The articles and poems which follow were written by Mississippi Negroes who were students in this summer's freedom school program. Most of these first appeared in the Freedom News, a mimeographed bulletin put out by the Holly Springs Freedom School. Nearly all the other pieces are from a similar publication, the Benton County Freedom Train,

None of the authors had had any contact with the freedom movement until this summer, when COFO workers set up over 30 schools in Mississippi. By the end of the summer "newspapers" were being written and read in communities all over the state.

These articles are left unsigned in order to protect the writers from possible reprisals.

How We Feel About the Three Missing Boys

The news just suddenly broke out as a shock. The people were scared and angry, saying "Why would any person want to take the lives of the three boys."

The people in the country were scared and some were even scared to come to town. I feel sorry for those boys and I think they should be found. The missing boys were a shock to some. The white wasn't to sad.

They found their station wagon. It was burned. Some people think they are dead. Some say the police are not looking as hard as they should be and most people think they cut them up in little pieces and threw them in the river. July 8, 1964   written by a 13-year-old girl   from Holly Springs

November 22, 1963

The day was still and sad.

And in my little town in was

Windy, dark, and wet.

The day went on and on so slow.

Oh, how I wished it would end!

Then it came on the radio,

That the President had been shot.