This article is within the scope of WikiProject Civil Rights Movement, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
Civil Rights Movement on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Civil Rights MovementWikipedia:WikiProject Civil Rights MovementTemplate:WikiProject Civil Rights MovementCivil Rights Movement articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the
United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject African diaspora, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
African diaspora on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.African diasporaWikipedia:WikiProject African diasporaTemplate:WikiProject African diasporaAfrican diaspora articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Libraries, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
Libraries on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LibrariesWikipedia:WikiProject LibrariesTemplate:WikiProject LibrariesLibraries articles
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 January 2023 and 17 May 2023. Further details are available
on the course page. Student editor(s):
SmallChartreuseCat (
article contribs). Peer reviewers:
Kbelay1.
I've left what was already written almost as is, rewording or reorganizing sentences in a couple places as needed. Here are the main additions I've made, organized by section where they appear:
intro: mentioned the work of Karen Cook and the timeframe of summer 1964
background: libraries may have been technically desegregated but preserved segregation
establishment: context of Freedom Summer, context that public libraries were sites of sit-ins, who the COFO was (what organizations), demographic information about volunteers, the Selma Free Library, what kinds of buildings freedom libraries were in, what other services they offered
challenges: lack of clarity around COFO organizational structure, lack of funding and volunteer experience, details about Vicksburg bombing, landlords' reluctance to rent to freedom libraries
impact: freedom libraries raising awareness, significant impact in short time period