From Freedom Schools to Head Start: Civil Rights and the War on Poverty

When SNCC’s 1961-1962 voter registration initiative failed in Mississippi, its organizers realized that the tactics it had used successfully in other parts of the South would not work in the Delta State. The result of this realization was a large, multifaceted project called Freedom Summer. One of the most important aspects of this project was the creation of Freedom Schools, and a lasting result of this effort was the Head Start program, which became a core component of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty.

The goal of Freedom Summer was to secure permanently the protection of black voting rights. SNCC activists created Freedom Schools because they knew that it would be important to the larger goal of voter registration to develop a system of adult education that would enable local blacks to pass literacy tests that required them to interpret passages from the state constitution. Freedom Schools expanded, however, to become a useful tool for training civil rights workers in the art of political organizing. 

The schools also created an important legacy of interracial cooperation and government intervention, as white northern participation in Freedom Summer led to increased federal concern and national publicity. These developments would pave the way for Head Start to become a vital cog in Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Head Start, with its emphasis on interracial cooperation and innovative teaching methods, would bear the hallmarks of the Freedom Schools.

My study traces the lineage between Freedom Schools and Head Start programs. It explores how Johnson perceived the Freedom Schools and how his advisers modeled Head Start programs after them. It also shows how Freedom School founders and directors successfully lobbied the Johnson Administration to make education a centerpiece in the War on Poverty.