Freedom Riders 60 Years: The Protection, Preservation & People of Black History

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FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

5

INSIDE

The Protection, Preservation & People of Black History

FREEDOM RIDERS 60 YEARS 6

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

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LEBRON JAMES

32

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

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REMEMBERING THE FREEDOM RIDERS

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John Lewis

10

Reverend Doctor Cordy Tindell “CT” Vivian

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90 106

DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

THE WHITE HOUSE INITIATIVE ON HCBUs

74

An Interview with Jessica Epperson Education Specialist at Freedom Riders National Monument

Michelle Alexander

82

African Burial Grounds

16

LeBron James

90

22

Reverend Jesse L. Jackson

Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace Today

26

Hank Aaron

98

32

Martin Luther King Jr.

Madam C.J. Walker An Evolution of Natural Hair Care Then and Now

36

Foreword

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The USNS John Lewis

50

Remembering the Freedom Riders And Their Legacy

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60

Racism & the Titanic Struggle of the Colored People of America Slavery to the Abolition

The White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities

112

Historically Black Colleges and Universities List

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Respecting a wide range of unique perspectives is key to our success. By listening, learning and showing up for everyone, General Motors is committed to becoming the most inclusive company in the world.

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JOHN

LEWIS FEBRUARY 21, 1940 – J U LY 17, 2020

E

very Tuesday night for the fall semester

became the focus of my life,” recalled Lewis,

Clark

way to fight white supremacy.

of 1959, John Lewis made his way to Church

Memorial in

United

Nashville,

Methodist

Tennessee.

There, in the church basement, Rev.

Lewis was raised on a small farm in Troy, Alabama,

college students in the philosophy and tactics of

he grew resentful, not only of the visible signs of

James Lawson mentored a group of Black nonviolent direct action. “Those Tuesday nights

8

who’d since childhood in rural Alabama sought a

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

about fifty miles south of Montgomery. Early on, Jim Crow, but also of the exploitative economic g

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relationship between his family and the white

civil rights bill offered “too little to late.” As the march

scraped by planting and harvesting cotton. It seemed

objected to Lewis’s language and threatened to

landowners. As sharecroppers, his family barely to him that they were working hard for nothing. “As

soon as I was able to make sense of the world, I could

see there was no way a person could get ahead as a tenant farmer,” he explained.

As a freshman at the American Baptist Theological

Seminary in Nashville in 1957, he tried to form a

campus chapter of the NAACP, but the school shot the idea down. Like many Black colleges, American

Baptist relied on white funding and didn’t want the risk of getting involved in the Movement. But Lewis persisted. One evening, he heard James Lawson

discuss the philosophy and tactics of nonviolence, and to Lewis, it felt like “it was something I’d been searching for my whole life.”

Memorial were the foundation of the Nashville Movement. Black

students

from

Fisk

University, American Baptist, and other local colleges

discussed and debated the principles of nonviolence.

They studied the history of nonviolent struggle and

even engaged in role-playing exercises. In October

1959, the young people formed the Nashville Student Movement, and on February 13, 1960–less than two

weeks after the Greensboro sit-ins–the group initiated its own sit-ins in downtown Nashville.

In 1961, Lewis became one of the original freedom

riders and was badly beaten. In 1963, he became SNCC’s chairman. Representing SNCC at the March on Washington he criticized the Kennedy administration

for failing to protect the constitutional rights of Black Americans. With the help of Courtland Cox, James

Forman, Nancy Stern, and others, who drafted his speech, he charged that the Kennedy’s proposed Sources Charles E. Cobb, Jr., This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016).

James Forman, The Making of Black Revolutionaries (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1985).

John Lewis with Michael D’Orso, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998).

10

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

withdraw. Out of respect for A. Phillip Randolph, SNCC revised the speech at the last minute.

Nonetheless, “I felt defiance in every direction: against

the entrenched segregation of the South; against the neglect of the federal government; and also against

the conservative concerns of the established factions,” Lewis recalled.

John Lewis speaks from the steps of the Lincoln

Memorial at the March on Washington, August 1963, Danny Lyon, Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement 82, dektol.wordpress.com.

In 1965, Lewis was active at the height of the Selma voting rights campaign–a campaign SNCC

Lawson’s workshops in the basement of Clark Student

began, however, some of its other participants

had begun two years earlier. On Sunday, March 7, 1965, the marchers were viciously attacked by state

troopers and sheriff Jim Clark’s mounted posse.

Lewis received a concussion and fractured skull.

Despite the injuries he received on Bloody Sunday, Lewis took part in the Selma-to-Montgomery march two weeks later.

Though he was subjected to incredible violence and

numerous arrests during his activist career, Lewis remained committed to philosophical nonviolence.

Lewis served as SNCC’s chairman until he was

replaced by Stokely Carmichael in May 1966.

Many in SNCC felt that Lewis’s commitment to

nonviolent direct action and mass protests was out

of sync with SNCC’s turn away from such actions.

Shortly after, he left the organization to pursue a long career in electoral politics–serving as a congressman from Georgia’s 5th congressional district for almost 30 years.

Interview with John Lewis by Blackside, Inc., May 14, 1979, Eyes on the Prize, Henry Hampton Collection, Washington University.

Interview with John Lewis by Jack Bass and Walter Devries, November 20, 1973, Southern Oral History Program, University of North Carolina.

SNCC’s Speech from the March on Washington, August 28, 1963, Civil Rights Movement Veterans Website, Tougaloo College.

Provided by https://snccdigital.org/people/john-lewis/.

#Dadication

fatherhood.gov

REVEREND DOCTOR

CORDY TINDELL“C.T.”

VIVIAN JULY 30, 1924 – J U LY 17, 2020

T

Cordy Tindell Vivian receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony at The White House on November 20, 2013 in Washington, D.C.

he Reverend Doctor Cordy Tindell

For his Christian ministry, his commitment to

Rights Movement in the 1960s as a

advocacy for racial justice, North Park University

“C.T.” Vivian – a giant of the Civil field lieutenant and close friend of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a

lifelong advocate for racial justice – died in Atlanta on Friday, July 17, 2020, at the age of 95.

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FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

nonviolence, and his decades of leadership and

awarded Vivian an honorary Doctor of Divinity

degree at Commencement on May 12, 2007.

The presentation was given by Dr. Mary Trujillo, Professor Emeritus of Communications Arts. g

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“It is simply not possible to list in this short time all the

that “It was Martin Luther King who removed the Black

Trujillo said in presenting the degree. “Nor is it possible

moral and spiritual context. It was on this plane that The

activities and accomplishments of Rev. C.T. Vivian,” Dr. to fully grasp the degree of self-sacrifice, courage, and determination that he possesses. The full impact of the work of C.T. Vivian is of such magnitude that it can only be seen from the perspective of history.”

Vivian was born on July 30, 1924, in Boonville, Missouri, and moved as a child to Macomb, Illinois, where he

graduated from Macomb High School in 1942 and

attended Western Illinois University. He participated in the desegregation of Barton’s Cafeteria in Peoria

in 1947. He studied and prepared for ministry at the

American Baptist College in Nashville, Tennessee, where he learned Mohandas Gandhi’s nonviolent direct-action strategy and joined the Nashville Student

Movement in 1959 – launching what was to become a storied career as an icon of peaceful protest and the Civil Rights Movement.

Vivian helped found the Nashville Christian Leadership

Conference and organized the first sit-ins in that city.

In 1960 he led 4,000 peaceful demonstrators to City Hall where he met with Nashville Mayor Ben West. As a

result of that meeting, West publicly declared that racial discrimination is morally wrong. Vivian participated in

the Freedom Rides, in which activists rode interstate

buses into the Southern states to protest their failure to comply with U.S. Supreme Court rulings that banned

segregated public transportation. He worked with King

and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,

Movement first confronted the conscience of the nation.”

After leaving Dr. King’s Executive Staff, Dr. Vivian trained ministers and developed the urban curriculum for seminaries throughout the nation at the Urban Training

Center in Chicago. He returned to seminary education as the Dean of Divinity at Shaw University Seminary.

In 1977 Vivian founded a consultancy called BASICS,

the Black Action Strategies and Information Center, and in 1979 with Anne Braden of Louisville, Kentucky, he founded the National Anti-Klan Network, which later

became the Center for Democratic Renewal, where

people of all races worked together to combat white supremacist activities. He served in Jesse Jackson’s

presidential campaign in 1984, as national deputy director for clergy. Jackson had been one of Vivian’s first students at the Urban Training Center.

Vivian was an analyst in the 14-part PBS civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize and was the subject of a PBS special, The Healing Ministry of Dr. C.T. Vivian.

President Barack Obama – speaking at Selma’s Brown Chapel on the March 2007, anniversary of

the Selma to Montgomery marches – recognized Vivian in his opening remarks, saying King had referred

to

to ever live.”

Vivian

as

“the

greatest

preacher

serving as the national director of affiliates. After

In 2008, Vivian founded the C.T. Vivian Leadership

1965, Vivian launched an educational program that

On August 8, 2013, he was awarded the Presidential

the Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches in gave college scholarships to 702 Alabama students.

That program later became Upward Bound, a federal program to provide college opportunities for lowincome first-generation students.

In 1970, Vivian published Black Power and the American

Myth, the first book about the Civil Rights Movement written by a member of King’s inner circle. In it he wrote

14

struggle from the economic realm and placed it in a

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

Institute to train a new generation of grass-roots leaders.

Medal of Freedom by President Obama.

Vivian died on the same day as his friend and fellow civil rights leader, U.S. Representative John Lewis. Peace be to the memories of Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian and Rep. John Lewis.

Provided by https://www.northpark.edu/stories/in-memoriam-of-thereverend-doctor-cordy-tindell-c-t-vivian/.

Cabot Creamery Co-operative and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund Honor the Bravery and Sacrifices of the Freedom Riders on the 60th Anniversary of the Historic First Ride.

Cabot proudly partners with The Federation of Southern Cooperatives in its mission to Save, Protect and Expand the landholdings of Black Family Farmers throughout the South.

federation.coop

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MICHELLE

ALEXANDER

T

wo years after the election of America's

first African American president, Michelle Alexander

published

The

New

Jim

Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of

Colorblindness. While many considered

Barack Obama's election evidence that America had

finally moved past race, Alexander wrote that America needs "a radical restructuring of our economy and our

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FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

society in order to ensure that poor people of all colors gain equal access to opportunity, jobs, housing, and

healthcare." During a law career focused on civil rights advocacy and anti-discrimination cases, Alexander had come to the conclusion that, as a result of mass

incarceration, huge numbers of African American men

"are permanently locked into an inferior, second-class status, or caste, by law and custom." g

Alexander graduated from Vanderbilt University,

1965. The enforcers of the drug laws, she says, claim

before beginning her career as civil rights advocate.

mass imprisonments are legal not racial. However,

then earned a law degree from Stanford in 1992, In 1998, Alexander was hired as the founding

director of the Northern California ACLU chapter´s Racial Justice Project. There she started to see the problems that she would write about in The New Jim

Crow. While interviewing potential plaintiffs in a case against the Oakland Police Department, Alexander met a young man who had kept detailed notes

about years of police abuse in his neighborhood.

She was prepared to use his testimony to move forward with the case until she learned he was a

drug felon. Though he insisted he'd been framed by

a police officer, Alexander knew the drug conviction could undermine his credibility in court. Angry, the

young man told her that she wouldn't find anyone in his neighborhood who didn't have a record. He tore up his notes and left the office, yelling, "You're no

better than the police. You're just like them. I can't believe I trusted you."

Months later Alexander read in the newspaper that the several police officers, including one the young man

had mentioned, had been arrested for framing and beating up innocent citizens. During a radio interview in 2012, Alexander recalled her feelings in that

moment: "…he's right about me. The minute he told

me he was a felon, I stopped listening. I couldn't even

hear what he had to say. And I realized that my crime

wasn't so much that I had refused to represent an innocent man, someone who had been telling me the

truth, but that I had been blind to all those who were guilty and that their stories weren't being told." That

that it has nothing to do with racism because the

Alexander provides evidence to show that many

laws that imprison people of color are not enforced to the same degree in white communities.

In the book, Alexander proposes that these

inequities are both established and reinforced by

the mass incarceration of young African Americans and the barriers they face reintegrating into civilian

society when they are released from prison.

Depending on the states in which they reside, non-

violent drug felons may lose the right to vote and

their eligibility for food stamps and public housing.

With a felony record, it is difficult to find a job. For

those that do, pay can be garnished in order to pay back court fees and fines.

These obstacles create a system that, according to Alexander, "seems designed to send folks back

to prison, which is what, in fact, happens the vast majority of the time."

Alexander's audiences are often disheartened or

turned off by this message. Some readers believe

the punishment fits the crime, while others point out

that drug laws apply to all citizens regardless of race.

The key facts supporting Alexander's argument are that current punishments affect the offender's life

long after the sentence has been served and that

African Americans are targeted for drug offenses and convicted at higher rates than other races, though drug use numbers are consistent across the population.

realization planted the seed for The New Jim Crow.

As of late 2020, Alexander is a visiting professor at

Alexander calls the devastating impact that the War

writes opinion columns for The New York Times.

on Drugs has inflicted on African American families The New Jim Crow because its policies target Black

men and institutionalize discrimination, as was the case during the segregationist Jim Crow laws enacted in the United States between 1877 and

Union Theological Seminary in New York City and

She travels the country, speaking at churches, schools, universities, nonprofits, and professional

groups, inspiring citizens to take action against mass incarceration.

Provided by https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/michelle-alexander.

