(COLUMBUS)-The Ohio History Connection is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2015 Ohio Memory Madness tournament is an image from an Ohio Memory partnering institution: the “Freedom Summer, 1964” image from the Smith Library of Regional History. The third annual Ohio Memory Madness tournament– a bracket of sixty-four images from historic, statewide events all competing for the unique distinction of being named the 2015 Ohio Memory Madness Champion — received over 2,100 votes online between March 17 and April 6.
The Ohio Memory Madness bracket features images of a variety of historic events pulled from Ohio Memory, the collaborative digital library project of the Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio, with digital collections from 360 cultural heritage institutions representing all of Ohio’s 88 counties.
This year’s champion is an image of Freedom Summer volunteers in Oxford, Ohio. The photograph shows young civil rights volunteers relaxing and singing on the campus of the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio in June 1964. The Mississippi Summer Project, coordinated by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), was an effort to help register African American voters in the south.
Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer came to visit during the orientation program and would make an impassioned speech at the Democratic National Convention later in the year. The two-week training program at the Western College brought six hundred young people (mostly college students from northern states) to learn nonviolent discipline before going south to spend the summer registering voters, teaching in freedom schools and establishing community centers for African Americans. The work during what would later be called Freedom Summer, led to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“The success of the third annual Ohio Memory Madness tournament was due to the overwhelming amount of support the images received from the online voters,” said Jillian Carney, Digital Services Manager for the Ohio History Connection. “We would like to thank the 17 partner institutions that submitted images as well as everyone that voted throughout the course of the tournament.”
To review the results of the competition visit: www.ohiohistoryhost.org/madness.
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Ohio Historical Society is now Ohio History Connection
On May 24, 2014, the Ohio Historical Society changed its name to the Ohio History Connection. Established in 1885, this nonprofit organization provides a wide array of statewide services and programs related to collecting, preserving and interpreting Ohio’s history, archaeology and natural history through more than 50 sites and museums across Ohio, including its flagship museum, the Ohio History Center in Columbus. For more information about programs and events, call 800.686.6124 or go online at www.ohiohistory.org.
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