Transcript “I was a Teenage Freedom Rider” Ride for Freedom; Ride for Justice… 50 years later David Fankhauser Freedom Rider Professor of Biology and Chemistry University of.

“I was a Teenage Freedom Rider”
Ride for Freedom; Ride for Justice…
50 years later
David Fankhauser
Freedom Rider
Professor of Biology and Chemistry
University of Cincinnati Clermont College
email: [email protected]
Photo by Joseph “Little Joe” Postiglione
For his webpage, see: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Society/freedom_rides/Freedom_Ride_DBF.htm
Born Michael King, Jr., 15 January 1929 in Atlanta GA
20th Century America:
After “Reconstruction,” former slaves continue to be second class citizens.
The pretense was the principle of “Separate but Equal.”
Southern States enforced strict racial segregation as a “way of life”
In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation on interstate transport in the
“Morgan decision”
This Federal “law of the land” was ignored by the South in blatant violation of the
ruling.
But the Federal Government looked the other way.
How could this injustice be corrected if the government would not?
NON-VIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE:
A core value of the Civil Right Movement
Gandhi: non-violent resistance to injustice is the way to a just society.
• “Violence only begets violence.”
• Reconciliation is the way to a peaceful society.
1959:
Dr. King visited Gandhi’s family:
“Since being in India, I am more
convinced than ever before that
the method of non-violent
resistance is the most potent
weapon available to oppressed
people in their struggle for justice
and human dignity.”
MLK
The 1946 “Morgan
Decision” was
tested in 1947 by
the first Freedom
Ride, sponsored by
the FOR.*
It got as far as
North Carolina
before halted by
beatings, arrests
and convictions …
Sentences?
30 days for blacks
90 days for whites
From left to right:
Worth Randle, Wallace Nelson, Ernest Bromley, James Peck, Igal Roodenko, Bayard Rustin, Joseph Felmet, George Houser , Andrew Johnson.
*FOR: Fellowship of Reconciliation, an early inter-religious, inter racial organization, whose goal was to promote social harmony.
Violent reaction to integration:
1955: Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat.
Drs. Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy
organized the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The non-violent
Bus Boycott was
dramatic and
successful.
Rev. Abernathy,
Dr. King’s
inseparable
confidant and
supporter, had his
home bombed.
“Law Enforcement” in the South:
Ironically, much of the leadership of the KKK was drawn from the police.
Police often led the violent and lawless reaction to desegregation.
In 4 May 1961, CORE (the
Congress of Racial Equality),
launched another Freedom Ride.
On that Thursday, it left from
Washington DC, taking the struggle
for equality into the deep South’s
violent resistance.
Sunday, 14 May 1961:
Anniston, Alabama:
A Klan-led mob slashed tires
of the Greyhound bus and
then fire-bombed it, beating
Freedom Riders as they fled
the inferno.
Later the same day, Sunday 14 May 1961:
Trailways Station: Birmingham, Alabama.
The Trailways bus
with the second
group of FRs arrives
in Birmingham…
Police Chief “Bull”
Conner gave the
angry mob 15
minutes to severely
punish the riders as
they got off the bus.
Then the police
arrested the
riders…
White Freedom Riders on the Trailways bus were especially
targeted for beatings because they were “N****r-loving race
traitors.”
47 year-old Jim Peck, pacifist veteran
of the 1947 rides, required 53 stitches
to close the wounds to his head.
The Kennedys asked CORE to
suspend the Freedom Rides:
because “Somebody’s gonna get
killed.”
The Kennedys resisted enforcing the
law or protecting the Riders, fearing
Southern Democrats, the
“Dixiecrats”, would leave the party.
(The Kennedys were correct:
when the Democrats passed
the Civil Rights act,
“Dixiecrats” defected en mass
to the Republican Party,
electing Nixon in 1968.
To this day, these southern
turn-coats are the most
reactionary right-wing
segment of the Republican
party.)
Friday, 19 May 1961:
After the violence in
Anniston and
Birmingham,
Attorney General
Robert Kennedy
sent Justice
Department official
John Seigenthaler to
Montgomery to try to
get local authorities
to protect the riders.
Robert Kennedy
John Seigenthaler
Saturday, 20 May 1961:
In Montgomery: 20 more are beaten and injured…
Fisk University students resumed
the Rides, riding from
Birmingham to Montgomery.
They were again severely beaten
by the KKK, led by an off-duty
police sergeant.
