In the summer of 1964, college students from the northern United States bused down to Mississippi to help Black activists with a voter registration drive known as "Freedom Summer." The drive was meant to combat entrenched voter suppression practices, a hallmark of Jim Crow segregation found throughout the American south. On June 21, 1964, young volunteers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner arrived in Mississippi. Chaney, who was Black, and Andrew and Michael, who were Jewish, encountered law enforcement and pulled over, allegedly for speeding. Their arrest and later release from the jail was the last time they were seen alive. While many Jewish Americans were already active allies in the Civil Rights Movement, many saw the murders as a clear directive to continue to fight for social justice, and threw their support and activism behind ending voter suppression in the South. Featuring Andrew Sperling and Britt Tevis, and hosted by AJHS Executive Director Gemma R. Birnbaum.

Episode Image: American Jewish Congress member holding sign at Montgomery March, 1965. Records of the American Jewish Congress I-77

All We Have Standing Between Us is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Knapp Family Foundation. Additional funding provided by the Leon Levy Foundation, the Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Atran Foundation, and Anonymous.