Freedom School

The rural town of Gluckstadt, Mississippi, 10 miles north of Jackson, housed one of the many freedom schools set up this summer as part of the COFO Project in Mississippi. Classes each morning opened with freedom songs (right). The classes were held outdoors after the church in which they had been meeting was burned down on August 10. As part of a citizenship class, the students all wrote to President Johnson, asking for further FBI investigation of this and other church burnings.

The freedom school met near the ruins of the ournt out church, and, during breaks, the children played with objects found in the rubble. It sometimes possible to read a page or two of charred book, and the hands of the church clock were still identifiable. One girl found a fuse that had melted out of shape (above right). The framework of the piano could be seen between strips of what had been roof (below, left). The younger children would wander off to play.