Freedom Summer

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2012

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Preservation of Hope

While this poem focuses much of its attention on the actual events on the day of the murder, the narrative is bookended by the image of the penny Hope. The purpose of this is to direct the reader’s attention to the poem’s true purpose, which is not to relive the murders but to demonstrate the purpose of these men’s lives and their sacrifice. That purpose, ultimately, is hope. Hope is an essential part of any social movement because, without it, there is no point in action. Hope is a driving force that gives people courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

At the end of the poem, Lewis drives this point home by giving Chaney life after death. Not only is the poem written from Chaney’s perspective after Chaney’s death, but within the poem, Chaney narrates even after he has died. He says that as they were burying him, he held onto that hope that he opened the poem with.

This is more of a message for the reader than anything else. The idea here is to recognize those who are lost in the pursuit of hope but to not give up on the hope for which those lost souls fought. Not only does Chaney still possess the penny, but he literally feels it in his hand. He is still holding onto hope. The unthinkable has happened to him, yet his fight lives on past his own life.

Lewis’s point here is to show how the hope of a movement cannot be killed as a person can. This is because hope is an idea, so it exists beyond death; it’s bigger than any one person. While the poem is honoring Chaney and his two friends, it is really honoring the principles they lived and died for.

Bravery and Martyrdom

While the poem is concerned with the bigger issue of hope and the movement for civil rights, it is also a dedication to the three men who died. Lewis honors their lives and sacrifices through his art, treating the subject of their death with sensitivity and grace. The poem is not exploitative, and it is not romanticized. It is honest, realistic, and it aligns itself with these men’s principles.

The poem portrays these men as brave. This is evident from the opening of the poem when they arrive at the “inferno” of this Southern world that is full of danger for them. This imagery echoes the imagery of Dante’s Inferno and the descent into Hell. As soon as these men enter this inferno, they are guided deeper into its recesses, from the burned-down ashes of a church, to a small town jail cell, to a dark, abandoned road, and then to their doom in a swamp and a grave in a backwoods farm.

The descent into this hell in the South echoes other images, narratives, and art with similar themes. This is perhaps most evident in the classic American novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, when the two characters slowly drift down the Mississippi River and deeper into the South. As they go down the river, there is an ever-growing sense of dread as they realize they are going deeper into slave territory, where the protections of the law and the Constitution take a back seat to the racist, vigilante reality of Jim Crow hell.

Lewis recognizes this descent into evil and doom, and he honors the bravery it took for these men to do this work in such a dangerous place when they knew the potential consequences. Nevertheless, they pressed on, and now their names serve as eternal martyrs for a just cause.

Good and Evil

As with many pieces of art surrounding the oppression of Black people in America, there is no question in "Freedom Summer" about the morality of the situation. There is a clear line between those who are good and those who are evil. Lewis maps this out in religious terms, opening the heroes’ journey at a church. This contrasts right away with the villains, who are first introduced as agents of a corrupt and morally bankrupt social structure: the police.

The police coordinate with the murderers by abducting the men and then setting them loose into a trap. And there is no motivation provided for why this happens; it just does. This gives the violence an even more disturbing sense of injustice and chaos. We can’t even rationalize it away.

Another way the poem explores the concept of good and evil is by aligning Chaney’s story with the religious figure of Christ, who is also set up by the authorities and murdered by a mob while trying to better human society.

One final way the poem defines good and evil is through the first-person perspective. By giving Chaney’s voice the authority to present the story, Lewis immediately establishes this perspective as innocent, noble, and ultimately victimized. This contrasts with the third-person descriptions of the Klan in the poem. The Klan rides in like an infantry squad or a contingent of exorcists. They are dead set on their goal of destruction, and they carry it out swiftly.

However, in the end, even though evil wins the battle in the poem, good will win the war. We know this because we still remember and are still influenced by those who paid the ultimate price in the name of justice. Those who perpetuated fear, violence, murder, and all other evil things are remembered as such.