Louisiana Freedom Summer, also known as CORE’s Louisiana Project, was a Civil Rights campaign in Louisiana during the summer of 1964. It co-occurred simultaneously with the more famous Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. Like its Mississippi counterpart, the Project relied on volunteers from across the United States working in Louisiana Parishes (Counties) on various racial justice efforts.
Louisiana Freedom Summer started in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, with an orientation and training session organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The CORE volunteers received training in voter registration procedures and literacy tests designed to block Black voting. They canvassed Black neighborhoods and held meetings at Black churches to encourage local Black Louisianans to register to vote.
Louisiana Freedom Summer Volunteers and CORE Staff at Training Center, Plaquemines Parish, 1964 (Courtesy of the Civil Rights Movement Archive)
Louisiana Freedom Summer volunteers expected segregationists to block their efforts, but they believed helping Blacks register would strengthen the will of Black Louisianans to claim their voting rights and provide evidence to the U.S. Justice Department of systemic Black voting rights abuses by individual parishes (counties) and the state government. The volunteers were also trained in non-violent responses to threats and violence. After the orientation and training sessions ended, small groups of volunteers were deployed to various areas around Louisiana, including the Tangipahoa Parish and the towns of Hammond and Ponchatoula.
Louisiana Freedom Summer volunteers challenged the Louisiana Literacy test. Various Louisiana parishes used the Louisiana Literacy test before the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act to deny Black people and other non-Whites the right to vote. The test included a citizenship component that allowed parish registrars to ask obscure questions about the state constitution and laws, which were designed to ensure that Black registrants would fail. Black people who took the test and missed at least two questions failed, while Whites, whether they answered the questions correctly or not, still passed the test.
On July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by Congress, which abolished racial segregation in public accommodations. Four days later, a racially integrated group of Louisiana Freedom Project volunteers entered a lunchroom in Hammond, Louisiana, where they sat down and waited to be served. After the group waited awhile, a waitress came out and told them that they had to leave. She said, “No coloreds here, and no nigger lovers either.” The group then spoke to the manager, informing him that his establishment was violating the recently passed Rights Act of 1964.
After a long delay and making many phone calls, the manager returned and said it was ok to serve the group. The next day, the group returned to the same lunchroom, but the same manager now refused them service. They explained the new law again. Her response: “The law only says we got to be integrated, right?” The group replied, “That’s right. That’s what it says: no discrimination.” She then said, “Well, yesterday we got integrated, so we don’t have to serve you anymore. We aren’t discriminating. We won’t serve any of you COREs, Black or white.” The waitress then walked away, and soon after that lunchroom closed. CORE continued civil rights activities in New Orleans until the end of summer in September. A year later, the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed on August 6, 1965, prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.