Reform movements failed to address ongoing police brutality, economic exploitation and international struggles. This caused Black activists in the U.S to look for a new method of change. Around the late 1960s, a collective consciousness emerged centered around revolution.

There is more to Martin Luther King Jr. than just the “nonviolent” message associated with “I Have a Dream.” The MLK from the late 1960s offered a radical alternative for poor and Black Americans, a theory of change rooted in power to the people instead of the political establishment.

The history of 1964 Freedom Schools allows us to see alternatives to schooling today. Because of their legacy, we know it’s possible for schooling to empower us with the tools to intervene in our oppression by nourishing intellectual curiosity and critical thinking.