The small aging house at 301 A Oklahoma Ave. in Indianola looks like a lot of others in the area, but it’s no ordinary house.
Commonly known as a Freedom House, the structure served as a place of refuge for civil rights workers in the Mississippi Delta during Freedom Summer in 1964.
Freedom Summer brought the number of African Americans who were registered to vote up, but it also came with its share of danger.
The Freedom House in 2019 was named one of the 10 most endangered historic places by the Mississippi Heritage Trust, and that organization is actively working to restore the home in 2022.
During the 1960s, the Freedom House was rented out to civil rights workers for $15 a month after the Freedom School was burned in March of 1965. The house was turned into an office and library. The workers would meet there twice a day to coordinate voter registration efforts.
Around this time, Oklahoma Avenue came to a dead end, making it easier to guard the house. One night an attempt to bomb the house was made but came up short when the bomb was thrown too far away from the house and landed in the front yard.
On Saturday February 19, the Mississippi Heritage Trust hosted a volunteer workday to clean out the house.
Among the volunteers were students from Mississippi Valley State University, along with some staff as well.
Felecia King, the daughter of the current owner, plans to turn the house into a tourist attraction and eventually place a historical marker there as well.
“I never knew why my parents never put a marker here,” said King, “I guess it was just meant for me to do it.”
Since adding the house to the list of endangered historic places, the Mississippi Heritage Trust has raised awareness about the historical places in Mississippi that were the key sights of the civil rights movement.
They have been able to do this through the Mississippi Freedom House Project, funded from the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area and the National Park Service African American Civil Rights Grant Program.
For more information on the Indianola project and others, contact preservation@mississippiheritage.com
