Events to celebrate Freedom Summer

in the summer of 1964, former UW–Madison student Andrew Goodman and two other college students were murdered as they worked to ensure voter registration for African Americans in Mississippi.

Their sacrifice during “Freedom Summer” helped call the nation’s attention to the brutality and injustice that African Americans faced in their struggle for freedom, and aided in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Now, Goodman’s life and his commitment to civil rights for all will be memorialized April 10-11 on campus.

The events begin Monday, April 10, at 8 p.m. in the On Wisconsin Room of the Red Gym, 716 Langdon St., when Goodman’s mother Carolyn delivers a keynote speech at the Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity’s banquet.

During the banquet, the fraternity will announce the winner of its essay contest, titled “The Elimination of Prejudice.” The essay contest, now in its fifth year and supported by the Dean of Students Office, is judged by faculty and awards $1,000 to the winner. Although the dinner is by invitation only, the keynote speech is open to the public.

Following her speech, Carolyn Goodman will show the video she produced through the Andrew Goodman Foundation (which she founded) called “Hidden Heroes: Youth Activism Today.” The 24-minute video promotes youth activism by harkening back to past activism, such as 1964’s “Freedom Summer.”

That summer, college students from around the country traveled to the Deep South to work in the burgeoning civil rights movement. Andrew Goodman, who attended UW–Madison as a freshman before transferring to Queens College in New York, took part in Freedom Summer with Michael Schwerner and James Chaney. They disappeared in June 1964, murdered by Ku Klux Klan members and Mississippi police officers. FBI agents later found their bodies.

“The history of social activism of previous generations teaches our students that they, too, can take steps to solve problems and initiate change in their communities,” says Assistant Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students Mary Rouse.

To honor Goodman’s life, the Andrew Goodman Memorial Plaque will be dedicated by the university and Goodman’s family in the Red Gym on Tuesday, April 11, from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Rouse says although Goodman transferred from UW–Madison after one year, his family maintained a strong relationship with the university.

“This institution continues to be proud of his contribution to its traditions of committed student activism,” Rouse says.

The plaque will be permanently displayed in the Masley Room on the first floor of the Red Gym, where student activists still organize and prospective students and their families are introduced to UW–Madison. “Hidden Heroes” will be shown again following the dedication, and African Languages and Literature Professor Harold Scheub will give a keynote speech.

From 5-7 p.m., the video will be shown again during “Terrific Tuesday,” a monthly diversity series sponsored by the College of Letters and Science and held in the Multicultural Student Center in the Red Gym.