Freedom Summer
Question 1
The police force was highly involved in the Civil Rights Protests as they were directed to keep the participants off the streets. They found public related activism as a way of resistance and violently dispersed them using all force necessary. These protests would sometimes be positive and only begging for change in the highly discriminative American society, but the police reaction was always towards the negative direction. Officers would shoot in the air, beat participants, and use teargas to cause confusion and end the protests. Some cases involved fatalities, where police, especially those from the white race, shot African American protestants dead (Nelson, 2014). The people were struggling to pass their grievances but ended up in the hands of the brutal police officers who wanted to stop their efforts.
Question 2
The media was the only way that people around the South could learn about the current events affecting the communities around them. Although there were other media forms like radio and newspapers, TV was more powerful due to the ability of recording close up videos and taking photographs that could be used to inform the public of the events taking place. Protests featured on TV were a way of motivating the other people to come out in large numbers and make it successful (Nelson, 2014). The news was a way of publicly portraying the challenges that African Americans were going through and their struggle to attain their rights.
Question 3
The Freedom of Summer describes the political platform of the Mississippi region whereby voting was segregated according to the race of individuals involved. Whites had all the capacity to engage in the voting process, including women, according to the Women’s Right to Vote of 1920. The discrimination was therefore directed towards African Americans, most of who were still unable to vote due to the threats in the highly racial south. The population of black people who had the right to vote did not exceed 20% in the region, as most of them were vulnerable due to the social status, which made it easier for manipulation and threats. The segregation led to voting in of mostly democratic legislators, local officials, and governors, because this political party was favored by many white voters (Nelson, 2014).
Question 4
Southern White supremacy was common in the South, with individuals feeling superior due to their race and treating African Americans in an intimidating manner. The employers mistreated their black employees as they knew that there were no laws to criminalize their acts. They could make decisions that did not favor their employees, like determining whether they could vote or not. Whites also felt the need to harass the blacks in public places and institutions like taking certain seats on public transportation and attending the more developed schools in the area (Nelson, 2014). The police, which was then made up of mainly whites, also treated African Americans discriminately during the protests and resulted in the increased conflicts between both races.
Question 5
Lefty wanted to maintain his two sides of life in such a way that it would not contradict the kind of social interactions he had with people around him. Despite his passion for the Civil Rights Movement, he had a family whom he needed to take care of. He, therefore, engaged with his activism activities during the better part of the day and came back home to his daughters since his wife was working a 9-5 job. His daughter explains towards the end of the documentary that her father was a totally different person on both sides, and looking at his activism pictures, she seemed shocked about his state (Nelson, 2014).
References
Nelson, S. (2014). Freedom summer (film). Firelight Films. United States.