Teaching Visual Literacy

Freedom On My Mind

(1994)

One of the most important moments in American history occurred in the summer of 1964, when young civil rights workers, white and black, faced a moment of crisis that tested them and tested the nation.

This story has been told by Hollywood in the award-winning movie Mississippi Burning (1988). But the real story of what happened that fateful summer is quite a bit different from the way Hollywood has depicted it. Our film for Friday tells a more troubling, yet perhaps even more inspiring, story.

The film is 110 minutes long, too long to view in its entirety in class. So here is what we’re going to do:

We’ll watch Part II of Freedom On My Mind in class on Friday.

To view Part I (45 minutes), here are your options:

  • 4 p.m. Thursday screening
  • 8 p.m. Thursday screening
  • Watch the first 45 minutes on your own in the library (the film is on reserve, but must be viewed in the library)

Synopsis

A story about the Mississippi freedom movement in the early 1960s, culminating in Mississippi Freedom Summer, when a handful of idealistic young activists believed they could change history—and did.

Take notes on the obvious historical questions we want to put to the Mississippi freedom movement—Who, What, When, Where, How, and So What?

But be especially alert for answers to the following questions (some inspired by criticisms of earlier films of the Civil Rights Movement)

  1. Historical Context. Why did the Mississippi freedom movement happen?
  2. Leadership. What does MFS tell us about the nature of leadership in the Civil Rights Movement?
  3. The strategy of nonviolent direct action. Why did people adopt this strategy, and what were its effects?
  4. Mass movements. How did the struggle for freedom become a mass movement?
  5. The strategy of black power. Why did some young blacks turn to more militant tactics?
  6. The film as history. When a film relies on interviews with participants for evidence, the participants are naturally concerned with making themselves look good to posterity. Keeping this in mind, how would you assess the interviewees credibility?