Join the Freedom Center for a discussion on Brenda Travis’ book Mississippi’s Exiled Daughter: How My Civil Rights Baptism Under Fire Shaped My Life.

A 16-year old youth leader of the NAACP branch in McComb, MS, Travis participated in voter registrations and sit-ins at a local bus station in 1961 when Freedom Riders reached the city. As a result, she was expelled from school which led to her first arrest and a protest walkout of her high school. Because of the walkout, Travis was jailed again and only released on the condition that she left the state of Mississippi.

Freedom 55: Mississippi’s Exiled Daughter with Brenda Travis is the first of a series of book signings commemorating the 55th anniversary of Freedom Summer, a 1964 voter registration drive, also known as the Mississippi Summer project. The goal was to end the prevailing discriminatory and segregated voting system through increased voter registration of African Americans. In preparation, hundreds of student volunteers gathered for two, one-week orientation sessions from June 14 to June 27, 1964 at Western College for Women (present day Miami University) in Oxford, OH.

This program is free with general admission and open to the public.