Editing Freedom Summer (section)

==Freedom Vote==
{{Main|Freedom Vote}}
Freedom Summer was built on the years of earlier work by thousands of African Americans, connected through their churches, who lived in Mississippi. In 1963, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized a mock "[[Freedom Vote]]" designed to demonstrate the will of Black Mississippians to vote, if not impeded by terror and intimidation. The Mississippi voting registration procedure at the time required Black people to fill out a 21-question registration form and to answer, to the satisfaction of the white registrators, a question on the interpretation of any one of 285 sections of the state constitution.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=-S8rXhDMhzUC&pg=PA72 Sargent, ''The Civil Rights Revolution: Events and Leaders, 1955-1968''], McFarland, 2004, p 72</ref> The registrars ruled subjectively on the applicant's qualifications, and decided against most Black people, not allowing them to register.

In 1963, volunteers set up polling places in Black churches and business establishments across Mississippi. After registering on a simple registration form, voters would select candidates to run in the following year's election. Candidates included Rev. [[Ed King (activist)|Ed King]] of [[Tougaloo College]] and [[Aaron Henry (politician)|Aaron Henry]], from [[Clarksdale, Mississippi]].<ref>[http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/archon/?p=digitallibrary/digitalcontent&id=91 "Freedom Vote Flyer"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303172940/http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/archon/?p=digitallibrary%2Fdigitalcontent&id=91 |date=2014-03-03 }}, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University</ref> Local civil rights workers and volunteers, along with students from northern and western universities, organized and implemented the mock election, in which tens of thousands voted.