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

17

LEBRONJA L

college to join the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. He led

DRAFT With his impressive record, it was no surprise that James was

another championship with Cleveland in 2016, before

school. The Cleveland Cavaliers signed the powerful young

eBron James became an immediate star after skipping

the Miami Heat to NBA titles in 2012 and 2013 and won

joining the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018.

forward, and he proved to be a valuable addition to the then-

WHO IS LEBRON JAMES? LeBron James is an American basketball player with the Los

in eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

struggling franchise. The team had ended the previous season

top high school basketball player in the country. With his unique

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS During the 2003-04 season, James made history when he

a four-time NBA MVP. After leading the Miami Heat to titles in

NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He also became the youngest

Angeles Lakers. James first garnered national attention as the combination of size, athleticism and court vision, he became

became the first member of the Cavalier franchise to win the

2012 and 2013, James returned to Cleveland and helped the

player — at only 20 years old — to receive this honor.

franchise claim its first championship in 2016.

EARLY LIFE AND HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL CAREER

James was born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio. At an early age, James showed a natural talent for basketball. He

was recruited by St. Vincent-St. Mary High School to join their

basketball team in 1999. Overall, James scored 2,657 points, 892 rebounds and 523 assists during his four years there.

As a freshman, James averaged 18 points per game. He helped

the team to a Division III state title by scoring 25 points in the

championship game. Word of his advanced basketball skills

spread, and James received several honors for his performance.

Additionally, James, averaging 20 points per game at this

time, became one of only three rookies to accomplish this feat, putting him in the same company as Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson.

James continued to excel professionally in the NBA the following

season, upping his average points per game to 27.2. He made

NBA history again in 2005 when he became the youngest player to score more than 50 points in one game.

In 2006, James helped his team defeat the Washington Wizards

in the first round of playoff action. From there, the Cavaliers took

on the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

As a high school sophomore, James was chosen for the USA

James scored an average of 26.6 per game in this postseason

selected for this award. His team also won the Division III state

While his team wasn't at the top of the rankings, James himself

Today All-USA First Team. He was the first sophomore ever

matchup, but it wasn't enough to secure victory for his team.

title for the second year in a row.

continued to receive special recognition for his abilities.

The following school year, James was named PARADE

In 2006, James reached a new contract agreement with

Gatorade Player of the Year. Following the end of his junior year,

the following season, defeating Detroit to win the Eastern

magazine's High School Boys Basketball Player of the Year and

the Cavaliers. The team proved to be stronger competitors

James was such a strong player that he contemplated going pro.

Conference. In the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs,

Deciding to finish his education, James had a tremendous senior year on the court. He averaged 31.6 points per game, helping

18

the first player picked in the 2003 NBA Draft straight out of high

however, the Cavaliers lost their championship bid in four consecutive games.

his team clinch their third state title. The St. Vincent-St. Mary

During the 2007-08 season, James continued to help the

James would soon emerge as one of the National Basketball

The team made it to the semifinals, where they were defeated

High School team also earned the top national ranking that year.

Cavaliers improve their standing in the Eastern Conference.

Association's leading players.

by the Boston Celtics in seven games. In terms of individual g

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

AMES

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

19

performance, James had a stellar year, outperforming such

At the culmination of the 2013-14 season, Miami returned to

average of 30 points per game, the highest average in the

losing to San Antonio after five games.

rival players as Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson by scoring an NBA regular season.

Early in the 2008-09 season, sports journalists and fans

RETURN TO CLEVELAND CAVALIERS In July of 2014, after opting out of his contract with the Heat

the option to become a free agent in 2010, and there was

be returning to the Cavaliers.

began talking about James' future in the sport. He had much discussion as to where James would end up. Some journalists identified the New York Knicks as a potential suitor for the rising player.

and considering other teams, James announced that he would

Hampered by back and knee problems, James missed 13 of 82 regular-season games in 2014-15. However, he was as

dominant as ever when healthy, averaging 25.3 points and

James made several references to his impending free-agent

7.4 assists per game. James led the Cavaliers to the NBA

on the team that I am on right now and winning a championship

championship round in five consecutive seasons. However,

told reporters.

his hopes of claiming a third title, and the Cavaliers lost to the

MIAMI HEAT Shortly after becoming a free agent, James announced that

Over the course of 2015-16, the Cavs overcame the distraction

status, but he was sure to downplay the matter. "I am focused

Finals, becoming the first player in nearly 50 years to reach the

... I don't think about making a change at this point," James

injuries to star teammates Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving damaged

he would be joining the Miami Heat for the 2010-11 season.

His fans in Cleveland were less than pleased, and many considered his departure a betrayal to his hometown.

Soon after James' announcement, Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert wrote an open letter declaring James'

decision as "selfish," "heartless" and a "cowardly betrayal."

Unfazed, James finished second in the league during his first season with the Heat, scoring 26.7 points per game.

The 2011-12 season saw major success for James and the Miami Heat. With his team's victory over the Oklahoma City

Thunder in the NBA Finals, the superstar forward finally

earned his first title. In the clinching Game 5, James scored 26 points, and had 11 rebounds and 13 assists. "I made a difficult decision to leave Cleveland, but I understood what my future

was about," James told FOX Sports following the game. "I knew we had a bright future [in Miami]."

During the 2012-13 season, James made NBA history yet again: On January 16, 2013, at age 28, he became the youngest player to score 20,000 points, succeeding Bryant of

the Lakers — who accomplished this feat when he was 29 — and

becoming only the 38th player in NBA history to achieve this

Golden State Warriors in six games.

of a mid-season coaching change and breezed through the

playoffs to earn a rematch with the Warriors, marking the sixth straight NBA Finals appearance for "King James." In perhaps the crowning achievement of his career, he led his team back

from a 3-1 deficit, scoring 41 points in both Games 5 and 6, before recording a triple-double in Game 7 to give the Cavs their first championship in franchise history.

Voted Finals MVP, James said, "I came back to bring a

championship to our city. I knew what I was capable of doing.

I knew what I learned in the last couple years that I was gone, and I knew if I had to — when I came back — I knew I had the right ingredients and the right blueprint to help this franchise get back to a place that we've never been. That's what it was all about."

The following year, James again paced himself and took

charge when necessary, driving the Cavs through the Eastern Conference to make an incredible seventh consecutive appearance in the NBA Finals. This time, with former MVP Kevin Durant added to the mix, the Warriors proved too formidable

for James and his teammates, claiming the championship in five games.

distinction. James made a jump shot the final seconds of the

For all his accomplishments, James achieved another first early

to a 92-75 victory over the Warriors.

late November win over the Heat, he was ejected for the first

game, bringing his scoring total 20,001 and leading the Heat Success followed the Heat to the end of the 2012-13 season:

in the 2017-18 NBA season: After yelling at a referee during a time in 1,082 career games.

Following a hard-fought, six-game series against the Indiana

The superstar likely felt like yelling often during the course of

Antonio Spurs in seven games to win its second consecutive

to Boston for Isaiah Thomas failed to bear fruit and forced the

Pacers to win the Eastern Conference, Miami outlasted the San NBA championship.

20

the NBA Finals to face off against the Spurs again, this time

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

a frustrating campaign, as an offseason trade that sent Irving Cavs to make another major deal before the All-Star break.

James had to dig deep just to get the team out of the first

CHAMPIONSHIPS AND RINGS James participated in eight straight NBA championships from

sink the Pacers in Game 7. The Cavs were again pushed to the

he captured three championship rings: twice with the Heat

After averaging a career-best 9.1 assists in the regular season, round of the playoffs, delivering a brilliant 45-point effort to

the 2010-11 season to the 2018-19 season. During that time,

limit two rounds later by the scrappy Celtics, but James scored

(2011-12 and 2012-13) and once with the Cavaliers (2015-16).

make his eighth straight NBA Finals appearance.

ALL-STAR GAMES AND MVPS James was selected for the NBA All-Star Game for the first

81 points over the last two games to pull out the series win and Game 1 of the rematch against Golden State went down to

the wire, thanks to James's 51-point outburst, but Cleveland

guard J.R. Smith inexplicably dribbled out the clock with the game tied in regulation, before the Warriors pulled away for the win in overtime. That represented the Cavs' best chance

to get a leg up on their opponents, as the Warriors won the

next three games handily to claim their third title in four years.

Afterward, with questions swirling about his future with the team, James revealed that he had played out the series

with a broken right hand after punching a whiteboard in the aftermath of the Game 1 loss.

LOS ANGELES LAKERS On July 1, 2018, James announced that he was moving on to

the next chapter of his career by signing a 4-year, $153.3 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, a storied franchise that counted Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson among its all-time greats.

The good vibes had worn off by midseason, as the Lakers

sputtered through a 17-game stretch without their injured star.

With the team still struggling in late February 2019, James

accused his teammates of losing focus over trade rumors,

time in 2005 and would go on to earn a spot in the annual showcase in each of the next 15 seasons.

In January 2018, the NBA announced that James and Golden

State Warriors guard Stephen Curry had topped the ballots and would serve as captains for that year's All-Star Game.

In 2006, James was named the Most Valuable Player in the

NBA All-Star Game, a feat he would repeat in 2008 and 2018.

James has also been named NBA MVP four times, in seasons 2008-09, 2009-10, 2011-12 and 2012-13.

STATS AND POINTS In January 2018, at age 33, James surpassed Bryant as the

youngest player to accumulate 30,000 career points and

became the seventh player in NBA history to achieve that milestone. The feat put him just more than 8,000 points shy of Abdul-Jabbar's all-time record of 38,387 points.

In 2019, James surpassed Jordan's career tally of 32,292 points to move into fourth place on the all-time list. In January 2020, he eclipsed Bryant's total of 33,643 points to slide into

third place, one night before his predecessor's shocking death in a helicopter accident. g

saying, "If you're still allowing distractions to affect the way you play, this is the wrong franchise to be a part of and you should just come in and be like, 'Listen, I can't do this.'"

When the Lakers were officially eliminated from playoff

contention in March 2019, it snapped James' personal marks

of 13 consecutive postseasons and eight straight NBA Finals

appearances. Capping a difficult first season in Los Angeles, the Lakers announced that their star would miss the final six games because of his lingering groin injury.

Nike Lebron 9

Things got off to a much better start the following season, thanks in large part to the addition of athletic big man Anthony Davis to the roster. Spearheading the Lakers' rise to the top of the standings was James, who became the first player to record a triple-double against all 30 NBA teams in November 2019.

The following month, James added another accolade to his ever-growing list by earning AP Male Athlete of the Decade honors.

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

21

After 16 NBA seasons, James' stats included regular season per-game averages of: 27.2 points

6.2 defensive rebounds

38.6 minutes

7.2 assists

0.736 free-throw percentage

0.8 blocks

0.343 3-point field-goal %

1.6 steals

0.504 field-goal percentage

3.5 turnovers

ceremony with about 200 guests in San Diego on September 14, 2013.

James and Brinson have two sons and one daughter together.

In October 2004, James welcomed his first son LeBron Jr. On June 14, 2007, Brinson gave birth to their second son, Bryce

Maximus James. Their third child, daughter Zhuri James, was

1.2 offensive rebounds

born on October 22, 2014.

OLYMPIC GAMES James competed on the U.S. Olympic basketball team during

LEBRON JAMES FAMILY FOUNDATION Outside of the NBA, James has worked to help others. He

James made his Olympic debut at the 2004 Summer Games

along his mother Gloria, to help out children and single-parent

three Summer Olympic Games, in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

established the LeBron James Family Foundation in 2004,

in Athens, Greece. He and his teammates won bronze medals

families in need.

after defeating Lithuania. Argentina took home the gold after beating Italy in the finals.

Among

its

many

programs,

the

organization

builds

playgrounds in economically disadvantaged areas and hosts

In the summer of 2008, James traveled to Beijing, China, to

an annual bike-a-thon.

on the U.S. Olympic basketball team. This time around the

OUTSPOKEN POSTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA One of the world's most recognizable athletes, James hasn't

play with the likes of Bryant, Jason Kidd and Dwyane Wade

U.S. team brought home the gold after defeating Spain in the final round.

James competed at his third Olympic Games in 2012, at the

Summer Olympics in London, along with Durant, Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and several other top players. The U.S. basketball team took the gold medal — James' second consecutive Olympic gold.

been shy about expressing his views on social media. Among other issues, he displayed his support for Trayvon Martin

after the teen's death in 2012, and he has clashed with U.S. President Donald Trump.

James waded into delicate territory in October 2019, after Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey posted a tweet in support of

Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters that ignited a Chinese

CONTRACT WITH NIKE In 2003, James signed several endorsement deals, including a

media boycott of NBA preseason games in the country.

over his lifetime.

with the executive posting comments that could have exposed

deal with Nike for $90 million that could net him over $1 billion Other endorsements include Intel, Verizon, Coca-Cola, Beats

James said he believed Morey was "misinformed" about the

situation, although he later tweeted that he mainly took issue traveling players to danger.

by Dre and Kia Motors.

The basketball superstar has also shown a playful side on

SALARY AND EARNINGS In the 2016-17 season, James collected a $31 million salary,

character Arthur clenching his first during the Cavaliers' slow

making him the third player to earn that much after Jordan and

social media, such as when he posted a picture of cartoon start to the 2017-18 season.

million contract with the Lakers in July 2018. He’s also a co-

'SPACE JAM 2' James is set to star in Space Jam 2, the 2021 sequel to the 1996

and has invested in Blaze Pizza.

more than just me and the Looney Tunes getting together and

Bryant. The NBA superstar went on to sign a four-year, $153.3 owner of the production company SpringHill Entertainment

In February 2019, Forbes magazine's estimated James’ yearly earnings at $88.7 million, making him the NBA's highest-

22

sweetheart, Savannah Brinson. The couple married in a private

hit starring Jordan. "The Space Jam collaboration is so much doing this movie,” James told The Hollywood Reporter.

“It's so much bigger. I'd just love for kids to understand how

earning player for the fifth year in a row.

empowered they can feel and how empowered they can be if

WIFE AND KIDS On January 1, 2012, James proposed to his high school

Article provided by https://www.biography.com/athlete/lebron-james.

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

they don't just give up on their dreams."

Help us end the racial gap in finance and technology.

moodys.com/diversity

Diversity and inclusion are in Moody’s DNA. We are firmly committed to providing a supportive workplace where all employees can thrive as their authentic selves.

