Following the Freedom Summer of 1964, the Delta Ministry was organized in September of that year in an effort to reconcile the black and white communities in Mississippi and to address the economic, health, and social conditions of Mississippi’s black residents. It was an effort brought about by the National Council of Churches’ concern for mobilizing the liberal church in civil rights activities. The ministry established programs to address literacy, recreation, education, health care, politics, and other issues of concern. It fought racial discrimination in employment practices, supported plantation workers’ strikes, and exposed cases of noncompliance with antidiscrimination clauses among plants that held federal government contracts.