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The Rev. Reginald Green, who was jailed after riding a segregated bus in Mississippi in 1960s, speaks at the University of Mary Washington yesterday as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Freedom Riders.
Freedom Rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland autographs
Green says young people should find issues they're passionate about and seek change.
Students gather to hear about the Freedom Rides, which are significant to UMW because the late James Farmer, a leader of the riders, taught history there from 1985 to '98.
Freedom Rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland encourages UMW students to make a difference. |
Charles Reed didn't learn much about the Freedom Riders in high school.
But during his first year at the University of Mary Washington he took a class about the life and legacy of James Farmer.
He learned that Farmer, who died in 1999 at age 79, led the movement to desegregate interstate buses and bus terminals.
"Wow," he recalled thinking. "How did we not know about this in high school?"
Reed, now a UMW senior, spoke yesterday at the Fredericksburg campus as the school kicked off a semester-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders. Hundreds showed up for the occasion.
The anniversary is especially significant to UMW because Farmer was a distinguished professor of history and American studies at Mary Washington from 1985 until 1998.
"I stand here on this prestigious campus of UMW as the result of the many difficulties and adversities that they had to overcome," said Reed, who is an aide at the school's James Farmer Multicultural Center. "I am inspired by their devotion and commitment, and I am indebted to them."
The original Freedom Ride in 1961 saw Farmer and 12 other civil rights activists--black and white--ride buses from Washington, D.C., into the Deep South to challenge segregation.
Many others joined the Freedom Rider movement, including the Rev. Reginald Green and Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, both of whom attended UMW's commemoration yesterday.
Green, 71, who was jailed in Mississippi for nearly six weeks after riding there on a bus from Richmond, asked students to find an issue they're passionate about.
"Maybe it's hunger; maybe it's the ecology; maybe it's education. Maybe it is the message that says we've come too far to turn back now," he said. Green, who is from Washington, was 21 when he traveled to Mississippi.
The backdrop for yesterday's event near Ball Circle was a 1960s-era Greyhound bus similar to what the Freedom Riders took. The windows of the 40-foot long bus are covered with press photos, including images of Freedom Riders being beaten.
It will remain at UMW until April 1.
Mulholland, 69, of Arlington said she was 19 when she and other civil rights activists took a train from New Orleans to join the Freedom Riders in Mississippi.
She told yesterday's audience that many people didn't practice what they preached, such as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
"We didn't take that beyond the church door on Sunday morning," said Mulholland, who was jailed in Mississippi for about three months. "Our lives were a contradiction to what we said we believed."
Mulholland left her conservative husband because he opposed desegregation, according to "Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice" by Raymond Arsenault."
She, like Green, encouraged UMW students to stand up for something they believe in.
"I hope you will find what you can step up for and will make a difference," Mulholland said. "Our president was born the year the Freedom Rides took place. You can see the change in our country since his birth."
Reed, the UMW senior, said he would've been "extremely nervous" to become a Freedom Rider.
"But I know for a fact, after watching all the documentaries and learning about the Freedom Rides and about James Farmer, there's no doubt in my mind that I would've been on that bus," he told The Free Lance-Star.
He said he feels the same way about his peers, many of whom wore Freedom Riders buttons and T-shirts at yesterday's event.
"All last week, including today, we asked you, 'Would you, could you, and will you?'" he said in a speech. "The fact that you're out here today shows me that, yes you would, yes you could, and yes you will."
:
freedomrides.umw.eduJeff Branscome: 540/374-5402
Email: jbranscome@freelancestar.com
