ABSTRACT
T he inherent tensions between the social movements and the Ma-chiavellians came to a boil in 1964-1965, at first over Mississippi and then over Vietnam. The southern voter registration campaigns led to a unique movement perspective on electoral politics. Consistent with the blend of direct action and community organizing, the civil rights workers conceived of a plan to pressure northern Democratic liberals to phase out their immoral coalition with the Dixiecrats or lose the emerging black vote. First, SNCC and the Congress of Federated Organizations recruited hundreds of northern white students to join Mississippi Summer,1 deploying them as organizers in Black Belt communities such as McComb, Ruleville, Itta Bena-something like five hundred Daniels in the lion’s den.2 The premise was that the risks being taken by the volunteers would cause greater engagement by their families, the media, and many other northern liberals. Almost immediately, three volunteers-Andy Goodman, James Chaney, and Mickey Schwerner-were kidnapped from their car in Neshoba County, tortured, shot, and buried in a swamp.3 J. Edgar Hoover joined the Mississippi establishment in scoffing at the disappearances (“These three might have gotten rather fresh,” he strangely remarked).4 But the Mississippi Freedom Summer project went forward, and many northern liberals were galvanized to defend the right to vote, with their own children on the front lines.
