In the sum­mer of 1964, the FBI found the smol­der­ing remains of the sta­tion wag­on that James Chaney, Michael Schw­ern­er (‘Jew-boy’), and Andrew Good­man had been dri­ving before their dis­ap­pear­ance. Short­ly after­ward, Julie Kabat’s beloved broth­er Luke arrived as a vol­un­teer for the Mis­sis­sip­pi Sum­mer Project. Teach­ing biol­o­gy to Free­dom School stu­dents in Merid­i­an, Mis­sis­sip­pi, Luke helped plan the com­mu­ni­ty memo­r­i­al march for Chaney, attend­ed the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion in sup­port of the Mis­sis­sip­pi Free­dom Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, and spent time in jail for ​“con­tribut­ing to the delin­quen­cy of minors.” Sad­ly, Luke died just two years after Free­dom Sum­mer, leav­ing behind copi­ous let­ters, diaries, and essays, as well as a last­ing impact on his younger sis­ter, nick­named ​“Pig.”

Kabat draws on a wealth of pri­ma­ry resources and delves deep into their Jew­ish fam­i­ly his­to­ry to under­stand Luke’s moti­va­tions for join­ing the move­ment. Through his activism, Luke grap­pled with issues that con­tin­ue to haunt and divide us today: racial­ized oppres­sion, threats of vio­lence, and seg­re­ga­tion whether explic­it in law or implic­it through custom.