USM Special Collections, Hattiesburg Public Library to Present Freedom Summer 60th Anniversary Programming in August

Mon, 08/05/2024 - 11:15am | By: David Tisdale

A special exhibit and screening of two documentary films will be featured in collaborative programming between The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) University Libraries and the Hattiesburg Public Library marking the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer.

Jennifer Brannock, Professor and Curator of Rare Books and Mississippiana in the Special Collections division of USM University Libraries, selected images from the Herbert Randall Photograph Collection housed at the University for the photography exhibition, “Freedom Summer at 60: Mississippi as a Catalyst for Change.” The display features a selection of photographs by noted civil rights movement photographer Herbert Randall taken in and around Hattiesburg during Freedom Summer, and archival photographs made in Mississippi from 1959-64 by Harvey Richards.

The photography exhibition will remain on display throughout August at the Hattiesburg Public Library. In conjunction with the exhibit, a screening of two documentaries capturing the story of Freedom Summer and the Civil Rights Movement produced by Richards, titled “We’ll Never Turn Back” (1963) and “Dream Deferred” (1964) will be held Thursday, Aug. 8 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Hattiesburg Public Library. Admission is free.

Richards was a union organizer, social activist, photographer, and documentary filmmaker from rural Oregon whose work portrayed the various struggles faced by the working class and members of the lower socio-economic rungs of society. Randall is a fine arts and documentary photographer from Bronx, New York who, in 1964, traveled to Mississippi to document the events of Freedom Summer; the images he made are considered some of the most important and iconic documents of the entire Civil Rights Movement. 

Freedom Summer was a key phase of the American Civil Rights Movement, when state residents, college students, and voting rights organizers from across the country came to Hattiesburg and across Mississippi in 1964 to work together to secure voting rights for African Americans in Mississippi. “Freedom Summer at 60” was conceived by Hattiesburg native Scott Varnado, a Ph.D. student in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, with sponsorship by Friends of the Library and Special Collections at the USM.

“Special Collections is thrilled to work with Scott and the Hattiesburg Public Library to highlight the work of Harvey Richards and Herbert Randall in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer,” Brannock said. “The photographs and films featured show different aspects of the Freedom struggle and seeing them together in one venue provides a powerful look at the activities in Mississippi.”

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