Freedom Riders bus tour recalls 1961 civil rights effort
by LYDIA X. MCOY and SHNS, scrippsnews.com
April 22nd 2011
In 1961, about 430 black and white men and women, mostly students, rode
interstate buses in the South to challenge local laws or customs enforcing
segregation. Called Freedom Riders, they were jailed for trespassing,
unlawful assembly and violating state and local Jim Crow laws, along with
other alleged offenses. Many were beaten.
Something about that time inspired the activism, said Ernest "Rip" Patton
Jr., who was a 21-year-old Tennessee State University student when the rides
began.
"The students knew that it was time for a change and their parents were
afraid for them ... but they didn't discourage them," Patton said. "It made
a big change in my life and in a number of people who participated."
One of the original Freedom Riders, the 71-year-old plans to get back
onboard a bus next month for a tour commemorating the 50th anniversary of
the Freedom Rides.
The 10-day Student Freedom Ride, set to begin May 6 in Washington, D.C.,
will retrace the original bus routes through Tennessee, Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The
event coincides with the broadcast of "Freedom Riders," a film directed by
Stanley Nelson that will premiere on PBS' "American Experience" May 16.
A new generation of riders will ride with Patton and a few other originals.
Forty students nationwide were chosen to participate. Representing 33 states
and the District of Columbia, they come from schools such as Stanford
University, Florida A & M and Murray State University.
Jayanni Webster, a University of Tennessee junior from Tennessee, was one of
the chosen students.
Webster, 21, said her desire to get involved grew out of several
experiences: watching her mother, a social worker; studying in Uganda; and
working with Amnesty International's local university chapter, of which
she's president.
"I was always the person to say or believe that not everyone can be
characterized by their environment, by their race, by their culture, by
their status or by the money that they make," Webster said.
She said she anticipates sharing the experience with the other students and
meeting some of the original Freedom Riders.
Patton, as a Tennessee State student, was participating in sit-ins at lunch
counters and stand-ins at movie theaters when the rides began.
When a bus was burned in Anniston, Ala., the rides almost ended, but the
students in Nashville decided to continue them.
Patton was part of a third wave of students that joined, and on May 23,
1961, he took a rental car to Montgomery, Ala., to board a bus headed to
Mississippi.
The next day, he arrived in Jackson, Miss., and he and another student were
arrested almost immediately at a lunch counter. He was taken to the city
jail and eventually transferred to Mississippi's Parchman State Prison Farm.
In total, Patton spent 39 days behind bars.
Patton said he was excited when he heard about the student trip in May.
"Hopefully, they will see something on that trip that will make them say
they want to do something to make it better for people," he said.
"Hopefully, they will carry this experience back and not just let it die,
but do something."
(Contact Lydia X. McCoy of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at
http://www.knoxnews.com/staff/lydia-mccoy/
Original Page: http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/61160
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