No Small Thing
The Mississippi Freedom Vote of 1963 is no small thing. It is a complex historical and rhetorical phenomenon worthy of in-depth analysis. The Mississippi Freedom Vote of 1963 was an integrated citizens’ campaign to empower and promote agency for blacks within the state. With candidates Aaron Henry, a black pharmacist from Clarksdale, for governor and Reverend Edwin King, a white college chaplain from Vicksburg, for lieutenant governor, the Freedom Vote ran a platform aimed at obtaining votes, justice, jobs, and education for blacks in the Magnolia state. Though the actual campaign took place October 13 through November 4, the Freedom Vote’s impact far transcends those few weeks in the fall of 1963 and extends beyond the borders of Mississippi. Campaign manager Bob Moses was right to label the Freedom Vote “one of the most unique voting campaigns in American history.” It is precisely how the rhetorical forms employed by the Freedom Vote catalyze agency that is so appealing and unique. Educating people about citizenship and then providing an opportunity to practice this phronesis in real time created a groundswell of political activity in Mississippi. The Freedom Vote campaign employed the rhetorical tactics of image events to protest voting rights inequalities by executing a campaign that allowed participants to enact the very agency that was being criticized. The campaign turned protestors in to citizens, allowing local citizens to experience empowerment, and it allowed organizers to learn valuable lessons that they would employ time and time again.