Freedom on My Mind

In 1961, Mississippi was rigidly segregated. There were virtually no black voters even though African-Americans comprised a large percentage of the population, the majority in some localities. Bob Moses entered the state and the Mississippi Voter Registration Project began. The first black farmer who attempted to register was fatally shot by a Mississippi State Representative, E.H. Hurst. Due to intimidation of witnesses, one of whom, Louis Allen, was slain, Hurst was never prosecuted.

Among the events depicted in the film is the Freedom Summer of 1964, in which three civil rights workers were slain.

Freedom on My Mind combines personal interviews, rare archival film and television footage, authentic Mississippi Delta blues, and Movement gospel songs. It emphasizes the strategic brilliance of Mississippi's young, black organizers. Barred from political participation, they created their own integrated party the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. They recruited a thousand mostly white students from around the country to come to Mississippi, bringing the eyes and conscience of the nation with them. The students and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party organizers put together a delegation of sharecroppers, maids, and day-laborers that challenged the all-white delegates in the 1964 Democratic National Convention. The film describes how their effort to replace the state's delegation was not accepted by the Democratic Party leadership, embittering the activists.

Ultimately their efforts succeeded. In 1965 Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, and by 1990, Mississippi had more elected black officials than any other state in the country.[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-09-29-ca-44129-story.html Movie Review: A Study in Black and White: 'Freedom on My Mind' Documents Civil Rights Drive in Mississippi - Los Angeles Times][https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/22/movies/review-film-freedom-on-my-mind-memories-of-a-hot-summer-long-ago.html Review/Film: Freedom on My Mind; Memories Of a Hot Summer Long Ago - The New York Times]

• Victoria Gray Adams as Self
• Chude Pamela Allen as Self
• Heather Booth as Self
• L.C. Dorsey as Self
• Len Edwards as Self
• Marshall Ganz as Self
• Malva and Red Heffner as Selves
• Endesha Ida Mae Holland as Self
• Bob Moses as Self
• Curtis Muhammad as Self (credited as Curtis Hayes)
• Cleveland Sellers as Self (credited as Cleve Sellars)

Variety called it "a landmark documentary that chronicles the most tumultuous and significant years in the history of the civil rights movement. A must see."{{cite web |title=Freedom on My Mind |date=1994-02-23 |website=Variety |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005002442/https://variety.com/1994/film/reviews/freedom-on-my-mind-1200435682/ |archive-date=2021-10-05 |url-status=live |url=https://variety.com/1994/film/reviews/freedom-on-my-mind-1200435682/#!}} It was broadcast on PBS's American Experience and internationally, and has been used educationally in colleges and universities around the world.

The Washington Post said that the film "conveys the human dimensions of the fight with such a powerful combination of sensitivity and intelligence and pure emotional insight that it seems as if the facts were being set down for the very first time. As political history this is superlative stuff."[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/freedomonmymindnrhinson_b009d2.htm The Washington Post]

Critic John Petrakis of The Chicago Tribune called the film "superbly produced and "must-viewing for anyone with an interest in the civil rights movement or American history."[https://www.chicagotribune.com/1994/10/28/freedom-on-my-mind-documents-struggle-against-hate/ `FREEDOM ON MY MIND' DOCUMENTS STRUGGLE AGAINST HATE - Chicago Tribune]

• Sundance Film Festival: Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary (1994)

{{cite web

|url=http://history.sundance.org/films/213

|title=Freedom on My Mind

|work=Sundance.org

|access-date=27 August 2012

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• Academy Awards: Nominated as Best Feature Documentary (1994){{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1995 |title=The 67th Academy Awards (1995) Nominees and Winners|access-date=November 20, 2011|work=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|publisher=AMPAS}}[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvXsfo_5l7U Documentary Winners: 1995 Oscars]
• winner, Erik Barnouw Award, Organization of American Historians (1995)

{{cite web

|url = http://www.oah.org/awards/awards.barnouw.winners.html

|title = Past Winners of the Erik Barnouw Award

|publisher = Organization of American Historians

|access-date = 27 August 2012

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120206052241/http://www.oah.org/awards/awards.barnouw.winners.html

|archive-date = February 6, 2012

|df = mdy-all

}}

• winner, John O'Connor Award, American Historical Association
• winner, Distinguished Documentary Award, International Documentary Association (1994)
• winner, CINE Golden Eagle (1996)

• Civil rights movement in popular culture
• Louis Allen
• Voting Rights Act of 1965

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|id=0109839|title=Freedom on My Mind}}
• {{TCMDb title|id=75637}}
• {{AFI film|59802}}
• [http://www.clarityfilms.org/freedom Clarity Films] website
• [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/FreedomonMyMind/ PBS American Experience] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202062919/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/FreedomonMyMind/ |date=February 2, 2017 }}

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| title=Sundance Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

| years=1994

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{{American Experience}}

{{Sundance Grand Jury Prize Documentary}}

Category:1994 films

Category:American Experience

Category:American documentary films

Category:Documentary films about the civil rights movement

Category:Sundance Film Festival award–winning films

Category:Documentary films about Mississippi

Category:Films directed by Connie Field

Category:1990s English-language films

Category:1990s American films

Category:English-language documentary films