Freedom Summer project ’ s role in changing a city 60 summers ago
Moving a Community Forward
Freedom Summer project ’ s role in changing a city 60 summers ago
Traveling down Meridian ’ s Martin Luther King Jr . Memorial Drive , just before the intersection of 16th Street , stone steps at the edge of a vacant property lead up to a rust-covered gate , leaning slightly from its hinges along a chain link fence .
On the other side of the fence stretches a grassy lot , once home to the Meridian Baptist Seminary , which succumbed to a fire in 2007 .
To a young passerby , the steps appear to lead to nowhere . To older residents who live in nearby homes , the lot and staircase are a crumb to Meridian ’ s painful past .
No physical evidence of the seminary building remains . The only hint of the property ’ s historical significance is a Meridian Civil Rights Trail marker at the base of the steps naming it as the site of the Meridian Freedom School , which was held in the seminary building during a turbulent few months in 1964 — Freedom Summer .
A significantly important civil rights initiative of the 1960s , this year marks the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer and the Meridian Freedom School .
On one day in mid-April , the QR code attached to the signpost — an app that is supposed to provide access through a smartphone app to a short video about the Freedom School
The COFO Building , located at the corner of Fifth street and 25th avenue , was demolished in 2014
By Glenda Sandsers www . meridianstar . com
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