Marches, sit-ins, and Freedom Rides made noticeable headway in the South, but most African Americans could not vote. Without the vote, black citizens could not politically direct and control their own lives and communities. Concerned individuals and groups worked for years to improve these circumstances by creating educational programs, and facilities for health care and legal aid. The NAACP's courtroom litigation exposed illegal voting restrictions, but added very few blacks to the voting rolls.

A more aggressive campaign emerged in the early 1960s, when civil rights activists, including many toughened sit-in and Freedom Ride veterans, waged a grassroots campaign not only to increase the number of registered black voters in Mississippi, but to pressure the federal government to find long-term help for southern blacks. In the summer of 1964, nearly 1,000 volunteers, mostly white northern college students, faced fear, violence - even death - to help black Mississippians. Forty-four different projects included voter registration, schools, community centers, medical care, and legal aid were established. A successful mock "Freedom Vote" in 1963 encouraged local black activists to organize their own political party and to seek recognition at the August 1964 Democratic National Convention. Freedom Summer proved a high-water mark of interracial cooperation and nonviolent direct action.

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