Freedom Summer: McCain Scared Red

Authors: Turner Colvin and Joseph Reosti

Text: "Freedom Summer: McCain Scared Red," is a project created by Turner Colvin and Joseph Reosti, two undergraduate students at USM. The project delves into the deeply complicated and complex legacy of one of Southern Miss’ most famous Presidents, William David McCain. In order to fully understand President McCain’s dealings with race, Colvin and Reosti analyze the McCain Pamphlet Collection that is located at USM Special Collections. This analysis is then compared to a 1964 article that McCain published called, “Which Flag Tomorrow.” All of this is contextualized by the backdrop of Freedom Summer; Freedom Summer is a historic Civil Rights event in the summer of 1964 mainly taking place in the City of Hattiesburg. By analyzing this information, this project seeks to understand the motivations of William McCain on his dealings with race in order to address his legacy.

See our exhibition here: https://usmhistory.shorthandstories.com/freedom-summer-mccain-scared-red/.