White Freedom Rider Jim Zwerg
had his teeth knocked out and
was hospitalized after his bus
station beating (right).
Justice official observer
Siegenthaler was struck with a
tire iron, fracturing his skull.
As he lay unconscious in the
gutter, the mob continued to
kick him.
Monday 22 May 1961:
With more than 20 Riders injured
and some hospitalized, at the
urging of the Justice Department,
CORE calls off the Freedom
Rides to avoid possible deaths of
Riders.
But Diane Nash, Fisk University
student and a founder of SNCC*,
understood momentum. She saw
that quitting now would set the
movement back years. She
placed calls to black colleges in
the eastern US to recruit activist
students to come South to replace
injured Freedom Riders.
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Arriving in Montgomery
Tuesday, 23 May 1961:
Diane Nash called Central State College
(CSC, Ohio’s only state-sponsored Black
College) asking for volunteers to replace
injured Freedom Riders.
David Fankhauser, and David Myers, CSC
students, answered her call.
David Fankhauser
David Myers
Wednesday, 24 May 1961:
Shaven and shorn, the two Davids arrive
early in the AM in Montgomery, Alabama.
They are immediately whisked to Rev.
Ralph Abernathy’s repaired house where
they must “hide out” for four days waiting
for enough Riders to fill two new buses.
Revs. Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King:
Wednesday 24 May 1961: New Strategy: “Fill the Jails!”
In the wake of Alabama violence, Bobby Kennedy insisted that Gov. Patterson
called out the National Guard.
The National Guard holds
back the mob outside
Montgomery bus station as
Yale Chaplain William
Sloan Coffin, with a
contingent of Yale divinity
students, took the ride from
Montgomery to Jackson.
They were arrested and
promptly bailed out.
Later that day, Drs.
Martin Luther King, Jr,
Ralph Abernathy, and
Fred Shuttlesworth
strategized in Abernathy’s
home. I was privileged to
attend. It was decided to
fill Mississippi jails with
Freedom Riders.
6 AM, Sunday, 28 May 1961, Montgomery Trailways Station:
The second contingent successfully integrated the Trailways station and wait to
depart for Jackson.
David Fankhauser
Allen Carson, Jr.
David Myers
Pauline Knight Franklin Hunt
Dr. King bids goodbye to Freedom Riders as
we depart Montgomery for Jackson.
As the bus
departs
Montgomery, the
National Guard
holds back the
angry crowd.
The bus was
escorted by a
cordon of
Alabama State
Police.
Six hour bus ride from Montgomery to Jackson
No rest stops, no additional passengers, only a state police escort, front and back, to hold back the angry whites.
“High Noon”, Sunday 28 May 1961:
Entering Jackson, Mississippi Trailways Bus Station
David Fankhauser
Albert Dunn
Who IS she???
David Myers
Sunday
28 May 1961:
In the Jackson, MS
Trailways Station:
Freedom Riders were
funneled into the
“Whites Only” Waiting
Room.
“Captain Ray” (left)
perfunctually ordered
us “Y’all have to move
on” three times, and
then arrested us.
(I am pretending to
read the New York
Times as a fellow
Freedom Rider Albert
Dunn is being arrested
and Larry Hunter is
being frisked.)
“Cap’n Ray Albert Lee Dunn
Larry Hunter
David Fankhauser David Myers
Sunday
28 May 1961:
David Fankhauser is booked in Jackson City Jail for “Breach of Peace”.
He and David Myers were the first white Freedom Riders to refuse to be bailed out.
They were immediately separated and placed in solitary confinement.
30 May 1961:
First letter from
Jackson City Jail, in
solitary confinement,
written on toilet paper,
smuggled out by a
sympathetic reporter.
(Thanks to Carole Carpey Rozycki for saving
this letter, and making it available.)
QUOTES:
“I was tried yesterday…[and] have received a 60 day suspended sentence and $200 fine which I
have refused to pay, and will be working it out…
The jail is segregated, but I am in solitary confinement, so it doesn’t matter.
I… ask… that each of you write a letter… urging that immediate steps be taken to end segregation
in the South—as well as the North.
We are on our way to Victory… with [your] help, we will overcome Jim Crow.
Trying to influence Bobby Kennedy…
The Jackson jails began to fill up.
From hyper-action on the
buses, to what felt like inaction
in prison, we wanted to do
something to further contribute
to the cause.
We launched a hunger strike
to try to pressure Bobby
Kennedy to enforce the law:
to issue an injunction against
segregated interstate facilities.
For me, the hunger strike
lasted 12 days.
Jackson Mississippi Jails filled!
Freedom Riders are bussed to
Parchman State Penitentiary.
(“Parchman Farm” of Delta Blues fame)

