David Owen Freedom Summer Collection

David George Owen, from Pasadena, California, was a student of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. While attending Oberlin, Owen became interested in the Civil Rights movement, and, though he considered working other places for pay, he applied to work with the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project of 1964.

During that summer, Owen, age nineteen, worked in Hattiesburg, Mississippi canvassing local black neighborhoods to encourage voter registration. In July of that summer two local men attacked David Owen, who was with two other workers, beating the three volunteers with iron bars. The other volunteers who were beaten were Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld and Lawrence Spears. In August 1964, Owen asked to be transferred to work in Laurel, Mississippi where he worked for the remainder of the summer.

After the Freedom Summer project officially ended, David Owen took a short trip to New Orleans, Louisiana and then returned to work for civil rights in Mississippi. He was first assigned to work in Clarksdale, but later returned to Hattiesburg. He remained in Hattiesburg until early January 1965 when he returned to Oberlin College.