The Democracy Summer Program

Democracy Summer is an innovative program of Democracy North Carolina in which selected North Carolina college and university students gain hands-on experience working for social change. The eight-week summer program provides young people the opportunity to be community organizers improving democracy in our state.

Democracy Summer organizers work together to promote policies that give voters ownership over elections, rather than an elite or wealthy few. They are trained as advocates for many campaign reforms and voting rights in North Carolina, such as publicly financed elections and same-day voter registration.

In the Footsteps of Freedom Summer

In the summer of 1964, college students converged on Mississippi in what was known as Freedom Summer. These students registered African-Americans to vote, held educational classes, and investigated civil rights violations - all direct challenges to the Jim Crow laws and political elite who were disenfranchising African-American voters in the South.

Today there are far fewer barriers to the ballot box, but elections remain a place for the elite. Skyrocketing campaign costs act as a modern-day poll tax, with only the wealthiest or those connected to the wealthy able to run for and win office.

In the tradition of Freedom Summer comes Democracy Summer. Just as with Freedom Summer, college students are devoting their summer to political change – this time to get big money out of politics in North Carolina. Democracy Summer cultivates the leaders of tomorrow's social justice struggles with real-world organizing experience today.

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