Rigor and (Civil) Rights: Helping Mississippi Students See Beyond the Delta

Published on June 1, 2008, in Edutopia Magazine, with audio slide show published on edutopia.org.

http://www.edutopia.org/sunflower-county-freedom-project
http://www.edutopia.org/how-to-regional-history-resources
http://www.edutopia.org/freedom-project-slide-show

In the landscape of the Mississippi Delta, where transportation, field trip destinations, volunteers, guest speakers, and funding are in short supply, the Freedom Project is something very special. Using Sunflower County's unique history as a hotbed of civil rights activity in the 1960s as an inspiration and program model, the Freedom Project attempts what to some may seem impossible: to raise Sunflower County's estimated 52.4 percent graduation rate and ensure that each of its participants goes to college -- and succeeds there.