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Freedom Summer Turns 55

Miami University
Miami University

Listen to Cincinnati Edition live at noon M-F. Audio for this segment will be uploaded after 4 p.m. ET.

In 1964, hundreds of volunteers, educators and civl rights organizers from around the country gathered as part of Freedom Summer.  At Western College for Women, now part of Miami University in Oxford, they participated in training sessions aimed at ending the discriminatory and segregated voting registration practices throughout the South and increasing the registration of African American voters.

Some 55 years later, Miami University and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center are co-sponsoring an anniversary conference to re-examine the local history of Freedom Summer and to discuss the current state of voting rights and social inequities.  

Cincinnati Edition host Michael Monks interviews Dr. Rodney Coates, Professor of Global Intercultural Studies at Miami University; Jaqueline Dace, the Deputy Director of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in downtown Cincinnati; Dr. Nishani Frazier, an associate professor of history at Miami University; and Clarence Bozemen, a scholar of history and Freedom Summer participant.

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Michael Monks brings a broad range of experience to WVXU-FM as the host of Cincinnati Edition, Cincinnati Public Radio's weekday news and information talk show.