The Mississippi Freedom Summer 50th Anniversary Conference, Youth and Young Adult Congress, will be an historic gathering of young people from around Mississippi and across the country. Young people will be training and gaining resources in three track areas:
- Youth Organizing
- Community Organizing
- Building Political Power
Participants will be trained in how to organize around school and com
munity based issues as well as how to mount, staff, fund political campaigns at the local and state levels. We plan to have some pool of participants become candidates for political office in their respective cities over the next 4 years. The summit will allow us to build a shared platform and specific messaging and strategy training to increase our chances of running the most effective campaigns possible. We are exploring the viability of launching a 501©3 to house the resources needed to support candidates over the next few years and an accompanying 501(c4) to serve as a space where young people who aren’t able to vote can do specific work around issues that matter in their schools and communities as well as where financial tools can be garnered to support those self organized actions. Finally, we will also explore the possibility of creating a PAC as a means of pulling in national resources to support young candidates who are running on the Freedom Summer platform.
