During the year 964 there was a lot of violence and discrimination against African Americans in the state of Mississippi. African Americans were not registered to vote because of the fear of losing jobs as well as holding on to the idea that voting was a business of the white man only . For those African American who did make an effort to vote, it was not easy to accomplish. A law was put in place that made voters fill out a 22 question questionnaire which included a section where you must interpret a part of the Mississippi constitution. This discouraged African American voters because at this time many could not read or write . Mississippi at this time was referred to as a closed state. In order to open up the state to the rest of the country Bob Moses announced Freedom Summer. Freedom Summer was a plan to send 000 teachers ministers lawyers and students from all around the country to work in freedom schools, community center programs, voter registration activity, research work and to work in t
he white communities . Three civil rights workers who were volunteers for Freedom Summer, James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman headed to Mississippi on June 2st, 964 to investigate the burning of a black Methodist church which had held a civil rights meeting just weeks before it had been burned down. Later that afternoon the young men were arrested for a traffic violation but were later released that night . However open their release the men seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth . Once word of the disappearance of these boys reached the White House, President Johnson took action to find out what happened.
Although President Johnsons handling of the situation may not have been perfect, there are still a few things we can learn from his experience on the day of the Mississippi Burning crisis. Three things that we can learn from President Johnson on this day are stability and honesty, the importance of strong relationships, and how to past incidents into future success.