Prison Bus:
10 June 1961:
Freedom Riders were housed on Death Row in Parchman’s Maximum Security Unit.
We were issued only underwear, a toothbrush and a Bible. Period.
We were confined, two per 8’ x 10’ cells, 24 hours/7 days/ week. Lights never off.
We received no mail, and never an opportunity for exercise. Two showers/week.
Some of My 14 Cell Block Mates:
John Lewis on burned bus (now House of Representatives)

Kwame Ture (nee Stokely Carmichael: “Black Power”)
James Farmer (Founder of CORE)
Hank Thomas (rider on burned bus)
Freedom Songs:
Heart and Soul of the Movement
In Parchman Penitentiary, for the first
time, black and white Freedom
Riders were housed in the same
cell block. It became the “MSU
civil rights department.”
Blacks taught us “white folk” to sing!
Freedom songs, mostly derived
from spirituals, were sung for hours
on end.
They sustained us, raised our spirits,
and bound us together in our
common cause.
Freedom Songs:
Heart and Soul of the Movement
Spirituals, which arose from slavery, had
the same message and emotional
content as those of Civil Rights. They
were easily converted to that purpose.
Spiritual “Woke up this morning with my mind on Jesus…” *
Our singing became the focus of the white
guards animosity.
They ordered us to stop.
Sing with me!
(Key of C)
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEtke0vBAPU
(Stand up, clap your hands, and SING OUT!)
“Woke up this Mornin’ with my Mind…
Staaayin’ on Freedom”




Woke up this Mornin’ with my Mind…
STAAAY-in’ on Freeee-dom
I Woke up this Mornin’ with my Mind… STAAAY-in’ on Freeee-dom
Woke up this Mornin’ with my Mind…
STAAAY-in’ on Freeee-dom
Halleleu…, Halleleu…, Halleluuuu---Yah
Second Verse:

Ain’t no harm to keep your mind…

Etc.

Third Verse:
Walkin’ and talkin’ with my mind…
STAAAY-in’ on Freeee-dom
STAAAAY-in on Freeee-dom
Bridge:

I’m gonna walk, walk… I’m gonna walk, walk…I’m gonna walk, walk…, (with my mind on Freedom…)

Talk, talk… talk, talk… talk, talk… (with my mind on Freedom…)

Etc.

Halleleu…, Halleleu…, Halleluuuu---Yah
Guards battle against Freedom Songs
Because our songs were “bothering the
cooks…,” they took away in succession:





Our toothbrushes…
Our Bibles…
Our mattresses and sheets…
The screens off the windows…
Then… as hoards of insects
flew in, attracted by the 24/7
lights…
We kept singing
We kept singing
We kept singing
We kept singing
Chemical warfare!
“Final solution” to “bugs” which
now filled the cell block…




At 2 AM, the third shift guards arrive:
“Look at all them bugs! We’re gonna
hafta spray.”
A large truck rumbles up outside, and
a large hose is fed through the screenless window.
We prisoners, unprotected in our cells,
and dressed only in undershorts, are
drenched with high power spray of
DDT: eye-stinging, poisonous
insecticide.
Next Morning, Warden visits:
Everything is restored… Why?



The warden paid us a visit, saying:
 “Now boys, we all got off on the wrong track.”
 “If’n you keep your singing down, y’all can have back what was
taken.” (We were puzzled by the change in tone.)
Around noon that day, a delegation from the Governor of Minnesota
showed up to check on conditions… Question answered.
Minnesotan Freedom
Riders (2003 pic):
Marv Davidov, Zev Aelony, Claire O’Connor and Bob Baum.
Free at last, free at last!




On 9 July 1961 (after 42
days), I was bailed out, and
put on a train from Jackson
MS to Cincinnati OH.
It was an unexpected relief
when the train passed out of
Mississippi into Tennessee…
Arriving at Cincinnati’s Union
Terminal, I was met by a
singing crowd of 50 CORE
supporters.
Two large men hoisted me up
on their shoulders and carried
me all the way down the
concourse!
Success for the Freedom Rides!
The Freedom Rides made Civil Rights a
nationwide movement for the first time.
Robert Kennedy finally enforced the law
requiring integrated interstate facilities
November 1, 1961:
 “White" and “Colored" signs came down.
 Waiting rooms were consolidated and
passengers sat where they pleased.
NOW:
“What would Martin say and do?”
(We still have work to do for social justice.)




JUSTICE:
 Blacks and Whites are dealt out different brands of justice.
 Black males are at greater risk of being shot by police.
 Intense prejudice against immigrants.
ECONOMY:
 Economic injustice still follows racial lines.
 The rich are getting richer, everyone else is getting poorer.
CULTURE OF VIOLENCE: (At home and abroad)
 US militarism costs us trillions for their wars and bases.
 Just look at our military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
HEALTH AND EDUCATION
 Scandalously poor quality of inner city education
 Prohibitive cost of higher education
 Need universal health care: “Obamacare” is a step in the right
direction
Fifty years later…
We HAVE made progress.
“Violence cannot put out violence,
Dark cannot put out darkness,
Only LIGHT can put out darkness.”
But we have far to go...
MLK