Learn how, in addition to helping Black residents register to vote and establishing the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, education was important goal of Freedom Summer, in this video from Freedom Summer | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Years of substandard and segregated schools and libraries had contributed to high rates of illiteracy (which, in turn, had led to disenfranchisement) and a lack of knowledge about Black history and culture. Volunteers teaching in the Freedom Schools found that adults as well as children were eager to learn. The experience gave many Black people newfound hope that things were about to change.