Films

Freedom on My Mind

Film. Directed Connie Field and Marilyn Mulford. Written by Michael Chandler. 1994. 110 minutes.
The story of the Mississippi freedom movement in the early 1960s.

Time Periods: 1961
Themes: Civil Rights Movements

A mesmerizing film, distinguished by is its willingness to delve into complicated issues. Puts the Civil Rights Movement into the context of the daily lives of Mississippians.

Activists discuss the joys of struggle and the community it creates, as well as the implications of difficult decisions like the one to bring white northerners down to Mississippi to increase media and government attention. [Description from Rethinking Schools.]

Nominated for an Academy Award, winner of both the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians awards for best documentary, this landmark film tells the story of the Mississippi freedom movement in the early 1960s when a handful of young activists changed history.

Distributed by Clarity Films.

Trailer

To sit through this two-hour film is to vicariously experience-or re-experience-a time of courage and fear, empowerment and subjugation, interracial coalition and bitter division. — Desson Howe, The Washington Post Weekend

No documentary film has captured as eloquently and as dramatically that moment in the history of Mississippi when for a number of its citizens a commitment to racial justice became a moral imperative. The struggle they waged and what happened to their vision and expectations makes for a compelling and eloquent film. This is history at its very best, when it is at the same time illuminating, entertaining, and disturbing. — Leon F. Litwack, Professor of History, UC Berkeley

Share a story, question, or resource from your classroom.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *