 In the summer of 1964, COFO brought nearly 1,000 activists to Mississippimost of them white college students from the North and Westto join with local black activists to register voters, teach in "Freedom Schools," and organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).Many of Mississippi's white residents deeply resented the outsiders and attempts to change their society.State and local governments, police, the White Citizens' Council and the Ku Klux Klan used arrests, beatings, arson, murder, spying, firing, evictions, and other forms of intimidation and harassment to oppose the project and prevent blacks from registering to vote or achieving social equality.