Freedom Summer focused on registering Black voters in which state?

• A. Alabama
• B. Mississippi
• C. Georgia
• D. Louisiana

Answer: (B)

Freedom Summer aimed to register Black voters in Mississippi, carried out in the summer of 1964 as a centerpiece of the Civil Rights Movement. Mississippi was chosen because it had some of the most prohibitive barriers to Black suffrage, including discriminatory laws, widespread intimidation, and violent resistance that kept registration very low despite a large Black population. Volunteers from across the country, organized mainly by SNCC with support from CORE and others, went into Mississippi’s rural counties to teach, register voters, and build community organizing—it was a bold effort to crack the system that kept Black Mississippians from voting. The nationwide attention this drew helped push the movement toward stronger federal action, contributing to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Among the states listed, Mississippi is the place most strongly linked with Freedom Summer’s voter-registration drive.