Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

demonstrate that disenfranchised Mississippi Blacks would participate in the
electoral process if they had the opportunity. Over 70,000 ballots were cast by
Black people in these mock elections, held at the same time as the "white only"
statewide elections . Since the Freedom Vote was a statewide campaign, for the
first time COFO was able to connect local projects in one consolidated effort .'
Prior to the Freedom Vote, SNCC had not encouraged massive numbers of
white volunteers in Mississippi. Moses himself earlier felt the involvement of
large numbers whites in rural Mississippi may violate the security of the local
projects and their organizers . In the Spring of 1964 a SNCC field report from
Mississippi stated it was "too dangerous for whites to participate in the project in
Mississippi-too dangerous for them and too dangerous for the Negroes who
would be working with them." Prior to the involvement of whites in the Freedom
Vote, Moses had also been an advocate for local Blacks to be the primary recruits
and workers in the local projects to insure the development of indigenous leader-
ship .,
More than the good impressions left with Moses from the white participa-
tion in the Freedom Vote was his concern over the security of local people and the
Movement. Moses was convinced it was necessary to gain federal intervention to
prevent racist violence by nightriders and state and local law enforcement. In spite
of appeals by Moses and other SNCC leaders, most Movement activists believed
the Kennedy Administration provided an inadequate response to the murders of
activists like Herbert Lee and Medgar Evers, and other shootings, bombings, and
attacks on other activists and local Mississippians . Since the federal government
did not seem to be concerned about Black lives, possibly bringing massive num-
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