Over 1,000 out-of-state volunteers, mostly northern white college students, hundreds of healthcare and other providers, and thousands of local blacks joined the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project. Organized by Robert Moses, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)'s Mississippi Project director, and sponsored by the Council of Federated Organizations (NAACP, Congress of Racial Equality [CORE], Southern Christian Leadership Conference [SCLC], Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee [SNCC]), the project conducted “Freedom Schools” and a voter-registration campaign.

It was crucial. Schools stressed literacy, black history, and life skills. Voter registration challenged black disfranchisement and helped create the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Segregationists struck back: 67 black churches, homes, and businesses were bombed and burned; 1,000 fieldworkers were arrested, 80 beaten, 4 severely injured, and 3 murdered. That summer's events not only focused international media on racial atrocities in the South but also pushed the civil rights movement to the forefront of American politics.