Our Mission:
Through film, text, and eyewitness testimony, the Freedom School offers hope in a time of despair, and authenticity in an era of distortion and deception. We provide activists, educators, students and adults with an opportunity to analyze how social movements happen. This is done through studying the Civil Rights move-ment as a case study of how ordinary people, not just famous leaders, contri-buted to ending segregation in the South. This allows participants in the Freedom School to renew their commitment to, rekindle their passion for, and find greater clarity in how to promote social justice in the Bay Area today.

Who we are:
A group of people of different color, class and age who want to understand what it means today, to – as the 1964 Freedom School curriculum put it – be “active agents of social change.” We believe that fundamental change can happen when regular people act collectively at the right historical moment. Our Summer Program is inspired by the 1964 Freedom School Curriculum. The 1964 Freedom Schools were part of “Freedom Summer,” a project of the Southern Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi in 1964.

Our Brochure (pdf)

Our Partners

Our History:

Sherri, Sandra and Kathy met while working with the SF Organizing Project around small school reform from 2000-2004. In February, 2005, the four of us came to the conclusion that there was a need for a freedom school in San Francisco. We came to this conclusion from different places. Sylvia and Kathy had been working together on a book on the 1964 Freedom Schools. Sherri was working with at-risk youth in the southeast part of SF and with parents concerned about the lack of educational opportunity for their children. Sandra saw that African American children were not learning black history in school and needed a place to learn it (ideally from black teachers). Sylvia belongs to St. Francis Lutheran Church and offered to find out if they would house us for that summer. They agreed to do so and we proceeded to lauch our program. Every summer, 2 or 3 of our summer school participants join our planning committee and that is how we are growing. Ever since 2005, we have been learning by doing. We welcome anyone who woul like to join our adventure in organizing and education.

• SFFS Calendar (Next Steps, Past Activities and Events)
• Read and contribute to our BLOG (which was an attempt to start a discussion but is currently a place where we post our newsletters)

Our Program:

Saturday mornings: chronology of the Southern Freedom Movement
Saturday afternoons: discussion and activities of the morning's history around SFFS themes--the importance to the creation of social movements of: historical conditions; nonviolence; analsysis of power structures; the arts; community building; coalition building; and individual relationships.
Wednesday evenings to discuss relevant and immediate applications of Civil Rights History to today.
Films: We watch documentaries and docudramas to learn the historical context and understand the issues.
Guest Speakers: Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement talk to us about their experience and what their participation in the Freedom Struggle meant to them. Or we hear others with experience on the topic of the day.
Discussion: We provide time for participants to interact with the guest speakers as well as use "open space technology" and a "parking lot" to create small group discussions during and outside of the Saturday session.
Pot Luck Lunch: This allows the Saturday group to grow as a community.
Media Resource Library: We have a significant collection of films and books that we lend out for free.

Recent Accomplishments:

• September 26-28, 2008: Workshop at annual conference of the California Council of Teachers of English (How to Use Civil Rights Art and Film in the Classroom).
  
• September 17 and 20, 2008: Nine hour presentation and workshop to two classes at Sacramento State College.
  
• August 5, 2008: Workshop for Bay Area ACLU youth program.
  
• April 29, 2008: Workshop at Live Oak Elementary School’s (SF) Identity Day.
  
• April 22-23, 2008: Participation in national online discussion of Freedom Schools, now and then, hosted by the Education for Liberation Network.
  
• April 15-16, 2008: Three workshops at Kipp King High School’s (San Lorenzo) Identity Day.
  
• April 12, 2008: Workshop at Sacramento State’s 14th Annual Multicultural Conference.
  
• January 31, 2008: Co-sponsored a free community forum entitled, Why Vote?
  
• September – December 2007: SFFS partnered with the University of San Francisco.  Seven interns from USF worked with members of the SFFS Planning Committee on research, outreach and curriculum development.
  
• October, 2007: Presented an interactive workshop entitled, “Get Ready to Be Ready” at the Teachers 4 Social Justice Annual Conference.
  
• June, 2007: Panel presentation entitled, “Old School/New School: Freedom Schools Now and Then" at the first national popular education conference (Free Minds, Free People) in Chicago, which garnered mention in an article on popular education in last month’s issue of The Nation.
  
• 2006-present: E-newsletters listing Bay Area non-violent social justice events.
  
• 2006-present: Provide on-line curriculum guides to our film collection (used at Mission High School, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy and the Live Oak School).
  
• Summer, 2007: Became a professional development service provider to the San Francisco Unified School District.
  

Transcripts of 2008 Summer Program

[we need volunteers to type up the transripts of our guest speakers -- Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement] CONTACT US!

Transcripts of 2007 Summer Program

[we need volunteers to type up the transripts of our guest speakers -- Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement] CONTACT US!

Transcripts of 2006 Summer Program

[we need volunteers to type up the transripts of our guest speakers -- Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement] CONTACT US!

Transcripts 2005 Summer program (incomplete) [for information on who the civil right veteran speakers go the "speakers list" on the CRM vets web site and then scroll down to "California"]

July 9: Setting the Stage -- Jean Wiley (SNCC, Maryland, Alabama) and Don Jelinek (LCDC, SNCC, SRRP, Alabama, Mississippi)

July 16: Local Leadership -- Mike Miller (SNCC, Mississippi):Situation Paper - for role play;
Mike Part I Historical Context of SNCC in Mississippi; Mike Part II - The Role Play (partial)

August 6: Key Concepts of Nonviolent Direct Action-- Bruce Hartford (CORE, SCLC, Alabama, Mississippi)

[we need volunteers to type up the rest of the transripts of our summer program's guest speakers -- Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement] CONTACT US!