Racial Reckoning & Remembering Freedom Summer 64’

10” x 20” unframed Oil on canvas June 15, 2020

As the nation began a racial reckoning with the Black Lives Matter protests underway all over the world, I looked back to the Freedom Summer of 1964 when three heroes were martyred trying to promote voting rights: Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner. The local people in Mississippi discouraged anyone helping the civil rights workers (teenagers) register black residents to vote. One night a church that was helping the cause by providing space to teach the people was burned down. Three of the leaders Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner, went to the church to investigate and to apologize for what happened because the church had helped in the effort to register people to vote. The three young men were not seen again. They went missing, and a long manhunt finally ended when the three were found murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. I painted this June 6th, 2020 to honor them and the BLM movement, (using a limited palette of three colors).