Film Screening: Freedom Summer
Fri Jan 23, 2026 | 6–8 PM
Stanley Nelson Jr. dir., Freedom Summer, 2014 (film still); Archival photograph: Johnny Waters, COFO block captain, Ceola Wallace and Jake Plum explain registration procedures to prospective voter Willie McGee in Hattiesburg, MS, 1964, Moneta Sleet, Jr./EBONY Collection, Courtesy of Johnson Publishing Company
Join us for a special screening of Stanley Nelson Jr.’s acclaimed documentary Freedom Summer (2014), presented in conjunction with the exhibition Enemy Alien: Tamio Wakayama.
The film takes audiences into the heart of 1960s Mississippi, where the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)—with Tamio Wakayama among its volunteers—organized for what would become a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement: the Freedom Summer of 1964.
Blending archival footage with first-hand accounts, the documentary captures the bravery and collective action that helped reshape a nation, while offering powerful historical context to Wakayama’s photographs and activism during this pivotal moment.
Screenings take place on the 3rd Floor in the Cinema Room, located within the exhibition Enemy Alien: Tamio Wakayama. Seating is first come, first served.
Tickets are free for Gallery Members and Access Pass Holders or with Gallery Admission.
To attend, simply reserve an admission ticket for the night of the screening.
Film Synopsis
By the mid-twentieth century, Mississippi’s African American population had suffered from nearly seventy-five years of Jim Crow discrimination. In order to break open the closed society and improve their lives, they needed to be able to vote. In the summer of 1964, hundreds of young white volunteers converged in Mississippi for a ten-week voter registration campaign.
