Topics for Presentation
The list below is not all-inclusive. Feel free to mix and match or come up with your own topics and questions. Julie will be happy to create a talk that meets your special needs.
General Topics
1. Motivation and Values
- Why would young adults, who were privileged, volunteer to go to Mississippi despite the risks?
- What were the cultural and family values that led Luke to volunteer?
- What did it mean to Luke, as a medical student and activist, to live a life of purpose?
2. Segregation: Breaking Down Racial Barriers
"It is tragic that barriers so foolish as color differences prevent whites and Negroes from knowing and loving each other—and it is only when these barriers are destroyed that any of us can find freedom."
— Luke Kabat
- What was the experience of segregation, and how did Freedom Summer begin to break down racial barriers?
- From his experience in Mississippi and his studies of psychology, how did Luke come to understand bigotry?
- Nonviolent resistance: How do you learn to love in the face of hate?
3. The Murders of Three Young Civil Rights Workers
Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman—that shocked the nation, and the march to James Chaney's funeral. Knowledge of the Holocaust determined the course of Mickey Schwerner's and Luke's lives.
- How did Luke honor the bond he felt with Mickey Schwerner?
- What happened during Freedom Summer to open the eyes of the nation to racial injustice?
- After the bodies were discovered by the FBI, how did Luke help the children and community to grieve?
4. Freedom School, a Model for Education
- What was the purpose of the Freedom Schools and what made them unique?
- How did the Meridian Freedom School experience impact the students?
- What made Luke such a beloved and effective teacher?
5. Freedom Songs
- Why was music so important for Freedom Summer and the entire Civil Rights Movement?
Topics for Specialized Groups
1. Freedom Summer, a Bold and Complex Experiment
Creating social change from the ground up
- What can Freedom Summer teach us about the struggle for social justice, equality, and dignity that can be useful in our world today?
- Which project elements led to its success?
- And what happened during Freedom Summer to open the eyes of the nation to racial injustice?
2. Lessons in Social Justice and Medicine from Freedom Summer 1964
When he volunteered, Luke was a medical student at Stanford. This background gave him insight into the social determinants of health and the inequities he witnessed.
- What can we learn about social justice, and the racial divide in American medicine by looking back at the Civil Rights Movement, specifically at Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964?
- What was the role of the newly formed Medical Committee for Human Rights?
- And what were some major changes in healthcare that occurred as a result?
3. Shira Muroff develops programs for Southern Jewish communities and Mississippi history students.
"Though secular, Jewish history and tradition had clearly made its impact on Luke. His volunteering was influenced by the Holocaust's impact on his family only 20 years before. In a touching scene, Luke's Jewish teachings and traditions come out almost by habit as he counsels and consoles his young students in Meridian as they navigate the deaths of Chaney (a student's brother) and Schwerner (a favorite teacher) … Luke's detailed notes are often scanned into the book itself, giving readers a sense of intimacy."
— Excerpt of a Review in the Mississippi Clarion Ledger
"We included a reading from your book in our Haggadah this year at the Mississippi Freedom Seder (a program run by the Two Mississippi Museums and the Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life). Thank you for your (and your brother's) words, they definitely added meaning to our community seder."
Q: What would be the value to your community of creating a Freedom Haggadah? In what ways would Luke's story and his writings help you to do so?