The documentary balances well historical film footage with 1990s commentary by participants in the Freedom Summer of 1964, including Bob Moses, Marshall Ganz, Heather Booth, and others. Endesha Ida Mae Holland, who was raped by a white man at age 11, went from the Mississippi Delta to volunteering with the registration drive as a teenager, to getting a PhD in American Studies. Her commentary and that of Bob Moses is the most striking.

Also very insightful is the description of relationship between African American and white volunteers in the registration movement.

This a humbling documentary to watch.

So many documentaries are stiff and academic or so obviously manipulative... this is none of those things. It is so HUMAN, so REAL... and is such a powerful story of a fundamentally important period in the history of the USA, every bit as important as the Boston Tea Party or the "shot heard 'round the world" or that moment when "our flag was still there." These are perfectly ordinary people doing absolutely extraordinary things. Particular kudos to those in charge of research, who put together the archival footage - it absolutely immerses you in the time. As a Southerner, I heard things I still hear today... but I also was so inspired by the hard work and tenaciousness of the people who lead this movement - and the people who lead this movement were so imperfect, it makes it all the more glorious. Geesh but I loved this documentary!

Activists look back on the Mississippi voter registration drive from 1961- 64. It's a documentary. It's the story of a revolution. For 2020, there is new resonance. The world has changed but much has not. While some in the black and white footage are saying words that civil society does not today, so much of this looks very similar to what's happening right now. The world has come a long way but in some ways, there is so much further to go.

"Freedom on My Mind" is a documentary about the efforts in the early to mid 1960s to get the state of Mississippi to move into the modern age. Up until then, the state deliberately did all it could to prevent black people from registering to vote...either by intimidation or violence. The story starts in 1961 and continues up through the DNC convention in 1964 when it tried (rightfully so) to seat its own delegates instead of the ones imposed on blacks in Mississippi.

If you watch this expertly crafted and very compelling film, please watch the credits to see where many of the interviewees are today. I was so proud to see that one of the black people who had been molested later went on to become a professor...and it made me tear up a bit. Well worth seeing and a great history lesson. It's a shame, however, that most Americans today don't even realize all this happened...and I taught US history, so I know that we have so quickly forgotten our past.