This study utilized aspects of phenomenology and portraiture to explore how seven elders of the Senior Advocacy Leadership Training (SALT) program made meaning of their experiences as students in a program designed to build upon the 1964 model of Mississippi Freedom Schools, critical pedagogy, and Popular Education. The 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools were apart of the Freedom Summer Project, a social action endeavor led by the Students Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to bring national attention to the violation of human rights of African American citizens in Mississippi.

Akin to the 1964 Mississippi Freedom School curriculum, the SALT program curriculum was built upon three main tenets: affirmation of African American heritage, a critical theoretical perspective, and an emphasis on praxis. Encouraged to critique the learned curricula of their childhood, and finding themselves within the taught curricula of the SALT program, these elders were affirmed in their sense of collective identity, providing a transformational experience for many of the participants.