# We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns: The Kids Who Fought for Civil Rights in Mississippi

As an illustrator and journalist, Tracy Sugarman covered the nearly one thousand student volunteers who traveled to the Mississippi Delta to assist black citizens in the South in registering to vote. Two white students and one black student were slain in the struggle, many were beaten and hundreds arrested, and churches and homes were burned to the ground by the opponents of equality. Yet the example of Freedom Summer resonated across the nation. The U.S. Congress was finally moved to pass the civil rights legislation that enfranchised millions of black Americans. Blending oral history with memoir, "We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns" chronicles the sacrifices, tragedies and triumphs of that unprecedented moment in American history.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2009
- By: American Folklife Center
- Genres: History, Children's
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021688234/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021688234?play=1)