Long before he became a Congressman from Massachusetts, Barney Frank traveled to Mississippi in 1964 as a volunteer for the Freedom Summer project. As a teenager in New Jersey, Frank was deeply affected by the murder of Emmett Till and became aware of how deeply ingrained racism was in society. Two years after graduating from Harvard he went to Mississippi because, “[he] couldn’t justify not going.” There, he worked to help seat the delegates of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
“Freedom Summer” premieres June 24 on American Experience PBS.
