National Youth Summit on Freedom Summer Webcast

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will hold a National Youth Summit on February 5, 2014. Civil rights activists, historians,  and students will participate in a panel discussion about the 1964 youth-led effort to end the political disenfranchisement and educational inequality of African Americans in the Deep South, and discuss the role of young people in shaping America’s past and future.

The live webcast will be hosted from the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, Mississippi; young people from across the country will participate in the Summit through an online chat. Participating students will be encouraged to think of themselves as makers of history and asked to consider their ability to be active and engaged citizens.

Speakers
Dr. Robert Moses, director of the Mississippi Summer Project and founder of the Algebra Project
Dr. Marshall Ganz, civil rights activist and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Dr. Michelle Deardorff, Professor and Department Head of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Mr. Hollis Watkins, Mississippi native and civil rights activist