Inaugural MDAH Moses Fellow Conducts Research for Freedom Summer Database

Have you ever wanted to know more about the people who volunteered to participate in Freedom Summer 1964?

Christina J. Thomas, a post doctorate fellow at the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina, is in the final stages of a project that will make that information more accessible.

Thomas is the first recipient of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Robert “Bob” Moses Research Fellowship. The fellowship afforded Thomas the opportunity to use the MDAH archives this summer to conduct research for her project, “Digitizing Freedom Summer.” 

Her database will be a resource for researchers, students, and even surviving Freedom Summer volunteers who would like to connect with others they worked alongside in the summer of 1964.

“The goal of my digital project is twofold. First, I seek to geolocate each volunteer on a map providing viewers with a profile of each volunteer who came that summer, which comes from a database I'm compiling,” Thomas said. “Perhaps a short bio, but at the very least, links to other primary sources, where it has individuals share their stories, experience, memories, or old histories that already exist.” 

The Robert Moses Civil Rights Research Fellowship Program was created by MDAH to support young academic scholars and promote the study of the Civil Rights Movement. The program is named in honor of Moses because of his deep interest in developing Indigenous leadership and research, encouraging the study of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.

Thomas received a doctoral degree in history from Johns Hopkins University and Master of Art in History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She received her Bachelor of Art in History from Messiah University. 

In addition to her work at the Center for Civil Rights History, Thomas previously was an Andrew W. Mellon Visiting scholar at the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University. Thomas also was a historian for the History Department of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. 

This summer, Thomas mined MDAH collections, like the Freedom Song Collection, to uncover different kinds of stories and learn more about the volunteers of Freedom Summer. 

At the end of her presentation on July 23, Thomas showed a prototype of the future database.  The visual showed an interactive map that will showcase several different profiles and stories of Freedom Summer volunteers. She said she hopes to share the database with the public soon.

Learn more about MDAH fellowship opportunities here.