DK Bartley, Chief Diversity Officer

JACKSON REVEREND JESSE L.

P

rominent civil rights activist and political leader Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. was born Jesse Louis Burns on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina to Helen Jackson and Noah Robinson.

His mother later remarried Charles Henry Jackson, who formally adopted Jackson and his brother Charles.

Jackson received his high school diploma from Sterling High School in Greenville, and in 1959, he received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. After his first year, Jackson then transferred to North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, North Carolina.

At North Carolina A&T, Jackson continued to excel in sports.

He was an honor student and president of his student body.

On December 31, 1962, Jackson married college classmate, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, in Greenville. Returning to North Carolina A&T, he became involved in the Civil Rights Movement joining the Greensboro chapter of the Council on Racial Equality (CORE). In 1963, Jackson helped to

24

FREEDOMRIDERS

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organize several sit-ins, desegregating local restaurants and theaters in Greensboro. Jackson was chosen as field director of CORE’s southeastern operations, and president of the North Carolina Intercollegiate Council on Human Rights. In 1964, he also served as a delegate at the Young Democrats National Convention. In the same year, Jackson graduated from North Carolina A&T with a B.S. degree in sociology. He then received a Rockefeller grant to begin his postgraduate studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1965, Jackson left the seminary to join Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to march in Selma, Alabama. At this time, Jackson became an ordained minister, although he had not returned to the seminary. In 1966, Dr. King appointed Jackson to SCLC’s Chicago economic program, Operation Breadbasket. The goal of Operation Breadbasket was to foster the economy of African American business owners and provide employment g

growth for African American workers. On December 25, 1971, Operation Breadbasket was renamed Operation PUSH People United to Serve Humanity.

co-authored several books including Keep Hope Alive (1989)

Over the next decade, Jackson continued his involvement with local, national, and international politics. In 1983, Jackson negotiated the release of war prisoner, U.S. pilot Robert Goodman, in Syria. In 1984 and 1988, Jackson ran for President of the United States. As a Democratic candidate, he garnered massive support and exceeded expectations for the number of delegates received. Jackson’s electoral run also helped to register two million new voters.

numerous events over the years that bring attention

Jackson moved to Washington, D.C. in 1989. At that time, the Washington City Council created two positions of shadow senator to lobby for the statehood of Washington, D.C. in the U.S. Congress. Jackson won one of the Senate seats, his first elected position.

In 1991, Jackson gained international acclaim again when he negotiated for the release of hundreds of foreign nationals in Kuwait under the regime of Saddam Hussein. In that same year, his likeness was put on a United States Post Office pictorial postal cancellation. Jackson is the second living person to ever receive such an honor. President Bill Clinton then appointed Jackson in 1997 as a special envoy for democracy in Kenya, later awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in March 2000. Jackson hosted the CNN television program Both Sides With Jesse Jackson from 1992 to 2000. He has written numerous columns and authored/

26

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

and It’s About The Money (1999).

Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition have organized to problems facing all Americans including economic advancement, workers rights, labor conditions, voter

registration, education, and racial profiling. He has been awarded over forty honorary degrees, received the NAACP

Springarn Award, and been listed as one of the top ten most

respected Americans. In 2000, Jackson received an honorary

Masters degree from his former school, Chicago Theological Seminary. The seminary recognized Jackson’s countless years of civic service to the American community.

In 2003, Jackson created the Wall Street Project. This project aims to build economic opportunities and advancements of

African Americans influencing corporate America companies to increase economic growth and opportunity with minority communities and businesses. In 2004, Jackson became

a radio host for the nationally syndicated radio talk show entitled, Keep Hope Alive.

Jackson and his wife, Jacqueline, currently divide their

residency between Chicago, Illinois and Washington, D.C. They have five children, Santita Jackson, U.S. Congressman

Jesse Jackson, Jr., Jonathan Jackson, Yusef Jackson, and Jacqueline L. Jackson.

Provided by https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/reverend-jesse-l-jackson.

300 miles

>> How a silver lining forms >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>

It starts at sea.

Tropical waters heat up.

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Cold air rushes to the void.

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Cycle repeats.

Faster and faster—a 50,000 foot engine of air.

At seventy four miles per hour it earns a name.

Harvey, Irma, Katrina.

Then landfall.

Roads rendered useless.

Buildings destroyed.

Families stranded.

But for a brief moment, A silver lining appears.

People see neighbors instead of strangers.

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2 9 . 7 6 0 4 °

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HANK

AARON F E BR UARY 5 , 1934 – JA N UA RY 22, 2021

28

FREEDOMRIDERS

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B

aseball legend Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s

Northern League Rookie of the Year honors in 1952.

career with numerous big-league records.

continued to tear apart pitching with 208 hits, 22 homers

hallowed mark of 714 home runs and finished his

WHO WAS HANK AARON?

Born into humble circumstances in Mobile, Alabama, Hank Aaron ascended the ranks of the Negro Leagues to become a Major League Baseball icon. He spent most

of his 23 seasons as an outfielder for the Milwaukee and

Atlanta Braves, during which time he set many records, including a career total of 755 home runs. Aaron was

elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, and in 1999, MLB established the Hank Aaron Award to annually honor the top hitter in each league.

MOBILE ROOTS

Born Henry Louis Aaron on February 5, 1934, in a poor Black section of Mobile, Alabama, called “Down the Bay,”

Hank Aaron was the third of eight children born to Estella

and Herbert Aaron, who made a living as a tavern owner

Promoted to the Class A Jacksonville Braves in 1953, Aaron and a .362 average.

MAJOR LEAGUE CAREER

Aaron made his Major League debut in 1954, at age 20, when a spring training injury to another Milwaukee Braves

outfielder created a roster spot for him. Following a solid first year (he hit .280 with 13 home runs), Aaron charged

through the 1955 season with a blend of power (27 home runs), run production (106 RBIs) and average (.328) that would come to define his long career.

After winning his first batting title in 1956, Aaron registered

an outstanding 1957 season, taking home the National League MVP and nearly nabbing the Triple Crown by hitting 44 home runs, knocking in another 132 and batting .322.

That same year, Aaron demonstrated his ability to come up

and a dry dock boilermaker’s assistant.

big when it counted most. His 11th inning home run in late

Aaron and his family moved to the middle-class Toulminville

he led underdog Milwaukee to an upset win over the New

neighborhood when he was 8 years old. Aaron developed a strong affinity for baseball and football at a young

September propelled the Braves to the World Series, where York Yankees in seven games.

age and tended to focus more heavily on sports than

With the game still years away from the multimillion-dollar

he attended Central High School, a segregated high

was around $30,000. When he equaled that amount that

baseball. On the baseball diamond, he played shortstop

be more in store for him if he continued to hit for power.

his studies. During his freshman and sophomore years,

contracts handed to star players, Aaron’s annual pay in 1959

school in Mobile, where he excelled at both football and

same year in endorsements, Aaron realized there could

and third base.

“I noticed that they never had a show called ‘Singles Derby,’”

In his junior year, Aaron transferred to the Josephine Allen Institute, a neighboring private school that had an organized baseball program.

NEGRO AND MINOR LEAGUES

In late 1951, 18-year-old Aaron quit school to play for the Negro American League’s Indianapolis Clowns. It wasn’t a

long stay, but the talented teenager left his mark by hitting

.366 and leading his club to victory in the league’s 1952 World Series. Additionally, he would become the last to play in both the Negro Leagues and the Major Leagues.

he once explained.

He was right, of course, and over the next decade and a half, the always-fit Aaron banged out 30 to 40 home runs

on an annual basis. In 1973, at the age of 39, Aaron was

still a force, clubbing 40 home runs to finish the year with

a career total of 713, just one behind Babe Ruth. In 1974,

after tying Ruth on Opening Day in Cincinnati, Ohio, Aaron came home with his team. On April 8, he banged out his record 715th home run off Al Downing of the Los

Angeles Dodgers. It was a triumph and a relief, as more

than 50,000 fans on hand cheered him on as he rounded

After signing with the Milwaukee Braves for $10,000, Aaron

the bases. There were fireworks and a band, and when

Class C Eau Claire Bears. He did not disappoint, earning

greet him. g

was assigned to one of the organization’s farm clubs, the

he crossed home plate, Aaron’s parents were there to

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29

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After finishing his record-breaking 1974 season with 20

home runs, Aaron joined the Brewers in his old big-league hometown of Milwaukee to take advantage of the new

designated hitter rule that gave aging sluggers a chance to rest their legs. He played two more years, wrapping up his stellar career after the 1976 season.

ENCOUNTERING RACISM

As Aaron drew closer to home run No. 714, the chase to

beat the Ruth’s record revealed that world of baseball was far from being free of the racial tensions that prevailed

around it. Letters poured into the Braves offices, as many

as 3,000 a day for Aaron. Some wrote to congratulate him, but many others were appalled that a Black man should break baseball’s most sacred record. Death threats were a part of the mix. Still, Aaron pushed forward. He didn’t try to

inflame the atmosphere, but he didn’t keep his mouth shut, either, speaking out against the league’s lack of ownership

and management opportunities for minorities. “On the field,

Blacks have been able to be super giants,” he once stated.

“But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it, and we go back to the back of the bus again.”

STATS

Aaron, nicknamed “Hammerin’ Hank,” is widely regarded as

one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. Over 21 years as an outfielder for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves

and two final years as a DH for the Milwaukee Brewers, he compiled numerous records, including: • Runs batted in (2,297)

• Extra-base hits (1,477) • Total bases (6,856)

• All-star appearances (25)

• Years with 30 or more home runs

(15 — since tied by Alex Rodriguez)

Aaron ranks second all-time in-home runs (755), third in hits

(3,771), third in games played (3,298) and tied for fourth

with Ruth in runs scored (2,174). Over the course of his

career, he won two batting titles, led his league in homers and RBIs four times each, and won three Gold Gloves for fielding excellence.

HANK AARON AWARD

In 1999, Major League Baseball introduced the Hank Aaron

Award to honor the top hitter in each league. Initially

determined by the compiling of points based on stats, it g

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31

Altanta Fulton County Stadium

soon fell under the voting jurisdiction of broadcasters, with fans later joining the process.

The first two winners were Manny Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians

and Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs. Alex Rodriguez won the award a record four times during his years with the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees.

CEDING THE HOME RUN RECORD TO BARRY BONDS

For more than three decades, Aaron held the Major League record with his 755 career home runs. Barry Bonds surpassed that mark on

August 7, 2007, when he hit his 756th dinger at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California.

Aaron was not at the ballpark that night, prompting speculation that

he would not acknowledge the accomplishments of Bonds, who had

been accused of cheating through performance-enhancement drugs.

However, the former home run king soon appeared on the scoreboard to extend his congratulations via a videotaped message.

“I move over now,” said Aaron, “and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family on this historic achievement.”

HANK AARON STADIUM

In April 1997, baseball returned to the city of Mobile, Alabama, when

the minor league Mobile Baybears squared off against the Birmingham

Barons at Hank Aaron Stadium. Known locally as “The Hank,” the field honors its namesake, as well as other Mobile-born baseball players

through its location at the corner of Satchel Paige Drive and Bolling Brothers Boulevard: Paige was the first Negro League player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, while Milt and Frank Bolling also made it to the sport’s top level.

POST-PLAYING CAREER

After retiring as a player, Aaron moved into the Atlanta Braves front office as executive vice president, where he became a leading

spokesman for minority hiring in baseball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, and eight years later, he published his

autobiography, I Had a Hammer. In 2002, he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Slowed by hip replacement surgery

in 2014, Aaron nevertheless made it to a ceremony in January 2016

in which he was awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette. He was honored for his close relationship with

Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh, and for his efforts to promote the two countries’ shared love of the game.

Provided by https://www.biography.com/athlete/hank-aaron.

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33

KINGJR. MARTIN LUTHER JANUARY 15, 1929 – APRIL 4, 1968

M

artin Luther King, Jr., was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to

Martin. His grandfather began the family’s long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist

Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.

In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. g

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FREEDOMRIDERS

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35

MEMPHIS, TN, US-MARCH 13, 2020: The Lorraine Motel Sign at the National Civil Rights Museum is the location of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.

36

FREEDOMRIDERS

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He was ready, then, early in December,

entire world, providing what he called a

1955, to accept the leadership of the first

coalition of conscience, and inspiring his

great Negro nonviolent demonstration of

Letter from a Birmingham Jail, a manifesto of

contemporary times in the United States, the

the Negro revolution; he planned the drives

bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his

in Alabama for the registration of Negroes

presentation speech in honor of the laureate.

as voters; he directed the peaceful march

The boycott lasted 382 days. On December

on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people

21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the

to whom he delivered his address, l Have a

United States had declared unconstitutional

Dream, he conferred with President John

the laws requiring segregation on buses,

F. Kennedy and campaigned for President

Negroes and whites rode the buses as

Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards

equals. During these days of boycott, King

of twenty times and assaulted at least

was arrested, his home was bombed, he was

four times; he was awarded five honorary

subjected to personal abuse, but at the same

degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time

time he emerged as a Negro leader of the

magazine in 1963; and became not only the

first rank.

symbolic leader of American blacks but also a

In 1957 he was elected president of the

world figure.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference,

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King,

an organization formed to provide new

Jr., was the youngest man to have received

leadership for the now burgeoning Civil

the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of

Rights

this

his selection, he announced that he would

organization he took from Christianity; its

Movement.

The

ideals

for

turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the

operational techniques from Gandhi. In the

furtherance of the Civil Rights Movement.

eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

Provide by https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/ peace/1964/king/biographical/.

