Freedom Summer is remembered 60 years later. Some hope a younger generation is listening

June 21, 1964, was an ordinary day for many Americans, but for three civil rights workers in Mississippi, it was the day their lives would end, and the fires of the civil rights movement were stoked, unleashing the full boil on the pot already on the edge of bubbling over.

Civil rights volunteers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were sent to Neshoba County to investigate a fire at Mount Zion Methodist Church, which was operating as a Freedom School.

The men were taken into custody by the Neshoba County Sheriff's Office and released later that night, never to be seen alive again. Their bodies were found six weeks later, on Aug. 4, 1964, in an earthen dam on a farm in Neshoba County.

Another activist Dave Dennis was supposed to go with the three men to Neshoba County but had bronchitis and couldn't go. It has been something he's lived with for 60 years.

"I feel very responsible for Chaney and them," Dennis told author John Dittmer in Dittmer's book, "Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi." "I don't know whether I would have been able to stop it.

"You never get over that. I guess I will live with it until the day I die"

Dennis, of Shreveport, Louisiana, was an organizer of the 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi, working with Bob Moses and others to educate Black residents and encourage them to register to vote.

He was tapped to give a eulogy at Chaney's memorial service. Instead of keeping it low-key as requested, Dennis instead was overcome by emotion as he shouted, "I don't want to have to go to another memorial. I am tired of funerals. We've got to stand up."

Three years earlier, as a Freedom Rider, he was arrested in Jackson after arriving at the bus station there and walking into the all-white waiting room. He said in an interview with the Washinton University in St. Louis, that he and the others had prepared themselves to die on that trip.

Much of his civil rights story is documented in the book, "The Movement Made Us," which Dennis co-authored with his son, David Dennis Jr.

Dennis was scheduled to appear Monday on a discussion panel in Hattiesburg celebrating the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer, but was unable to attend because of a fall. The Freedom Summer discussion continued, led by Hattiesburg attorney Glenda Funchess, who talked about the bravery of those who dared to dream of voting.

Funchess said it's important to remember the sacrifices and the rewards of those who fought for equality in the civil rights era.

"It is incumbent on our generation to honor the generation before us because the generation behind us didn't know these people," she said.

Black Mississippians faced many obstacles in their attempts to register to vote, including paying a poll tax and answering questions that were not required of white residents, many of which were unanswerable, such as, "How many bubbles are in a bar of soap."

Also speaking was Dennis Dahmer, whose father Vernon Dahmer died from severe burns after his house was firebombed by Ku Klux Klan members on Jan. 10, 1966.

Dahmer said the one thing he hopes to see is more young people at events like the Freedom Summer panel, so they can learn about what it took for them to enjoy the privileges they have today, including the right to vote.

"What we don't see here is the young generation," he said. "They need to be here to learn a little bit about their history and not being swayed by what somebody told them online."

The event was held at the Twin Forks Rising headquarters at 601 East Pine St. The organization works to improve Hattiesburg's Ward 2, which is situated between the Leaf and Bouie Rivers.

To learn more

Twin Forks Rising works within Hattiesburg's Ward 2 to make improvements to that area of the city. It also offers a number of other programs for area residents.

For more information, visit tfrcdc.org.

Do you have a story to share? Contact Lici Beveridge at lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on X @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Freedom Summer remembered sixty years later