Educating for social change: The history of the Mississippi Freedom Schools, 1932-1964

Abstract

This thesis documents how the Freedom Schools, an historical example of radical education, developed in Mississippi in 1964 and postulates why Freedom Schools developed in their particular social, economic, and political context. My analysis begins with Myles Horton, a radical educator in Tennessee who first articulated his notion of education for social change in the late 1920s, and it concludes in 1964 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. This historical analysis examines the following key tenets: Progressive-era educational thought and the establishment of Highlander Folk School; Jim Crow policy in Mississippi and its role in creating a fertile ground for Freedom School development; the immediate context in which the Freedom Schools developed during the Civil Rights Movement, specifically between 1962 and 1964; and an analysis and interpretation of the significance of this development. Ultimately, the development and conception of radical education between 1932 and 1964 suggests that the application of education for social change is largely dependent upon an anti-democratic context and it has been most effectively applied in an immediate, localized context.