For a Voice and the Vote

During the summer of 1964, hundreds of American college students descended on Mississippi to help the state's African American citizens register to vote. Student organizers, volunteers, and community members canvassed black neighborhoods to organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), a group that sought to give a voice to black Mississippians and demonstrate their will to vote in the face of terror and intimidation.

In For a Voice and the Vote, author Lisa Anderson Todd gives a fascinating insider's account of her experience volunteering in Greenville, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer, when she participated in organizing the MFDP. Innovative and integrated, the party provided political education, ran candidates for office, and offered participation in local and statewide meetings for blacks who were denied the vote. For Todd, it was an exciting, dangerous, and life-changing experience. Offering the first full account of the group's five days in Atlantic City, the book draws on primary sources, oral histories, and the author's personal interviews of individuals who were supporters of the MFDP in 1964.

List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. In Atlantic City for the Democratic Convention
2. My Life before Mississippi
3. Mississippi, 1963: Keeping the Waters Troubled
4. On to Greensboro, North Carolina, and Back to Cornell
5. Planning for the Summer Project
6. Orientation: How the Student Volunteers Were Prepared
7. June 21, 1964
8. Living as a Volunteer in Mississippi, 1964
9. My New Politics
10. Early Work on the Convention Challenge
11. Lyndon Johnson: The Formidable President
12. One Woman in Atlantic City
13. Sunday in Atlantic City
14. Humphrey's Pleading on Monday
15. Reuther's Manipulation on Tuesday
16. The Mississippi Freedom Democractic Party Turns to Protest
17. Wednesday: Persuasion Fails
18. Victory or Defeat
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: Challenge of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Appendix B: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Delegates
Notes
Bibliography
Index