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

37

FOREWORD

THE

PROTECTION, PR

& PEOPLE OF BLACK

FREEDOM

60

RIDERS

Years

38

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

PRESERVATION

K HISTORY

T

he fight for civil rights in the United

In 2021, the human rights weaknesses were laid bare,

States has existed for so long. Civil Rights

especially during the Covid-19 pandemic that surprised

Movements fight for social justice and

the world. The pandemic disproportionately impacted

unequal treatment based on various

the Native, Black, and Brown people in the United

factors such as race, religion, gender, or

States, serving as an indicator of racial disparities in the

sexual orientation. Dating back to the

health, economic, and education sectors. The inequality

era of slavery and Latin American colonization, people

is a result of long-term institutionalized discrimination

of African descent and institutionalized racism, and white

through racist laws and policies that enhance white

supremacy have always sidelined Native Americans.

supremacy. The struggle for equality and social justice is

Essentially, the article will focus on the 2021 Civil Rights

a continuous process, with the most recent movements

Movement and how it has been shaped by past Civil Rights

such as Black Lives Matter being triggered by the brutal

Movements such as the Freedom Riders. On May 4, 1961,

and excessive police force that led to the killing of George

thirteen Civil Rights Activists boarded interstate buses into

Floyd, among others.

the Southern United States to protest segregation. During their journey, the group was confronted by arresting police

CIVIL RIGHTS ICONS SPECIAL TRIBUTES

officers and horrific violence, yet they drew international

Civil Rights Movements mainly took place in the 1950s

attention to the Civil Rights Movement. The Protection,

and 1960s to fight for equal treatment of African

Preservation & People of Black History: Freedom Riders 60

Americans under American laws. The Civil War occurred

Years publication will explore the significant impact this

prior to the Civil Rights Movements abolishing slavery,

bus tour made on the United States then and how it has

but African American citizens continued to endure racial

shaped civil rights over the past 60 years. Those voices

discrimination. The violence and prejudice against people

from the past have ignited the voices of diversity today

of color lead to Civil Rights Movements in the 20th century

and the struggles our country still faces.

led by icons celebrated across the United States and the g

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

39

FOREWORD

40

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

world at large. These icons mobilized the people

was the order of the day. He is recognized as one of

of color and led them in advancing their mission of

the most inspirational and prominent Black American

equal treatment under the law and social justice.

leaders that fought for equality and influenced the

John Lewis was a leader of one of the civil rights organizations and was instrumental in the fight for equal treatment of African Americans. He served as the Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966 and Georgia’s representative from 1987 until he died in 2020. He played a leading role in the organization and coordination of the 1963 Washington march for jobs and freedom. Lewis also led a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where the police and state troopers attached unarmed marchers with billy clubs and tear gas; this event would be known as Bloody Sunday. The media publicized a picture of marcher Amelia Boynton, who the police beat unconscious, of her lying wounded on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Throughout Lewis’ life he continued his tireless efforts to eradicate prejudice and lead Americans to understand and support civil rights and he is celebrated for his involvement in these efforts and as a state representative and received

lives of people of color. As a Baptist Minister, he used his position and influence to shape the race relations in America in the 1950s. He was the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that advocated for social equality and equal treatment of all American citizens. He used his inspirational speeches to mobilize African Americans and led them in fighting against legal segregation. His activism significantly contributed to the creation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

For his immense contribution to improving the living condition of Black Americans and influencing social change, he was awarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Other civil rights icons that contributed to the early Civil Rights Movements include Hank Aaron, Jesse Jackson, Erika Andiola, Barbara Jordan, Harry Belafonte, and Jesse Jackson, among others.

These icons’ activism efforts initiated and motivated the modern-day Civil Rights Movements.

FREEDOM RIDERS HISTORY AND TIMELINE

honorary recognitions such as the Presidential Medal

The Freedom Riders comprised white and African

of Freedom in 2011.

American groups that participated in the 1961

Reverend Cordy Tindell contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movements working closely with other activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. Furthermore, he consulted with U.S. Presidents, including Obama, Clinton, Reagan, Carter, and Johnson, on civil rights matters in the United States. In 2013, Reverend Cordy was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Freedom Rides protest the segregated bus terminals in the South. The Freedom Rider groups were made up of African Americans, both male and females.

Racial segregation was rampant in the United States, especially in the South, including South Carolina and Alabama they were still practicing segregation laws of whites-only lunch counters and restrooms.

The Freedom Riders groups went against these laws

Martin Luther King Jr. is globally celebrated for his

by accessing these designated whites-only facilities

contribution to the early human rights movements

such as the white buses thus leading to a violent

when violence and discrimination of Black Americans

confrontation with police officers. These acts of g

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41

FOREWORD

42

FREEDOMRIDERS

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disobedience to the oppressing segregation laws

a similarly violent attack from the local white people

and policies attracted international attention and

even though the FBI intelligence had knowledge of

magnified the Civil Rights Movements.

the bus attacks prior to the incident, they let it happen

The Freedom Rides occurred in 1961 after the civil rights reconciliation journey of 1947. In 1960, the Supreme Court decision in Boynton vs Virginia had ruled that the segregation policy in interstate transportation is not constitutional. In I961, the Freedom Riders wanted to test the implementation of the Supreme Court ruling by ignoring the racial segregation practices through using the whites-only bus terminals and buses. The original Freedom Riders left from Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961, on a Greyhound bus. Their main aim was to commemorate the seven years of the Brown vs Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court in New Orleans. While they passed through North Carolina and Virginia, the group did not attract a lot of public interest. On May 12, John Lewis and Albert Bigelow were ferociously attacked at Rock Hill, South Carolina, as they tried to access a whites-only waiting lounge.

The violence had just begun; on May 14, 1961, the riders arrived in Anniston, Alabama, where an angry mob of white people attacked the bus. The mob, consisting of local Klansmen, attacked the bus and firebombed it as it tried to flee. The passengers struggled to escape the fire amidst a violent attack from the mob before the local authorities arrived to handle the situation. When the commotion had subsided, a two-year-old white girl went against the insults and taunts of the Klansmen to give water to

and they did nothing to protect the riders from a violent attack. The Sothern states were very harsh and violent to the Freedom Riders. These states wanted to oppress the Black Americans with the segregation policies even though the Supreme Court ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states ignored enforcing the court ruling and maintained the status quo.

The move by the Freedom Riders to board interstate buses in groups was a challenge for the law enforcers who were the custodians of upholding the court ruling. Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Named after a Black minstrel show character, the laws, which existed for about 100 years, from the post-Civil War era until 1968, were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities. Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow Laws often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence, and death.

Southern Whites used the Jim Crow laws to threaten the African Americans who exercised Supreme Court ruling of having the right to use public spaces and buses. The whites propagated white supremacy and racial discrimination by segregating blacks in public spaces to exert social dominance over them through the Jim Crow Laws.

the bleeding and smoke-choking riders. Despite her

News and photos of the Alabama bloodshed and

brave actions, going against the Klansmen’s interests,

mob violence spread very fast across the country,

forced the girl and her family to flee the country later.

and the world’s media houses picked up the news

When a second bus arrived, the passengers suffered

reports. This news was a huge global embarrassment g

FREEDOMRIDERS

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43

FOREWORD

Photo by Kelly Lacy

of the U.S. President, and the country’s Attorney General called for a ‘cooling off period’. Trailways and Greyhound drivers declined to carry Freedom riders in their buses; thus, the activists could not proceed with their ride to Montgomery. The ‘cooling off period’ called for the Freedom Riders to halt their interstate freedom rides, blaming extremists on both sides for the violence. This incident raised outrage among the Freedom Riders who were the victims of the mob violence for their legal under federal law rides. The Freedom Riders activists were non-violent and wondered how being attacked in a bus or hit with a baseball bat can warrant one to be labeled as an extremist even though the riders were exercising their civil rights. Instead of focusing the blame on them, the attorney general should have condemned the violence by the white southerners and the federal law enforcers for not enforcing the Supreme Court ruling.

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BLACK LIVES MATTER Black Lives Matter is a social and political movement opposing police brutality, racial discrimination, and violence against black people. The Black Lives Matter movement is a decentralized association comprising an array of other organizations and people. There are other organizations such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network that identifies as Black Lives Matter. Such organizations can freely use the term and the slogan Black Lives Matter to promote similar objectives, and any group has not trademarked the phrase. The Black Lives Matter movement and its affiliate organizations protest excessive use of force by police officers and oppose any policy change that interferes with the global black liberation.

The Black Lives Matter Civil Rights Movement is a Global Network that is building power to bring justice, g

FOREWORD

46

healing, and freedom to Black people across

has been involved in other protests the deaths

the globe. The Movement has a strong following

of numerous people of color in the line of police

worldwide and a great social media impact. July

operations and duties. The movement also has a

2013 the organization started using the hashtag

political involvement and contributed to shaping

#BlackLivesMatter after George Zimmerman was

the political perspectives and public opinions in the

acquitted for his 2012 shooting of an African

2016 general election in the United States. Between

American teen Trayvon Martin. The movement

2014 and 2016, the originators of the movement,

was recognized nationally in 2014 for engaging

Opal Tometi, Patrise Cullors, and Alicia Garza,

in protest due to the police brutality-related

expanded the organization by establishing over 30

death of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, two

local chapters across the country. The organization

African Americans. These incidents led to unrest

took over the national and international headlines

and protests, especially from African Americans

most recently in 2020 after a police officer in

in New York City and Missouri. The movement

Minneapolis killed George Floyd, an African g

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60 Years

(left to right) John L. Warfield, Heman Sweatt and Stephen Spurr; Sweatt was the first African American student admitted to UT’s School of Law

Achieving Excellence Through Diversity Through the years, The University of Texas at Austin has made strides to increase diversity and inclusion on our campus. In 1950, Heman Sweatt broke down barriers as the first African American student to be admitted into UT’s School of Law. Today, UT is ranked No. 10 in African American History by U.S. News & World Report. And we are home to the Black Studies collective — a premier research and education destination for students, faculty, visiting scholars and the community at large.

Learn more at utex.as/achievingexcellence

Top Photo: Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

FOREWORD American man. The movement organized protests

were seen as inferiors to the Whites, and their fate

in major cities in the United States involving an

was sealed through racist laws and policies. Through

estimate of 26 million participants. The Black Lives

the early Civil Rights Movements, the constitution

Matter protests and the magnitude of participants

and many of the racial segregation policies have

it pulled make it the largest movement in the

been amended, although they have not been fully

United States history. Criminal justice reforms and

implemented in American society. Some sectors

racial equality of the people of color are the major

such as criminal justice, education, and employment

themes the organization revolves around through its

portray the cumulative impact of racial discrimination

activism practices.

and institutionalized White Supremacy.

The movement comprises people across the

Higher Education today still struggles with diversity

American

demographics, although

issues and meeting the dreams of Martin Luther

African Americans mostly dominate it. Initially, the

King Jr. of an America where African Americans have

organization had a negative reputation during

equal access to quality higher education. Higher

2018. In 2020, the organization became extremely

education featuring the top then HBCUs (Historically

popular, especially among African Americans,

Black Colleges and Universities) their programs

with data at Pew Research Center indicating that

and initiatives that take from the past to protect

67 percent of African Americans were supporting

our youth’s futures. Borrowing from the struggles

the movement. Another poll was conducted in

of historical Civil Rights Movements in the United

September 2020 and showed a significant decline

States, African American students, in collaboration

in the movement’s popularity among Hispanics

with students from other minority ethnicities, have

and Whites, although the black adult following

been protesting injustice in their institutions as well

continued to increase. Unlike previous Civil Rights

as participating in national Civil Rights Movements,

Movements, the Black Lives Matter movement

including the Black Lives Matter movement. With

emphasizes grassroots organizations over the

the several student’s protests, the nation becomes

national coordination of its activities. The campaign

aware that the civil rights and equality fought for

has

African

by the civil rights icons have not yet been realized

Americans in other countries outside the United

in society. However, higher education has made

States, promoting black liberation and the fight for

significant positive steps towards accommodating

social justice.

the African American students, such as giving African

an

population

international

following

with

RACISM, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND THE

STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY AND EQUITY

Racism, Civil Rights, and the Struggle for Equality

48

American Students and other minorities unique slots in the admissions and allowing the development of influential grassroots students’ movements.

and Equity has been on for several years despite the

Last year, students were involved in numerous

passing of the Civil Rights Act by Congress in 1964.

protests in many colleges and universities. These

In America, People of Color struggle to achieve

protests were non-violent, including sit-ins and

equal rights and opportunities as White Citizens.

peaceful marching and demonstrations like those of

From the time of slavery, people of African descent

Civil Rights Movements. University Students played g

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g

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

49

FOREWORD

a crucial role in the Black Lives Matter movement

implementation of policies strengthening equality

protesting the failed induction of police officers

as well as creating an environment that enables

involved in killing African Americans. The slogan

racial and gender coexistence. To ensure equality,

of the Black Lives Matter movement resonates

some prominent organizations ensure they are a

with most African American students and other

true reflection of the American society by how it

minorities in higher education institutions. These

draws employees and suppliers from across the

students utilized the broad reach of social media

population demographics.

platforms to protest racial discrimination, police brutality, and other forms of social injustices.

Through the Twitter campaigns like the hashtag #BlackOnCampus, the students attracted the entire country’s attention and even initiated the resignation of some University officials. For instance, such protests led the president of Yale University to pledge a new academic center to address and research racism and inequality concerns in the institution. With the real-time impact of social media platforms and the broad reach, modern-day students in higher education institutions can easily advocate for racial equality compared to the 1960s Civil Rights Movements.

50

Some influential organizations such as the Coca-Cola

Company

have

guided

human

rights principles as part of the company’s fundamental values. These organizations ensure the communities they operate in have the opportunity to enjoy the human and civil rights given to them through the constitution. Today, several international human rights organizations independent of political ideologies and political interests are at the forefront of fighting for civil rights in the world. These organizations include Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch, Civil Rights Defenders, Human Rights Without Frontiers

International

(HRWFT),

Anti-Slavery

DIVERSITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

International, and Global Rights, among many

In the contemporary world, protesting and

others. Some organizations such as the Anti-

advocating for human rights and social justice

Slavery International are among the oldest in the

is not left solely for civil rights organizations.

fight for human rights, using United Nations (UN)

As a gesture of goodwill and corporate social

treaties and policies to eliminate any forms of

responsibility,

organizations

modern slavery in the international labor market.

and cooperate bodies participate in the fight

The collaboration of cooperate organizations and

for racial equality and condemn police brutality.

