2nd October 18
Mark Levy visited KAS in order to complement the A Level History course on Race Relations and Civil Rights.
As an activist in the 1964 Freedom Summer, he shared the reasons why he chose to become involved in the movement and the lessons learned. He spent the summer in Meridian, Mississippi volunteering in the Freedom Schools and training young activists.
The message of his talk was that it was time to pass on torch of leadership and that young people need to make sure that civil rights are enshrined and maintained.
Responding to the experience one student said: “Personally, I was moved when he talked about how the children in Mississippi at the Freedom Schools wanted to be taught lessons in computing and French, seeing as the state government would not allow these subjects to be taught at the segregated black schools, and made me realise just how much segregation affected children.
His talk was inspirational and gave us a greater insight into the Mississippi Freedom Summer, one of the most interesting grassroots campaign of the whole civil rights movement in the US.”