Freedom on My Mind

This is a very effective documentary which chronicles the civil rights struggle in the State of Mississippi during the 1960's. The alternating segments of interviews with actual participants and historical footage of the demonstrations and events at the time kept my interest to the end. I had not seen this film before and am very pleased that tcm was able to carry it. For me, not all documentaries succeed in what they set out to do, but this one did, at least in my view. It portrays a very important chapter of American history from which we can all learn.

As to the recent user review of January 18, 2017 describing the reviewer's personal experiences with racial segregation in central Florida, I will add that I grew up during the 1950's and 1960's in the northern town of Union, New Jersey and encountered many of the same racial prejudices there that the reviewer witnessed. The public schools were mostly segregated through the eighth grade, then through the sixth grade, and integrated in the upper grades only by financial necessity. The separation of the elementary schools, at least at my end of town, created resentment at the upper grades as the black students were clearly at an academic disadvantage following nine and then seven years of racial segregation. It wasn't until after I graduated from high school in 1967 when the federal government intervened and forcibly integrated Union's elementary schools. Beyond Union, most of the towns that surrounded us were completely off limits to African Americans. The towns that were most threatened by integration were the towns that were most affordable to black families who desired to leave Newark for a better life in the suburbs. Wealthier towns, such as Merrill Streep's native Basking Ridge (Bernards Township) were far more protected and insulated from the dramatic social upheaval that was occurring nearby because, for the most part, they were economically inaccessible to African American families from Newark who wanted to leave the city. I only write this because I have witnessed an enormous amount of hypocrisy and falsehood in my life, including my own, personal experiences regarding race as I was growing up in a northern town. I touched upon this theme in a novel that I recently wrote but that has not been finalized for publication.

An absolutely brilliant look back at the 1963 Mississippi black voter registration drive, with excellent footage from the time and interviews with key figures three decades later, in 1994. Even if you're aware of this period of history, this is a very worthwhile documentary, and whether we admit or not, still relevant today. It made me emotional to see the combination of the viciousness of most of the white Mississippians (who ironically say the country is for whites because they're civilized and other races savage), the lack of recourse since it pervaded society (including the police and state politicians all the way up to the Governor), the absolute unfairness of it all, and yet, the heroic bravery of black and white Americans who risked their lives to force progress. This should be shown be shown in U.S. history courses in high schools everywhere.

I liked how the film doesn't glorify or unfairly weight the involvement of mostly northern college students from liberal arts schools, who while courageous and inspiring, by their own admission could have flown home anytime, unlike the African-Americans they were helping. The leadership and eloquence of Bob Moses is truly inspiring, as is the thoughtful commentary of those who joined the movement. The arc of Endesha Ida Mae Holland, raped by her white employer on her 11th birthday (which she says was commonplace), and speaking of harsh truths in her life through a smile, is delightful. Curtis Hayes speaks with soulful intensity, Marshall Ganz from Bakersfield, California is insightful, and Fannie Lou Hamer's televised testimony is stirring, standing out among many others. In contrast, the documentary also gives us a glimpse into some of the soul-crushing politics within the Democratic Party, which, even if evolving at the time, was still trying to save itself from southern white voters switching parties.

Mississippi was a particularly onerous example of backwardness, with a cruel apartheid system, violence perpetuated for the slightest of offenses (e.g. lynchings for "eye rape", a black man looking at a white woman in what was deemed an offensive way), and black people denied the right for 90+ years after the 15th amendment had been passed. The documentary is focused here, and appropriately so, but it should be realized that the problem was by no means localized to the recalcitrant south. Racism and the belief in white superiority was widespread, revisionist history was still being taught, and white supremacists like J. Edgar Hoover were in positions of great power. It's also easy to think of this problem as now "solved," and the needle has certainly moved considerably in Mississippi and the rest of America since the early 1960's, but as Cleve Sellars in the documentary points out, "things are not the best that they could be," which is still true today. As the documentary shows, it takes active involvement though, because those in positions of privilege or power aren't simply going to relinquish it on their own. Powerful stuff.

I'm not going to pull any punches here: this documentary, made when I was in my early 30s, about the Mississippi voter rights demonstrations has always been difficult for me to watch. (And I'm white and grew up in the South, so I can only imagine the difficulty it presents to the BIPOC communities.) The sheer brutality of the raw violence and the unrelenting psychological terrorism wrought by segregation and racism in the late '50s and early '60s never ceases to bring tears to my eyes, as it has for at least 50 years since I was a small child. But the most disturbing aspect of the film is how much systemic inequality remains, with many similar arguments still being spouted by the ignorant and frightened. Voting rights are *still* under attack in what were the "Dixiecrat" dominated states, like Georgia and Texas, now GOP dominated. The "Black Lives Matter" movement and its most fierce detractors (All Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, etc.) directly echo the Civil Rights Movement of the '60s and it's staunch opponents. As with "hate crimes legislation," the notion that respecting and protecting certain groups of people who have been historically and typically targeted or are especially vulnerable to oppression is in some way granting them "special rights" over and above the majority of people is highly insulting and positively ludicrous. It's 2021, 55-60 years later, yet we're arguing with those same people and trying to fight the same battles. That's why the story, the footage, and the 1st-hand testimony of the people involved are still able to move me to tears. 9/10.

"Freedom on My Mind" is an amazing documentary of a period of American history that makes the viewer cringe that it happened. Mississippi in 1960 was fully segregated with political leaders, like like Gov. Ross Barnett, providing an unblushing rationale.

The film really has two parts. The first, shorter part, focuses on Bob Moses and the voter registration drive. The second, larger section, examines the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and its efforts, led by Fannie Lou Hamer, to replace the Mississippi Dixiecrats at the Democratic National Convention in 1964.

The documentary balances well historical film footage with 1990s commentary by participants in the Freedom Summer of 1964, including Bob Moses, Marshall Ganz, Heather Booth, and others. Endesha Ida Mae Holland, who was raped by a white man at age 11, went from the Mississippi Delta to volunteering with the registration drive as a teenager, to getting a PhD in American Studies. Her commentary and that of Bob Moses is the most striking.

Also very insightful is the description of relationship between African American and white volunteers in the registration movement.

This a humbling documentary to watch.

"Freedom on My Mind" is a documentary about the efforts in the early to mid 1960s to get the state of Mississippi to move into the modern age. Up until then, the state deliberately did all it could to prevent black people from registering to vote...either by intimidation or violence. The story starts in 1961 and continues up through the DNC convention in 1964 when it tried (rightfully so) to seat its own delegates instead of the ones imposed on blacks in Mississippi.

If you watch this expertly crafted and very compelling film, please watch the credits to see where many of the interviewees are today. I was so proud to see that one of the black people who had been molested later went on to become a professor...and it made me tear up a bit. Well worth seeing and a great history lesson. It's a shame, however, that most Americans today don't even realize all this happened...and I taught US history, so I know that we have so quickly forgotten our past.