Saturday-Monday, November 2-4, 1963: Freedom Vote in Mississippi

The "freedom vote" was a mock statewide general election to parallel the Mississippi gubernatorial election of 1963. It was organized by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of civil rights organizations. Aaron Henry, a black pharmacist from Clarksdale, was on the mock ballot for governor and the Rev. Edwin King, a white chaplain at Tougaloo College in Jackson (and a native of Vicksburg), was on the ballot for lieutenant governor. Ballot boxes were placed in churches, businesses and homes across the state, and voting took place over the weekend. Henry and King "won" the mock election in which more than 80,000 black Mississippians voted. This event showed the country that African Americans would vote if given the chance.
-- Text from Aaron Henry biography, Mississippi Historical Society: @

-- Image from Freedom Summer Digital Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society
* Summary from Civil Rights Movement Veterans: @

* Summary from SNCC Project Group: @

* Photos from rally for Aaron Henry (Hattiesburg, October 29; from Mississippi Department of Archives and History): @
* Election flier (from Amistad Research Center): @ and @

* Pamphlets: Freedom Ballot and Freedom Registration (from Wisconsin Historical Society): @ 

* Freedom Registration pamphlet (from Civil Rights Movement Veterans): @
* "No Small Thing: Visual Rhetoric and the 1963 Mississippi Freedom Vote" (William Lawson, 2008): @

* "Aaron Henry: The Fire Ever Burning" (Aaron Henry and Constance Curry, 2000): @
* Edwin King entry from Civil Rights Digital Library: @
* COFO summary (from Martin Luther King Research and Education Institute): @

* "The Washington Merry-Go-Round" (Drew Pearson, November 4): @

* "Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi" (John Dittmer, 1994; see Chapter 9, "Conflicting Strategies"): @ 

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