Acclaimed historian and author, John Dittmer will discuss the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi and the “local people” who were responsible for the movement’s success. His talk will focus on the struggle of African Americans to get the vote in Mississippi, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party’s challenge to the regular segregated delegation at the 1964 National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. The talk will provide an historical perspective on the events that made the candidacy of Barack Obama possible. Co-sponsored by the Carnegie Center, Inc. and the Indiana University Southeast History Program’s Institute for Local and Oral History.