As tensions mounted before Freedom Summer?? one organization tackled the divide by opening lines of communication at the request of local women: Wednesdays in Mississippi (WIMS). Employing an unusual and deliberately feminine approach?? WIMS brought interracial?? interfaith teams of northern middle-aged?? middle- and upper-class women to Mississippi to meet with their southern counterparts. Sponsored by the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)?? WIMS operated on the belief that the northern participants?? gender?? age?? and class would serve as an entr?e to southerners who had dismissed other civil rights activists as radicals. The WIMS teams?? respectable appearance and quiet approach enabled them to build understanding across race?? region?? and religion where other overtures had failed.

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