Civil Rights Movements shapes public opinions

World organizations, leading corporations, and

and creates pressure on government officials

small businesses make strides for equality for

to implement social justice and racial equality.

all races and all genders. Making their policies

Despite the achievements of the historical Civil

focused on progressive programs that support

Rights Movements and the 21st century Civil Rights

minorities of all types. These organizations

Movements, the struggle for equal treatment and

propagate civil rights through the formulation and

social justice for people of color is still on.

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60 Years

several

business

References 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of slavery. (2016, September 8). National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/13thamendment#:~:text=Passed%20by%20Congress%20on%20January,within Civil rights veteran C.T. Vivian dies at 95. (2020, July 17). NBC News. https://www. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rev-c-t-vivian-civil-rights-veteran-who-workedalongside-n1234136 “Congressman John R. Lewis Biography and Interview”. www.achievement. org. American Academy of Achievement. Archived from the original on February 20, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2021.

Cullors-Brignac, Patrisse Marie (February 23, 2016). “We didn’t start a movement. We started a network.” Medium. Retrieved December 18, 2016.

Eligon, John (November 18, 2015). “One Slogan, Many Methods: Black Lives Matter Enters Politics.” The New York Times. Retrieved December 18, 2016.

Fremon, David (2000). The Jim Crow Laws and Racism in American History.

Enslow. ISBN 0766012972.

Gates, Henry Louis and Appiah, Anthony. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. 1999, p. 1211

Martin Luther King Jr. (2020, January 23). Biography. https://www.biography.com/ activist/martin-luther-king-jr On this day in Alabama history: Freedom riders arrived in Anniston. (2017, May 9).

Alabama NewsCenter. https://alabamanewscenter.com/2017/05/14/day-alabamahistory-freedom-riders-arrived-anniston/ Racism, civil rights, and the struggle for equality still issue in higher education today.

(2016, January 18). GoodCall.com. https://www.goodcall.com/news/racism-civil-rightsand-the-struggle-for-equality-still-issues-in-higher-education-today-04039/ Roberts, Frank (July 13, 2018). “How Black Lives Matter Changed the Way Americans Fight for Freedom.” American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved June 15, 2020.

Rojas, Fabio (June 20, 2020). “Moving beyond the rhetoric: a comment on Szetela’s critique of the Black Lives Matter movement.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. 43 (8): 1407– 1413. doi:10.1080/01419870.2020.1718725. ISSN 0141-9870. S2CID 213636514.

“Support for Black Lives Matter has decreased since June but remains strong among Black Americans.” Pew Research Center. September 16, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.

Twenty-five international human rights organizations. (2020, July 12). Human Rights Careers. https://www.humanrightscareers.com/magazine/international-human-rightsorganizations/

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Remembe 52

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bering

the FREEDOM

RIDERS and their

LEGACY

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53

O

A STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE

the Civil Rights Movement. Through their bus tours,

Thirteen civil rights activists boarded interstate

federal government to take the decisive action which

States, challenging the widespread racial segregation

aggression which the Freedom Riders had to endure

perilous, and on every stretch, they were confronted

onlookers, and more and more people began turning

punishments. The riders were attacked and beaten,

the federal government was compelled to step in with

in motion which would forever rewrite history.

they applied increasing amounts of pressure on the

buses venturing into the heart of the Southern United

they had been avoiding for so long. The violence and

practices in public transportation. Their journey was

from their opponents shocked national and international

with harassment, threats, violence, arrests, and cruel

against the segregationists in the South. At long last,

and at one point one of their buses were firebombed

legislative change.

perseverance that they brought international attention

The selfless bravery and dedication of the Freedom

en route, but it was through their resourcefulness and to the ongoing Civil Rights Movement.

54

The Freedom Riders played a pivotal role in driving

n May 4th, 1961, a series of events were set

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Riders inspired others to join their movement, especially

the achievements they accomplished, has never been more important. These riders revolutionized the Civil

Rights Movement, and by understanding the impact that they have had upon our history, we can appreciate just how critical it is that we continue the momentum of the events that they set in motion.

By coming into the firing line when racial tensions

had never been higher, at great personal sacrifice to

themselves, the Freedom Rider’s calls for justice and

equality created reverberations which have echoed

through the decades to this present moment. Their voices continue to inspire, educate, and awaken, amplifying

the voices of diversity in the present and bringing to

the forefront the long-standing struggles our country continues to face.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE FREEDOM RIDES

In the year of 1947, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Fellowship of Reconciliation commenced their “Journey of Reconciliation”. This interracial bus

journey was to be a two-week pilgrimage which would travel through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and

Kentucky. The purpose of the “Journey of Reconciliation” was to bring the national spotlight upon the racial

segregation brutally enforced on public transportation throughout Southern cities and states in America. It was

also a response to a Supreme Court decision, Morgan v.

Virginia, which had declared in 1946 that segregation within the interstate bus system was unconstitutional.

The “Journey of Reconciliation”, however, struggled to

attract sufficient media interest or nationwide attention, as a result of which it didn’t quite have the lasting impact when it came to persuading more Black Americans

to actively protest the injustices, infringements, and discrimination which they had been subjected to for

so long. People from outside of the black community

witnessed, first-hand, the enormous scale of the atrocities which had been happening for so long, pushing them to join the fight for equality as well.

The sacrifices of the Freedom Riders were immense, but

they were not in vain. They completely transformed the way in which people travelled in the United States, and

they set the stage for the passing of the Civil Rights Act

of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Remembering the legacy of the Freedom Riders, and the magnitude of

which CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation had been hoping to achieve. Still, this initiative would become

a pivotal historical moment in the Civil Rights Movement, not least because it paved the way for the Freedom Rides of 1961.

Inspired by the “Journey of Reconciliation” more than

decade ago, thirteen young civil rights activists from the Congress of Racial Equality embarked upon the first of the Freedom Rides in the spring of 1961. They

were continuing the momentum of a movement which their predecessors had initiated more than fourteen years before, challenging the racial segregation which occurred on interstate buses and bus terminals. Some of

the Riders were only teenagers, and yet on May 4th, 1961, g

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55

they departed from Washington D.C. on Greyhound

gather momentum, whilst during this same period

an eventful and troubled national context of protests,

harassment and harsh segregation in the Jim Crow South.

and Trailsway buses. The Freedom Rides occurred in

boycotts as well as the emergence of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Non-

Violence Coordinating Committee. This time around, however, the shocking treatment the Freedom Riders

were subjected to harnessed enough national attention

In the light of national events, as well as the 1960 Boynton

v. Virginia ruling, CORE began recruiting volunteers to participate in the Freedom Rides. The purpose of the Freedom Rides were two-fold, to take a stand against

to bring conversations around civil rights to the forefront

racial segregation as well as determine the extent to which

enforcement and legislative changes.

The Freedom Rides, therefore would be a lengthy bus trip

Following the Morgan v. Virginia ruling in 1946, the U.S.

Southern States. CORE began advertising for participants

of the political agenda, ultimately leading to federal

Supreme Court issued another ruling in 1960, Boynton

v. Virginia, which decided that segregation in the various facilities provided for interstate travellers was

unconstitutional as well. These facilities included bus

the Boynton v. Virginia ruling would be actually enforced. which would take the volunteers deep into the midst of the and reviewing applications, and their intention was to select candidates from across a broad geographic distribution and of varying ethnicities and ages.

terminals, restaurants, and restrooms. The Freedom Rides

At last, the original Freedom Riders were chosen –

– the Civil Rights Movement was truly beginning to

and from across the United States. Before their official

were initiated in the midst of a tumultuous backdrop

56

black Americans were being subject to ongoing routine

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thirteen Black and White men and women of various ages,

journey, the thirteen volunteers completed several days

It was on May 14th, 1961, that the Freedom Riders pulled

prepared for potential harassment and hostility through

awaiting their arrival was a seething and raging mob. The

of training in Washington. During their training, they were role-playing, so that they could learn how to respond in non-violent and constructive ways.

Originally the plan was for the Freedom Riders to travel

to New Orleans, Louisiana, where a major civil rights rally had been organized. Their journey, however, went far from

smoothly and was disrupted by shocking violence and indiscriminate opposition in the cities of the Deep South.

BLOODSHED, VIOLENCE & DISCRIMINATION

In the spring of 1961, the Freedom Riders departed from Washington, D.C., in two buses. Their final stop was to be New Orleans, but no amount of training could have

into Anniston, Alabama. It was Mother’s Day, and yet local officials in the area more or less gave the mobsters the go ahead to attack the Riders without any fear of

reprisal or consequence. The first bus was firebombed

in Anniston, with the mob barricading the doors so that the Riders were trapped inside. As they desperately tried to flee the burning vehicle, the Riders were forced into the violent mob and they were viciously beaten. Once the second bus had reached Anniston, the mob had no intention of reigning in their attack, and they rapidly

boarded the bus and began to beat the Freedom Riders in there as well.

prepared them for what was to come. Initially, they faced

Even with the odds so hopelessly stacked against them,

that they arrived in Rock Hill in the state of California that

their way to Birmingham, Alabama. There was no respite

some resistance and arrests in Virginia, but it wasn’t until they first encountered violence. When they attempted to go into a segregated restroom, two of the Riders were subjected to inhumane beatings whilst another one was arrested. This incident attracted widespread media

coverage, but even with the eyes of the nation tracking their every movement, their journey ahead was fraught with yet more difficulties.

the Riders persevered and managed to continue on

for the Freedom Riders at this bus terminal either, where they were attacked with fists, baseball bats, iron

pipes and bicycle chains. Reports of the fire-bombings and bloodshed reached the office of the U.S. Attorney

General Robert Kennedy, who sent a message to CORE

urging them to exercise restraint. This was the last thing

the Freedom Riders wanted however, even in the face g

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57

of threats of violence and death, and they continued on their way to Montgomery, Alabama.

Kennedy arranged for an escort to bring them to their next destination, but radio reports began trickling in of a

as well as the difficulties of searching for a bus driver and

various other logistical challenges, the Freedom Riders were stranded in Birmingham for several days.

mob awaiting the Freedom Riders at the Montgomery bus

It was at this point that Robert F. Kennedy, the U.S.

bus refused to drive any of the Riders anywhere.

F. Kennedy, began negotiations with the Governor of

attention to the Civil Rights Movement, thereby achieving

driver as well as state protection for the Freedom Riders.

decided to finish their bus journey and fly to New Orleans

their journey at last on a Greyhound bus, accompanied by

been arranged there.

proved to be futile however, and the police escort had

terminal. Upon hearing this, the driver of the Greyhound

Attorney General and the brother of President John

Recognizing that their efforts had drawn national

Alabama and the bus companies in order to secure a

what they had originally set out to do, the Freedom Riders

With these arrangements, the Freedom Rides resumed

by plane so that they could attend the rally which had

a police escort on May 20th, 1961. These arrangements

Upon hearing of the decision to bring the Freedom Rides to an end, onlooking students activists were concerned and frustrated. One of these students activists was Diana

Nash, who argued that if the Rides were cancelled in fear

of further violence, then the movement would collapse before it had really achieved anything. Diane Nash was a

prominent figure amongst student activists in Nashville, Tennessee, who had previously organized a successful

Black student-led sit-in campaign for civil rights in 1960.

abandoned the Freedom Riders by the time their bus had

pulled into the Montgomery, Alabama terminal. There, the travellers were attacked by an angry mob armed with

baseball bats and clubs. Ambulances refused to take the wounded to the hospital, and it was left to local Black

residents to rescue them. The violence had been far from quelled – it was only escalating. In the face of these

rising aggressions, the situation was rapidly accelerating towards a breaking point.

Alongside her fellow members from the Student Non-

The following night Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., alongside

to continue the Freedom Rides which had been brought

Ralph David Abernathy and Reverend Shuttlesworth,

Violence Coordinating Committee (SNCC), she decided

the prominent Civil Rights Activists and Ministers Reverend

to an abrupt end in Birmingham, Alabama.

held a mass meeting in Abernathy’s First Baptist Church

This decision was received with scepticism and reservations,

3000-strong hostile mob gathered outside the church,

even amongst members of the SNCC as well as CORE. Many of those concerned saw it as a suicide mission, and it was because of this fractured support that Diana Nash and

the colleagues struggled to secure the financial resources they needed. Nevertheless, their arrangements were soon

finalized and on May 17th, 1961, seven men and three women departed from Nashville for Birmingham so that they could resume the Freedom Rides.

in Montgomery. Upon hearing of this congregation, a incited to violence. They then went on to hold the civil

rights leaders, and the 1,500 attendees, hostage within the church. With local authorities making no efforts to control

the unrest, civil rights leaders appealed to the President for protection. In response, President Kennedy issued a stern warning that he would despatch federal troops if the

governor refused to intervene. Under increasing pressure, Governor John Patterson was forced to declare martial law

ESCALATION AND FEDERAL INTERVENTION

and send in the Alabama National Guard.

and political act because the leaders of the Nashville

On May 22nd, 1961, more Freedom Riders disembarked

Continuing the Freedom Rides was at once a symbolic Student Movement and the members of the SNCC who were coordinating these tours firmly believed that had

to do everything they could to ensure that violence never prevailed over non-violence. Upon reaching Birmingham, however, the bus was taken to the side and

directed to another station in the city, where the Riders

were promptly arrested and then imprisoned by the draconian police Commissioner Bull Connor. They were

58

charged with violating segregation laws. With the arrests,

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

THE COOLING-OFF PERIOD

in Montgomery so that they could replace the wounded

Riders who were still recuperating in hospital and continue the Freedom Rides through the South. Meanwhile, the

Kennedy administration had arranged an agreement with the governors of Alabama and Mississippi, which was to the effect that the state police and National Guard would

protect the Riders throughout their travels. In turn, the

federal government promised not to stand in the way of g

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the arrest and incarceration of any Freedom Riders who violated segregation ordinances.

It was just a couple of days later, on May 24th, 1960, that the Freedom Riders left Montgomery, Alabama for Jackson, Mississippi. Although they were protected by the Highway Patrol and National Guard, they were promptly arrested when they attempted to use the white-only facilities upon arrival. They were charged with trespassing and incarcerated in jails throughout the state, with some Freedom Riders even being imprisoned within the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary, otherwise known as “Parchman Farm”. Shortly after, the Kennedys issued a state urging a ‘cooling off’ period due to the ongoing and escalating violence.

60

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They argued that these Rides and the turmoil which

they had ushered into the country had become a

source of embarrassment for the nation on the global stage. The United States had become the focus of

international scrutiny for its dismal civil rights record, sparking widespread outrage which was contributing to the building pressure on American political orders

to at last take action. Organizations such as CORE and

SNCC criticized these calls for a ‘cooling off’ period, and their response was to create the Freedom Riders

Coordinating Committee so that they could continue the Rides into the months ahead. More than sixty Freedom Rides were launched throughout the South from June to

September, with more than four hundred Freedom Riders

participating. They fought against not only segregation

in interstate transportation, but also in other aspects of public life, such as restaurants and hotels.

In

September,

the

CORE

and

SNCC

Movement. The horrific injuries and suffering which leadership

began planning for the “Washington Project”, a mass demonstration

which

could

The Freedom Rides were pivotal to the Civil Rights

potentially

mobilize

were inflicted upon the Freedom Riders shocked and disappointed many Americans throughout the United States. The problem of racial segregation in interstate

thousands of non-violent protestors within the capital

travel, as well as within other aspects of public life,

pressure on the Kennedy administration to back the Civil

religious, and moral conscience. Indeed, John Lewis,

wasn’t necessary. Instead, the federal government

original group of Freedom Riders, was elected to the

to outlaw segregated seating, permitting passengers to

Lewis continued to represent the district of Georgia

city. The purpose of this demonstration was to apply

was brought to the forefront of the American political,

Rights Movements. In the end, the Washington Project

who happened to be one of the thirteen from the

petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

U.S. House of Representatives in 1986. As a Democrat,

sit wherever they may please, regardless of their race.

until his death in 2020.

On November 1st, 1961, ‘white’ and ‘colored’ signs were

removed from terminals, drinking fountains, toilets and restaurants were no longer racially separated and lunch counters began serving customers of all colors.

THE LEGACY OF THE FREEDOM RIDES

The Freedom Rides of 1961 brought national and international focus to the Southern segregationists’

blatant disregard for their unconstitutional practices and

their shocking acts of violence against black citizens.

There’s no doubt that the Freedom Rides marked a significant evolution in the strategies and approaches

of the Civil Rights Movement. Importantly, civil rights leaders and activists realized that non-violent initiatives

could actually deliver positive outcomes, even in the face of violent opposition from white supremacists. The Freedom Rides also represented an unprecedented level

of engagement between the federal government and Civil Rights Movement leaders, something which resulted in tangible and meaningful outcomes.

A MODERN PERSPECTIVE

The story of the Freedom Riders, and the trials, tribulations, and challenges that they faced, is incredibly evocative and thought-provoking. Something which should resonate strongly with the collective conscience upon closer inspection is the realization that a long and arduous path still stretches out before us when it comes to attaining true racial equality. The momentum for the movement that promised to inspire and instigate radical social changes during the 20th Century can’t afford to lose any impetus, especially in these fraught times.

Arguably, revolutionary change has never been more necessary. The era of legislated and overt racism may have become a bleak memory of the past, but the undertones of racial discrimination and marginalisation are present in one form or another in every component of

contemporary society. Fundamental institutions

such as education, justice, politics, and entertainment

Moreover, the Freedom Rides inspired participation

continue

equality and justice. These campaigns included voter

the Black Community.

Black Power movement. In the years and decades to come,

A truly equal society would be one where an individual’s

would only become more apparent. In 1964, the passage of

unaffected by the color of their skin or ethnic roots.

within public and private facilities. The following year, the

of racism in homes, communities and institutions will

discriminatory voting practices. Reaching these milestones

the ideologies upon which modern society has been

physical violence, imprisonment and even murder as they

Riders is critical because it is a legacy which must be

within other civil rights campaigns directed towards racial

registration in the South, freedom schools as well as the

to

perpetuate

stereotypes,

beliefs

and

attitudes that undermine the identities and histories of

the magnitude of what the Freedom Rides had achieved

experiences in the public and private spheres are

the Civil Rights Act officially outlawed racial discrimination

Addressing the invisible and unspoken manifestations

Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed in order to outlaw

require a thorough dismantling and restructuring of

was far from straightforward, with various activists facing

founded. Remembering the legacy of the Freedom

fought for their rights to reside as equal citizens in America.

honored and fulfilled to this day.

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61

RACISM 62

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M SLAVERY & THE TITANIC STRUGGLE OF THE COLORED PEOPLE OF AMERICA FROM

to the

ABOLITION “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

F

- Transcription Declaration of Independence.

or over a hundred years, racism – the blatant elevation of one race over another

– continues to thrive in the United States. The evidence is everywhere; from the incarceration of predominantly black males and the skewed treatment of

different races by law enforcement to economic opportunities and outright

denial of basic rights; Black people continue to suffer under the heavy shackles of

racism. The preponderance of racial injustice in the 21st century is an anomaly that should not be discussed, yet the same issues dominate headlines.

The murder of a Black man by Officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis in 2020 shows

that even currently in our existence, racism still has a firm footing in the United States.

George Floyd’s death led to widespread outrage and ignited the Black Lives Matter Movement one that was so massive that it reverberated around the world. Yet, what

changes has that brought us? Has that by any means unraveled the intricate thread

of racism that has been woven deep into the fabrics of a nation that professes to be g

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63

a haven for people of all races and colors? It may be too soon to answer these questions, but the one thing

George Floyd’s death proves is the existence of the monster of racism.

Racism can be traced back to the 16th century when more than 10 million people were taken from Africa

to the American Coast in what has become known as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The number of

slaves transported out of Africa climbed to 30,000 in

the 1690s and was nearly tripled in the century that

followed. By 1790, there were about 700,000 slaves

in the United States which accounted for about 18 percent of the country’s population at the time. These African men and women were forcefully uprooted from their original homes and brought to the Americas specifically to do grunt work. These slaves would work and toil in American fields, helping to lay the foundation of an economy that benefit current dwellers; they

toiled in the cotton fields, rice, tobacco, and plantain plantations in several parts of the new world. Slave

owners also made money from trading their slaves, with humans marketed as mere commodities.

Inhuman treatments, mutilations, whipping, branding

with hot irons, rape, murder, and other despicable acts were inflicted on these people. It was even worse

for the slaves who tried to escape, Thomas Brown, a

South Carolina slave speaking about his experience said; “I was severely punished by a board cut full of

holes to raise the blisters, then I was whipped with a

strap to burst the blisters, which were then salted and peppered. This burned me very badly.” Bill Collins, an Alabama slave spoke of the cruelty of his master; “He

would buckle us across a log and whip us until we were unable to walk for three days.” There are more stories like these, of slaves, whipped to death by their masters and more. There were instances of rape, owners sleeping with their female slaves and in some cases getting them pregnant.

There are records of slave rebellions most of which

were unsuccessful. With the weight of the inhumanity,

slaves like Thomas Brown would attempt to flee from g

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African Americans harvesting cotton. Illustration originally published in Hesse-Wartegg's "Nord Amerika”; Swedish edition published in 1880.

FREEDOMRIDERS

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65

their masters and their punishment was similar or worse

Several events, including the Civil War, would contribute

Frederick Douglas was one of the slaves that made a

Freedom was granted to slaves on the 1st of January 1863,

than above, severe enough to deter another attempt. daring yet successful escape from slavery, but his case

was one in a million and was not enough to motivate

many slave escapes because there were more failures than there were successes and slave owners made a point of making bad examples of escaped slaves.

Freed Black slaves would form the core of the Abolitionist Movement, a movement determined to see the end of

slavery. This could be the first legitimate organized black

movement for the freedom of black slaves in America.

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to the ongoing discussion about the abolition of slavery.

but that was only to slaves willing to fight in the Civil War. The 14th Amendment would grant citizenship rights to

slaves, including the right to vote which would come in the 15th Amendment, but all these rights were overlooked by the Whites who still retained their superiority complex and looked upon Blacks as racially inferior.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Freedom did not taste as good as it sounded for Black people who were free only in words. The titanic struggle

to be recognized as full-blooded humans first and then as

that Black people could not use the same public facilities as

abolition was fully achieved. Blacks were still marginalized

marry. Black people could not vote either. It was the height

full-blooded Americans raged on for several years after the economically, in education, employment, housing and

otherwise and treated as second class citizens even after

the 14th and 15th Amendments granted them citizenship rights. This bid to overcome racial ill and topple the

institution of slavery remained the primary motivators of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Jim Crow Laws, which were designed to keep Black

people in further darkness, was established in the 1870s.

These laws separated Whites from Blacks and simply meant

Whites or go to the same schools, live in the same towns, or of the whole inhumanity as this division showed how the white community viewed the freed slaves.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois or W.E.B Du Bois would

become a prominent voice for racial equality in 1909.

He, alongside some prominent Black Leaders and White Americans who were in support of equal rights, would form

the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This organization fought to secure equal

employment, education, housing, and other opportunities g

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67

for African Americans. The pressure from this organization and other like organization led to the executive order against employment discrimination from Franklin D. Roosevelt.

By the 1950s the Civil Rights Movement had taken on a more energetic turn, becoming a flaming inferno as the Blacks

began a wider agitation for equal rights and inclusion.

There was a student walkout led by 16-year-old Barbara

1964 represented precisely such a hope; that America had learned from its past

and acted to secure a better tomorrow,” - Aberjhani

Johns at Virginia High School which led to the decision

The Civil Right Act was signed into law by Lyndon B.

system. People of all types were involved in the movement,

rights in 1965. The Civil Rights Act abolished all segregation

reasons why the movement was successful.

public accommodation like courthouses, parks, restaurants,

Matters came to a head on the 1st of December 1955 when

wherever they wanted, work wherever they desired and go

from the Supreme Court to end segregation in the school

Johnson in 1964. It would be expanded to include voting

it was not divided by age or education, which is one of the

based on race, religion, or national origin in all places of

Rosa Parks stood up against segregation. When the bus driver asked Rosa and three other Black people to stand

for some white men who could not find a seat in the white

section of an Alabama bus, she refused to get off her seat.

theatres, sports grounds and more. Blacks were free to live to school wherever their cognitive capabilities could get them a place. No restaurant, drugstore or service provider

could deny a man service because of the color of their skin.

Her subsequent arrest would ignite a fiery Civil Rights

It was not the end, but that little victory will lead to several

massive boycott and protests that followed were major

playing field for people of all races and all colors.

Boycott would last from December 1955 to November of

the following year, almost a whole year before the Supreme

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY RACISM AND A CONTINUED STRUGGLE

Luther King, Jr. became the spearhead of Black Advocacy

bills that set African Americans free happened

people over to the fight for equality. Besides himself, there

under the heavy weight of racism. There had

Rights Movement including Harriet Tubman, Sojourner

come to know to something more insidious

the course of history.

was out there for everyone to see but now the

Movement that would change the course of history. The catalysts that changed the American landscape. The Bus

other laws aimed at making the American landscape a fair

Court ordered the desegregation of the bus system. Martin

While the abolition of slavery and the passing of the

and his non-violent style of agitation and won several

several years ago, Black people are still struggling

were other prominent Black Leaders involved in the Civil

been a migration from the overt evil we have

Truth, Malcolm X, and many others who helped to change

and institutionalized. In the early days, this evil

There were other movements and protest to completely kill

the Jim Crow Laws. Most of the segregation issues, whether

it is in housing or business were gradually torn down

between the 1950s and 1960s. There was a sit-in organized

68

“The passage of the Civil Rights Act of

wickedness continues to thrive in the shadows, the shackles are still there, holding the Black man down in places where his voice cannot be heard no matter how loudly he yells.

by kids in North Carolina where they went into the white

The most blatant signs of racism can be found

the Freedom Rides that were a series of political protests

sought protection in the first place, in the justice

through the American South in 1961.

fail him? Statistics show that African Americans are g

neighborhoods where blacks were not welcome. And

in the place where African Americans would have

segregation by Blacks and Whites who rode buses together

system. Where would a man seek justice if the courts

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60 Years

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69

five times more likely to be incarcerated than their white counterparts.

This does not necessarily mean that there are more criminal tendencies

in the Black people than in White. Studies have shown that contrasting

racial policies, practices and beliefs are the major reasons behind the incarceration of several Blacks and others. Of course, there is no possible reason why White people are the less incarcerated people in the whole system.

In such states as Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin, the incarceration of Black to White people occurs at a rate of 10:1, double what you get from most of the other states sitting at a much-skewed rate

of 5:1. In twelve states of the United States, 1 in 20 adult Black males are

in prison. The statistics show a decidedly imbalanced justice system that seems to stereotype and incarcerate a particular race most times, without due diligence. How do you reconcile the fact that in twelve of the fifty states, more than half the prison population is Black?

Statistics from the United States Department of Justice provided statistics that measured incarceration rate from 1978 – 2014 which showed that

African Americans are incarcerated at the rate of 1,408 per 100,000

residents while Whites are incarcerated at the rate of 275 per 100,000

residents. The system keeps more Black people in shackles, not because of proven crimes or anything that is remotely related to the maintenance of the people’s safety, instead, we have a racial bias at the forefront of

it all. The skewed image these particularly disturbing statistics paint to

the uninitiated is that Blackness is synonymous with criminal activity. One

may argue that the rates above are old and out of date, but research findings published in 2018 shows there were 2,272 inmates out of

100,000 Black men. These statistics will become particularly disturbing if one understands the fact that whites make up about 63 percent share of the U.S. adult population while blacks held only 12 percent, these numbers that are sharply reversed when the prisons are mentioned.

The racial stereotyping and the institutionalized racism that has led to more incarceration of Blacks have been a part of the intrinsic narrative which has led to wrong sentencing for many. There is an unstated bias existing in the justice system which continues to put away Black men while protecting Whites. The privilege enjoyed by a particular section of

the community continually impoverishes another section, of course, there are other disadvantaged groups but there is no more disadvantaged group than the Blacks.

Racism in the workplace is still an issue, as blacks are often left with poor jobs and are underrepresented in management positions. Currently, only

8 percent of management roles are occupied by Blacks while only 3.8 g

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Side view of group of people activists with raised fists protesting on streets, protests demonstration and coronavirus concept. October 2020.

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71

percent of Blacks are CEOs, 85 percent of executive board

found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal

Harvard Business Review shows that only 2.4 percent of

Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback. The department

positions are occupied by Whites. Research published on executive committee members in the United States finance

companies were Blacks, while there were only 1.4 percent

Blacks in a managing director role. In the education sector, only 7 percent of higher education administrators were

Black. The discrepancies can be found in all sectors of the United States economy, from businesses, law, politics and

elsewhere. The African American people were always kept

on the wayside, like discarded goods that would not be applied elsewhere.

notified counsel for Mr. Rice’s family of the decision and sent a letter to Mr. Rice’s family explaining the findings of the investigation and reasons for the decision.

In 2015 Walter Scott was stopped in North Charleston, South Carolina for having a defective light on his vehicle. The struggle ended with Walter Scott getting five bullets in the

back, receiving a punishment that was not commensurate with his crime. Alton Sterling would be killed in Louisiana after police responded to a disturbance call outside a

The worst indicator of modern racism in the United States

neighborhood and just like most, the officers involved did

hands of law enforcement officers. The brutal murder of

during a routine check. According to his girlfriend, Philando

is found in the numerous Black deaths experienced at the

not face any criminal charges. Philando Castile lost his life

Black men in the hands of police officers might number

was only reaching for his license.

more than Black people saved by the police. Eric Garner was

wrestled to the ground in 2014 by a New York Police Officer

on the suspicion of selling cigarettes illegally. His life was lost based on suspicion alone. He was recorded as saying “I can’t breathe” eleven times, a phrase that was recorded once

more in the events of 2020. On the 22nd of November 2014, Tamir Rice was shot dead in Cleveland, Ohio by a police

officer. The heartbreaking part of Tamir Rice’s case was that he was only twelve-years-old. The shooting occurred after a

report of a juvenile pointing a gun which was probably fake

at passersby. The officer who shot Tamir reported that they

had asked Tamir to drop the weapon but instead of dropping

Two recent deaths would spike the Black Lives Matter Movement. Breonna Taylor was shot eight times when

police officers raided her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky.

They had arrived to execute a search warrant as part of a drugs raid, but no drug was found in her home. George

Floyd was the next and most prominent of the Black people

to lose their lives in the hands of White men. The police arrested him in Minneapolis and thrown on the ground and

while the officer had his knee of George’s neck, the victim was recorded as saying; “I cannot breathe.”

Hours later video footage the incident was shared across

that, he pointed it at the police.

several social media platforms and soon after people across

Imagine a White kid of the same age pointing a fake gun

to be brought to justice, and there was a loud call for an end

at passersby, would the officers have reacted in the same

way? There is a bias that made the officers react that way, the institutionalized racism that made grown men scared of

a child is one that clearly shows the problem of the system.

The saddest part of this evil remains that none of the officers who murdered Tamir were ever brought to justice. The

Justice Department Announced the closing of investigation into 2014 officer involved shooting in Cleveland, Ohio

stated on December 29, 2020; The Justice Department

announced today that the career prosecutors reviewing the independent federal investigation into the fatal shooting

of Tamir Rice on November 22, 2014, in Cleveland, Ohio,

72

charges against Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) Officers

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60 Years

the globe would join the agitation for the officers involved to police brutality and racism in the United States. It became the biggest Black Movement to date because the officers

involved were exposed on global platforms and people across the U.S. protested and demanded that these accused

officers were to be held accountable. On May 29, 2021 the Hennepin County attorney, Mike Freeman, announced third-

degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges against Derek Chauvin, the officer seen most clearly in

witness videos pinning Mr. Floyd to the ground. On June 3, 2021 Hennepin County prosecutors added a more serious

second-degree murder charge against Mr. Chauvin and

charged each of the three other former officers — Thomas g

A pair of shackles from the time of slavery.

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73

Street view protesters create a mob scene blocking an intersection for George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Tacoma June 1, 2020.

Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao — with aiding and

Science and Technology and Mathematics are products of

Chauvin was found guilty on all charges.

show that 75 percent of Black Americans holding Doctorate

abetting second-degree murder. On April 20, 2021 Derek

HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STRUGGLE

“Under-resourced institutions that serve under-resourced people”

degrees, 75 percent of Black officers in the armed forces and 80 percent of Black Federal Judges have a background in HBCU institutions.

The purpose of HBCUs formation was to ensure inclusivity and offer opportunities to people who may not be able to

receive the same elsewhere. It must be mentioned that this

- Walter M. Kimbrough, Dillard University President

does in no guise affect the quality of education on offer

Black Americans had no option but to fend for themselves

Jim Crow Laws are no longer in practice, racial prejudice

could not get into white-run colleges and universities,

the inclusivity practiced in HBCU schools mean that the

people were not left behind academically. This need to

quality education.

to these Black students. In our modern world where the

when the Jim Crow Laws were in full swing. Since they

remains a part and parcel of our everyday existence

something had to be done to ensure that young Black

marginalized people of America and other races still gain

ensure that young Black students got the education they

deserved led to the establishment of Historically Black

Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), which were designed to offer quality and accredited education to black youth all over the United States.

There is no gainsaying the impact HBCUs have had on

the Black Community especially in terms of creating that

equalizing effect and changing the course of Black lives.

Currently, about 25 percent of all Black graduates in

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HBCUs. Studies carried out by the department of education

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

At a time when Black American youths may be confused

by what is going on or swayed by the skewed histories

surrounding them, HBCUs are the perfect equalizers,

offering these students a focal point and a stable direction.

They have teachers who are steeped in the African American

cultural history, who are aware of the past and could guide

these students to navigate the waters without losing it all.

These colleges and universities are charged not only with being a safe space for everybody, but they also take on the

HIDDEN RACISM

“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible” - Maya Angelou

The American landscape has been littered with several instances of racial prejudice. The biggest problem is no

longer the overt racial bias or the whips to the back or the obvious elitist behavior of those who believe that they are much better than other people because of their skin color; the problem at this time is hidden, lurking behind the

surface, constantly threatening to burst out of the shadows and destroy unsuspecting people.

On the surface, one would think that racism is not a thing

anymore. Segregation is over, everyone can vote, the

market is freer than it had ever been, and opportunities are available for everyone. Yet all of these are simply on

the surface, the important actions and reactions are taking burden of preserving Black History and Culture, ensuring that the truth remains accessible.

Virginia State University offers a course on the History of the Historically Black College and University, critical

analysis and writing that discusses the historical and cultural topic within Historically Black College

place in the background. Oftentimes, discussions of racial

issues are not approached as they are because of the institutionalized nature of racism. It has become a deep part

of most organizations where people just take one look at a

person and decide that the individual is either dangerous or unqualified simply by their skin color.

University,

The picture of African Americans dominating the prisons

others are creating innovative curricular changes that

criminals. It is these simple issues that continually plant ideas

nascent memory.

thing to eradicate. The continued enforcement of certain

and

University.

Besides

Virginia

State

Smith University and

teaches the next generation that Blacks are naturally

ensure that black history is not completely wiped off

in the mind of the next generation, making racism a difficult

other HBCUs like Johnson C.

There are financial mechanisms in place to help students

stereotypes continually handicaps the Black population.

remain in school even when it seems they cannot go on

The walk has been long, and the night has been even longer.

keep down student loans and graduate without being

after movement to escape the shackles of racism. In the

remembering the pains of the past, they fight for today

and less consideration for the color of the skin. Yet most

for them.

privilege and the racial imbalance in the United States.

anymore. HBCUs actively fight to help their students

Blacks have been struggling year after year, movement

swallowed up in debt; this is the battle they fight,

21st century, there should be more respect for human life

and the future, for those who have no one else to fight

of the country will continue to deny the existence of white

Sources Hbr.org/2019/towards-a-racially-just-world Sentencingproject.org History.com/topics/blackhistory/slavery

Theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_ life/article Bbc.com/news/world-us-canada

History.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act Thebestschools.org/magazine/past-presentfuture-importance-of-hbcus/

Brittannica.com/event/American-civil-rightsmovement/Montgomery-bus-bycott-to-thevoting-rights-act

FREEDOMRIDERS

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75

76

FREEDOMRIDERS

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AN INTERVIEW WITH

Jessica Epperson EDUCATION SPECIALIST AT FREEDOM RIDERS NATIONAL MONUMENT

WHEN DID YOU FIRST LEARN ABOUT THE FREEDOM RIDERS?

I

long-term sub position, I started my Masters Program in

Education. The next school year I got a teaching position

first learned about the Freedom Riders in 2019.

in Florida and stayed there for 3 years.

Then moved

another park and when he told me he was going to be

classroom teaching was 2015-2016 school year.

Superintendent Kris Butcher and I had worked together in

to Maryland and taught for a year. And my last year of

the Superintendent here I looked to see what the Freedom

discouraged because I hated teaching. After thinking my

I was

Rides were.

whole life that that was what I was meant to do, and getting

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN EDUCATION?

so unhappy in my job. But I quit. I didn’t know what I was

I always thought that I was going to be a teacher. When I

was young, I always wanted to play school and, while I was

a terrible student, I had always wanted to be a teacher.

Having barely graduated my parents suggested the military and that seemed like a good choice at the time so I went for

it. After serving in the U.S. Navy for five years I came home

and worked for the YMCA as an afterschool care provider and then served a mission for my church. Those were my first real experiences with any kind of teaching. When I came back from my mission I went to college and got my

the degrees, and spending the time I was upset that I was going to do but I couldn’t be a classroom teacher anymore.

I was too unhappy. So, I turned to my parents for counsel, and they recommended the federal government. I didn’t know what I was going to do in the federal government

but I started searching and saw a posting for a job at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park for

an Education Specialist. I read the description and said to myself “I can do that!” So, I applied and 3 months later I was working for the park service.

Bachelors with a double major in Spanish and Political

WHAT FUELED YOUR PASSION FOR EDUCATING

sub. I had never had any formal teaching education and

My passion is teaching. It turns out I was just not meant to

2 months when they filled the position permanently and

this opportunity is that I get to develop education programs

time and as a substitute the rest of the time. During the

remember learning about the Freedom Rides in school. g

Science. After graduation I started teaching as a long-term

PEOPLE ABOUT THE FREEDOM RIDERS?

kind of jumped right in. I was a long-term sub for about

be a classroom teacher. The thing I am most grateful for in

spent the rest of my time working as a dental assistant part

that will provide important resources to teachers. I don’t

Anniston Civil Rights Heritage Trail information sign stop. Photo provided by National Park Service (NPS).

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77

I don’t ever remember even hearing about them. So

WHAT IS THE OVERALL TONE OF THE FREEDOM

leave school as ignorant about the Civil Rights Movement

DOES THE FREEDOM RIDERS NATIONAL MONUMENT

having the opportunity to make sure that students don’t as I did is what fuels me now. I am excited to begin program development and work with local teachers to

identify the needs and see how our resources can help to meet those needs.

HOW DOES EDUCATION PLAY A KEY ROLE IN UNITING OUR COMMUNITIES?

I think that education plays a huge role in uniting our communities because the divide in our communities comes

from ignorance. Education is the key to overcoming ignorance.

HOW DO YOU THINK THE FREEDOM RIDERS NATIONAL MONUMENT HAS PUSHED

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOMENTUM SINCE ITS ESTABLISHMENT IN 2017?

Honestly, since its establishment in 2017 the park has had a slow start.

Between temporary superintendents and

EXPERIENCE TYPICALLY LEAVE ON ITS VISITORS?

This is a new monument and we do not have a lot of

visitations but I think one of the most impactful things is

realizing how recent the history is. People come in and tell us stories about their grandparents or parents living here

and hearing about it. But we also hear stories of people who lived here during that time and had no idea it was going on.

WHAT WAS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE

LUMINARY LIGHTING THAT WAS HELD IN HONOR OF THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY?

The Luminary Lighting was meant to honor all of the

Freedom Riders. Not just the ones on that burning bus, but all of those people that were brave enough to stand up and make change.

having no permanent staff we have not done as much as

WHAT EXHIBITS DOES THE FREEDOM RIDERS

and a permanent ranger dedicated just to Freedom Riders

WE EXPECT TO SEE FROM THE FREEDOM RIDERS

we could have. But now, with a permanent superintendent National Monument, we have started a Ranger Reads program in partnership with the Public Library of AnnistonCalhoun County, we have opened the bus depot as an

exhibit space, we have reached out to and connected with 64 living Freedom Riders, and we have major plans for the

summer and the rest of the 60th anniversary year to help educate and unite the community.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE PEOPLE TAKE AWAY

NATIONAL MONUMENT OFFER NOW? WHAT CAN NATIONAL MONUMENT IN THE FUTURE?

There is a kiosk at the Calhoun County Chamber of

Commerce building that provides educational information

about the Freedom Riders. There is a new wayside at the burn site. And a rotating exhibit in the bus depot. Currently we are offering the Freedom Riders Exhibit but that exhibit in the depot will change monthly, but all exhibits will be focused on a part of the Civil Rights Movement.

