MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM VOTE POSTER, 1963. Black and white mock election poster for Mississippi gubernatiorial candidates Aaron Henry and Edwin King , the first integrated ticket since Reconstruction era. "Stop Police Brutality" in lower left, candidates names in lower right. - Framed, 12 in. x 18 in. Property of Professor Ralph C. Gomes Estimate $200-400
78,000 Mississippians participated in the Freedom Vote, also known as the Freedom Ballot, Mississippi Freedom Vote, Freedom Ballot Campaign, or the Mississippi Freedom Ballot, a mock election organized in 1963 by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) (a coalition of the state's four most prominent civil rights organizations) lead by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) with the goal of remedying disenfranchisement among African Americans there. The Freedom Vote accomplished the following outcomes: protest the exclusion of blacks by the Mississippi Democratic Party, educate black Mississippians about how to register to vote and partake in an election, prove that black Mississippians would participate in the electoral process, and alert the federal government of voting rights violations in the state.
