Join the Movement. Build Community. Protect Democracy.
Freedom Summer 2.0 is a community-powered campaign to educate, organize, and mobilize our neighbors to strengthen democracy, expand civic participation, and build a more just Buffalo.
Inspired by the courage and legacy of the 1964 Freedom Summer movement, we're coming together to ensure every voice is heard and every community has the power to shape its future.
Whether you have one hour a month or several hours a week, there's a place for you in this movement.
Sign Up Today! Complete the interest form by visiting:
Freedom Summer 2.0 Registration
Together, we can build community power and create a future where every voice matters!
Freedom Summer pays homage to the ancestors, organizers, freedom fighters and organizations who created the first Freedom Summer in 1964. It is because of their passion, brilliance and resilience that we are able to do the work we are doing today.
With your support we hope to empower residents in Western New York with knowledge of the history of the original Freedom Summer; register and engage with voters; and work on winning the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act” on a national level. We plan to change the relationship our community has with (the too often unrealized) impact, power and change that is held within each and every one of our votes.
The original Freedom Summer was organized in part by a fearless voting rights leader named Fannie Lou Hamer. Hamer was a sharecropper from Mississippi who took action so that Black folks might be seen as first-class citizens and be able to vote without restrictions or penance.
In 1962, Hamer and the others marched to the county courthouse in Indianola to register to vote. They were faced with a literacy test. On their way back home after the test, they were held up by police. The bus driver was charged with driving a bus with the wrong color. When she got back, the plantation owner fired Hamer, upset that she had tried to register to vote. Her words were, “I didn’t register for you, I registered for me.”
Hamer and others were targeted because of their efforts to be able to vote without restrictions or barriers. They persevered despite unjust incarceration, brutal beatings, and other state-sponsored indignities. Hamer spoke at the 1964 Democratic convention in Mississippi, revealing the ugly truth of what they endured.
June 23, 2026
Primary Election Day
October 24, 2026
Voter Registration Deadline- General
October 24, 2026
Mail Ballot Application Deadline- General (online/mail)
Oct 24 – Nov 1, 2026
Early Voting- General
November 3, 2026
General Election Day
All polling sites in Erie & Niagara County will be open for in-person voting from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Niagara County Polling location information: Voter Information Center (ntsdata.com)
Erie County Polling location information: Voter Search - Erie County Board of Elections