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Acclaimed documentary
filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Freedom
Riders, The Murder of Emmitt Till, Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s
Temple, A Place of Our Own
and many
other films) has returned again
to the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960’s with his latest film Freedom Summer.

The film
chronicles the events during the violent and bloody summer of 1964 in Mississippi known as the Freedom Summer, when hundreds of student volunteers in league with local and
national activists and organizers worked to push for voting rights, to bring down the racist
segregationists policies and foundations of white supremacy in the nation’s
most segregated state.

Working together, they
canvassed for voter registration, created Freedom Schools, and established the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, with the goal of challenging the
segregationist state Democratic Party at the national convention in Atlantic
City. The campaign was marked by sustained and deadly violence, including the
notorious murders of three civil rights workers, countless beatings, the
burning of 35 churches and the bombing of 70 homes and Freedom Houses.

Now the PBS
series American Experience will broadcast
Freedom Summer on Tuesday, June 24 at 9PM (ET) in conjunction
with the 50th anniversary of the event.

Of course, always be sure to check your local listing for the time and day of the program in
your area: