Vice President Kamala Harris became the likely Democratic nominee for president last Sunday when President Biden withdrew his candidacy. Coincidentally, I had made plans for paella with girlfriends the following week in Martha’s Vineyard.

There was no disagreement, doubt, hesitation, or question among us 20 or so  women that we must do all that we can to insure that Harris wins the White House election.

Spelled out, we must:

• Write checks. 

• Register voters. 

• Make calls.  

• Arm ourselves with the facts to inspire and inform others and to rebut  rampant misinformation.  

• Contact our friends, family and networks to make sure they vote, and hopefully early. 

• Talk to every young person we run into about registering to vote and casting a ballot in November. 

• Take our neighbors with us to the polls.  

• Volunteer to watch at the polls and help with election protection efforts. 

• Pledge to pour our time, talent and resources into ensuring the survival of our democracy. 

• Stop wasting time thinking and talking about the Republican nominee. As one person put it, “He is who he is, whatever that is.”

Why?  

Because Kamala Harris in her first campaign ad says, “We choose freedom.”  

Freedom is the campaign’s theme. Its soundtrack is the song of the same name by Beyoncé.

Well, 60 years ago before the vice president was a twinkle in her parents’ eyes, there was Mississippi Freedom Summer. This turbulent and impactful part of history took place from June 14, 1964, until Aug. 20 that same year. It was a campaign to improve the lives of Black Mississippians.

Mississippi  Freedom Summer involved about 1,000 volunteers, the majority of them college students from the North. Many were women: Fannie Lou Hamer, Rachelle Horowitz, Joyce Ladner, Dorie Ladner, Heather Tobis, Florence  Howe, Miriam Cohen, Victoria Gray, Annie Devine, Ella Baker, Unita Blackwell, and so many others unknown, not unlike those gathered for paella on Tuesday. 

The Mississippi Freedom Summer campaign did not stop or slow down despite the  horrific murders of James Chaney, who was Black, and Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, who were white. The three were tortured and killed by the KKK that summer. The young surviving volunteers were in shock and deep mourning, but they still kept their eyes on the prize. 

They knew that to improve the lives of Black Mississippians, they had to improve  Black Mississippians’ access to the vote.

John Lewis, the then-24-year-old chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which led the Mississippi Freedom Summer campaign, recalled that in 1964, “The State of Mississippi had a Black voting age population of more than 450,000, but only 16,000 of that number were registered to vote. People couldn’t register to vote because of the color of  their skin. People were required to take a so-called literacy test. How many jelly beans in a jar. Count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap.” 

Mississippi Freedom Summer was a critically important and effective effort to  improve the lives of Black people in Mississippi — registering voters, galvanizing  the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and preparing it for the August 1964  Democratic Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, leading ultimately to the passage of major voting rights legislation, and changing all of our lives for the better. Young people from all over the country inspired, organized and executed it.

Our “Freedom Summer” this year, 60 years later, is no different. 

In announcing her candidacy last week, Kamala Harris said, “In this election, we  each face a question: What kind of country do we want to live in? There are some  people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate. But us? We  choose something different. We choose freedom. The freedom not just to get by, but  to get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make  decisions about your own body. We choose a future where no child lives in  poverty, where we can all afford healthcare, where no one is above the law. We choose freedom.”

Just like the Mississippi Freedom Summer campaign, Kamala Harris’ campaign, our campaign, is a campaign  for freedom and democracy. Just like Mississippi Freedom Summer, our campaign will succeed if women and young people do what we did back then and what we  must do today, that is, stay the course and get out the vote. And, just as they had in 1964, we have less than a hundred days to achieve this.

Linda Earley Chastang, Esq., of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., is former chief of staff to late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who died in 2020. She is president emerita of the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation.