Chapter 12: Interlude: From Prospectus For A Summer Freedom School Program

December 1963¹

It is, I think, just about universally recognized that Mississippi education, for black or white, is grossly inadequate in comparison with education around the country. Negro education in Mississippi is the most inadequate and inferior in the state. Mississippi’s impoverished educational system is also burdened with virtually a complete absence of academic freedom, and students are forced to live in an environment that is geared to squash intellectual curiosity, and different thinking. University of Mississippi Professor James Silver, in a recent speech, talked of “social paralysis … where nonconformity is forbidden, where the white man is not free, where he does not dare express a deviating opinion without looking over his shoulder.” This “social paralysis” is not limited to the white community, however. There are Negro students who have been thrown out of classes for asking about the freedom rides, or voting. Negro teachers have been fired for saying the wrong thing. The State of Mississippi destroys “smart niggers” and its classrooms remain intellectual waste lands.