Freedom Summer to Empower Youth
“Albert Sykes grew up in west Jackson the next block over from the street where Medgar and Myrlie Evers lived, but says he never had a real connection to the Civil Rights Movement until he was in the sixth grade and met Bob Moses.
Moses was the former leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and started the Algebra Project in 1982 to help improve math education for kids of color.
Today, Sykes remains involved with the Young People’s Project—an outgrowth of the Algebra Project—and is one of the organizers of the Freedom Summer Youth Congress and Freedom Fest, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer this year.
During the Freedom Summer of 1964, young people gathered in Ohio for orientation sessions before boarding buses to head to Mississippi to do justice organizing work. Sykes said that this time around, Mississippi will act as the training ground for young organizers before they are dispatched to locales around the nation.
Speaking at Koinonia Coffee House’s Friday Forum, Sykes and fellow Freedom Summer Youth Congress and Freedom Fest organizer Jed Oppenheim said the Congress would address the intersectionality of issues facing young people, including the criminalization of normal youth behavior, LGBT bullying, labor rights and challenging voter ID.”
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