FROM THEIR TIME SPENT AT THE FREEDOM

THE FREEDOM RIDES CARRY HARROWING STORIES

Something we talk about a lot is that people have heard of

THE SOUTH FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, ESPECIALLY WHEN

RIDERS NATIONAL MONUMENT?

segregation. We learn about it in school. But people don’t really understand segregation. Not what it felt like, not what

it looked like. We want people to realize how demeaning and dividing, and terrible segregation was. We want people

to understand why these Freedom Rides were so important

and how the first ride of 1961 sparked more rides. That ride moved people to action to fight against injustice. As we work to get the bus depot restored, we hope to be able

to tell this story in a way that continues to move people to action and to see that the work is not over.

78

RIDERS NATIONAL MONUMENT? WHAT IMPACT

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

ABOUT MORE THAN JUST A BUS RIDE THROUGH

TALKING ABOUT THE BUS BURNING. IT IS OBVIOUSLY

IMPORTANT TO ILLUMINATE THE DARK TRUTHS OF THE HORRIFIC VIOLENCE, HATE AND RACIAL INJUSTICES

THAT OCCURRED DURING THESE RIDES. WHAT IS THE CORRELATION BETWEEN VIOLENCE AND CHANGE?

I don’t know. In my opinion, I think that the violence correlates with change because it is what called people to action. Seeing that bus burning. Seeing Freedom Riders

beaten and harassed, motivated others to stand up and step in. It was a call to action.

1

2

3

4

1. Left to Right: Reggie Tiller (Freedom Riders NM Superintendent), Tom Medema (NPS Chief of Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers), State Rep. Barbara Boyd, Sherri Fields (Deputy Regional Director) Photo provided by National Park Service (NPS). 2. Left to Right: Barbara Boyd (State Representative), Glenda Gaither Wright (Freedom Rider), Hank Thomas (Freedom Rider), Tom Medema (NPS Chief of Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers), David Reddick (Anniston City Councilman), Jack Draper (Anniston Mayor), Charles D. Gregory, Sr. (Pastor and High School Principal), Reggie Tiller (Freedom Riders NM Superintendent), Pete Conroy (Co-chair Freedom Riders Park Board), Bonny Wright (NPS Realty Specialist), and Bill Harbour (Freedom Rider and Co-chair of Freedom Riders Park Board). Photo provided by National Park Service (NPS).

3. Pete Conroy addresses the crowd during the celebration. He is the co-chair of the Freedom Riders Park Board. The Board was instrumental in the establishment of the new national monument. Photo provided by National Park Service (NPS). 4. The new Freedom Riders National Monument brochures and passport stamp kept rangers busy at the NPS information table. Photo provided by National Park Service (NPS).

NOTABLE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS SUCH AS

having buses drive away with their money. Segregation was

FREEDOM RIDES WERE CENTRALIZED ON PUBLIC

your seat and stand so a white man could sit is not equal.

THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT AND THE

TRANSPORTATION, WHAT IMPORTANCE DID PUBLIC

supposed to be “separate but equal” and having to give up

TRANSPORTATION PLAY IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS

HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU BELIEVE IT IS TO REFLECT,

DID THESE MOVEMENTS AROUND TRANSPORTATION

MOMENTS IN CIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY ESPECIALLY

We know that public transportation was segregated. And

If we do not learn about history, we are doomed to repeat it.

those laws were not enforced. Being forced to give up seats to

our society now with politics and parties attacking each other

bus fare and then getting off the bus to board in the back and

path if we cannot learn from our past. (End of interview) g

MOVEMENT AND WHY WAS IT SUCH A FOCAL POINT?

REMEMBER AND KEEP ALIVE THESE CRUCIAL

ACT AS A SPRINGBOARD FOR A BIGGER PICTURE?

IN TODAY’S SOCIAL CLIMATE?

the initial laws only desegregated interstate travel. And even

We all know the saying and it is true. We see the separation of

accommodate white passengers. Black people paying their

and dividing the nation. We are headed down a dangerous

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79

William “Bill” Harbour was 19 and a student at Tennessee State University when he joined the Freedom Rider Movement. He is also the co-chair of the Freedom Riders Park Board. Photo provided by National Park Service (NPS).

BRIEF HISTORY & CULTURE

segregation, and the ICC subsequently decreed that by

Riders” set out to challenge discriminatory state laws and

interstate travel had to be integrated.

In the spring of 1961, a small interracial band of “Freedom local customs that required a separation of the races on buses and in bus station facilities, like waiting areas, lunch counters, and restrooms. Their journey was dramatically opposed by white supremacists who viciously attacked the Freedom Riders on multiple occasions.

The Freedom Rides and Freedom Riders made substantial

gains in the fight for equal access to public accommodations.

Federal orders to remove Jim Crow signs on interstate facilities did not change social mores or political institutions overnight, but the Freedom Riders nonetheless struck a

Through the media, the nation and the world witnessed

powerful blow to racial segregation.

the violence. Images, like that of a firebombed bus burning

PLAN YOUR VISIT

outside Anniston, Alabama, shocked the American public and created political pressure, which forced the Federal Government to take steps to ban segregation in interstate bus travel.

they inspired hundreds of others to join their cause. In the end there were over 400 Freedom Riders. They succeeded in pressing the federal government to act. On May 29, 1961, Attorney General Robert Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to issue regulations banning

FREEDOMRIDERS

Freedom Riders National Monument is a new national park unit. The national park includes the former Greyhound

Bus Station located at 1031 Gurnee Avenue in downtown

Anniston where segregationists attacked a bus carrying

Although only thirteen Freedom Riders started the journey,

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November 1, 1961, bus carriers and terminals serving

60 Years

Freedom Riders in May of 1961, and the spot six miles away on the side of the highway where they firebombed

the hobbled bus and attempted to trap the Freedom Riders inside it. There are currently no visitor services at the park.

Greyhound Bus Station (1031 Gurnee Avenue) On Sunday,

May 14, 1961, a group of segregationists, including g

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F I N D S U P P O R T F O R Y O U R S T R E N G T H.

A A R P. O R G / C A R E G I V I N G 1 - 8 7 7 - 3 3 3 - 5 8 8 5

Henry “Hank” Thomas, at the age of 19, was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders that departed from Washington, D.C. He also was a passenger on the Greyhound Bus that was burned outside of Anniston, AL. Photo provided by National Park Service (NPS).

members of the Ku Klux Klan, attacked the bus carrying

The Greyhound Bus Station is part of the Anniston Civil Rights

threw rocks, broke windows, and slashed the tires of the

with the struggle for civil rights in Anniston. A self guided

African American and white Freedom Riders. The mob bus. Following police intervention the bus was able to

depart for Birmingham, with the mob in pursuit. The former bus station is not currently open to the public. Today, the side of the adjacent building that borders the bus station’s

driveway features a mural and educational panels about the events of May 14, 1961.

Bus Burning Site (Old Birmingham Highway/State Route 202) At this site, about six miles outside Anniston, the

slashed tires of the Greyhound bus gave out and the driver was forced to pull over. The segregationist mob continued its attack, and someone eventually threw a bundle of flaming

rags into the bus that exploded seconds later. Joseph “Little Joe” Postiglione, a freelance photographer, captured the

scene. Little Joe’s photographs of the burning bus – which appeared in hundreds of newspapers on Monday morning – became iconic images of the Civil Rights Movement. An

driving tour is available online at: annistoncivilrightstrail.org

(Please note that website is only accessible with a mobile

device). Sites on the Anniston Civil Rights and Heritage Trail, outside the monument, which are associated with the 1961 Freedom Rides include:

ANNISTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL (400 East 10th Street)

With great trouble the Freedom Riders made their way to the Anniston hospital, which provided little in the way of

treatment, and where they found themselves once again under siege by a white mob. Their torment eventually ended when deacons dispatched by Reverend Fred

Shuttlesworth of Birmingham’s Bethel Baptist Church, rescued them and drove them to Birmingham. The hospital

is part of the Anniston Civil Rights and Heritage Trail and is marked with a sign.

Alabama Historical Marker identifies the site of the bus

TRAILWAYS STATION (1018 Noble St.)

private residences (near the intersection of Old Birmingham

before departing for Birmingham. During their brief stop,

burning. Please note that the houses located nearby are Highway and Barkwood Dr., Anniston, AL 36201).

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and Heritage Trail, which includes nine sites associated

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At this station, a second group of Freedom Riders stopped a group of white men boarded and physically forced

the Freedom Riders to segregate. The segregationists

harassed the Freedom Riders throughout the two-hour ride to Birmingham. In Birmingham, the Freedom Riders were

attacked by a mob of segregationists. The former Trailways Station also features a mural and educational panels.

FREEDOM RIDERS NATIONAL MONUMENT

is a new national park unit located in Anniston,

BUS BURNING SITE

There is currently no parking provided at the bus burning

site along Old Birmingham Highway. In the interest of safety, there should be no unauthorized parking or pedestrian activity within the right-of-way of State Route 202.

THINGS TO DO

In the coming years services will be added to the park

The Anniston Civil Rights Heritage Trail project began in 2010. This nine-stop driving tour explores key sites and stories associated with Anniston's civil rights history.

DIRECTIONS & TRANSPORTATION

To access a PDF version of the tour route, visit the Anniston Civil Rights Trail page on the City of Anniston website.

Alabama. It is a park in progress with limited services. in cooperation with our partners.

To Former Greyhound Station: From Atlanta and Points

East: From I-20, take exit 185 to Alabama State Hwy 21 North. Turn left on East Eighth Street, then right on Gurnee Avenue. Greyhound Station is located at the corner of East Eleventh Street and Gurnee Avenue.

From Birmingham and Points West: From I-20, take

exit 179 and turn left onto Alabama State Highway 202. Turn left on Gurnee Avenue. Greyhound Station

is located at the intersection of East Eleventh and Gurnee Avenue.

From Gadsden and Points North: From US 431 South, turn

right onto Alabama State Hwy 21 North, then turn right on East Eleventh Street. Greyhound Station is at the corner of East Eleventh and Gurnee Avenue.

Several stops on the Anniston Civil Rights Heritage Trail directly relate to the Freedom Riders story, including the Anniston Greyhound Bus Depot (1031 Gurnee Avenue) the Anniston Trailways Station (901 Noble Street), and the Anniston Memorial Hospital (corner of 10th and Christine).

The remaining stops and their historic markers connect the Freedom Riders to the city of Anniston's larger civil rights story. Together, these nine stops create a powerful learning experience for both area residents and Freedom Riders National Monument visitors.

The Anniston Civil Rights Heritage Trail was created in partnership between the City of Anniston, the Spirit of Anniston, the Alabama Department of Tourism, the Anniston Civil Rights Trail Committee, and the Alabama Historical Commission Black Heritage Council.

Ernest “Rip” Patton, Jr. was 21 and a student at Tennessee State University when he joined the Freedom Rider Movement. Photo provided by National Park Service (NPS).

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African Burial Grounds

I

n 1991, construction began on a 34-story federal office

Burial Ground’s rediscovery altered the understanding and

the General Services Administration (GSA). Federally

to constructing New York City. The Burial Ground dates

tower positioned on 290 Broadway and overseen by funded construction projects are mandated to comply

with Section 106 in the National Historic Preservation

Act of 1966. A “Stage 1A Cultural Resource Survey,” was completed in the area of Republican Alley in 1989 prior to

construction. The compliance cultural research study assisted archaeologist to determine any potential archaeological and cultural impacts of construction on 290 Broadway.

Preliminary archaeological research excavation found intact

human skeletal remains located 30 feet below the city’s street level on Broadway. During survey work, the largest and most important archeological discovery was made: Unearthing the "Negroes Buriel Ground" – a 6-acre burial ground containing

upwards of 15,000 intact skeletal remains of enslaved and free Africans who lived and worked in colonial New York. The

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scholarship surrounding enslavement and its contribution from the middle 1630s to 1795. Currently, the Burial Ground

is the nation’s earliest and largest African burial ground rediscovered in the United States.

Memorialization and research of the enslaved African

skeletal remains were negotiated extensively between the General Services Administration, the African – American descendant

community,

historians,

archaeologist,

and anthropologist, including city and state political leaders. Civic engagement led to the ancestral remains'

reinterment within the original site of rediscovery. An external memorial, an interpretive center, and research

library were constructed to commemorate the financial

and physical contributions of enslaved Africans in colonial New York and honor their memory. g

A memorial honors Africans who are buried at Higgs Beach in Key West, Florida.

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A tourist visits Portsmouth African Burying Ground.

Silhouettes are in remembrance for all the graves of black people that were paved over by the city.

As of January 2021, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed

era. Rodrigues, a free black sailor from Santo Domingo

cemeteries, this also paves the way for the creation of an

post with the native Lenape people on Manhattan Island.

legislation that would better protect historic African American African American Burial Grounds Network.

The first enslaved African arrived in New Amsterdam in 1625,

AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND IN HISTORY

as laborers for the Dutch West India Company (WIC). The

History by Christopher Moore an author and historian and

slave labor (and later the slave trade), was then pursuing its

Africans in New York City.

traders like Rodrigues. Along with European merchants,

New York's African Burial ground is the nation's earliest

establish the early colony. Throughout the seventeenth and

New York's Seventeenth-Century African Burial Ground in

WIC, whose profits were chiefly from commerce reliant upon

a descendant of Groot Manuel – one of the first 11 enslaved

interest in the fur trade, which had been cultivated by early

and largest known African American cemetery. It has been

called one of the most important archaeological finds of our time. But it is more than that: though long hidden and much

violated it remains the final resting-place of some of New

York's earliest African and African American pioneers. And it is an enduring testament to their history.

The first known person of African descent to arrive on

Manhattan was (Juan) Rodrigues, who was among the navigators traders, pirates, and fishermen who traversed

the Atlantic as free men, before and during the slavery

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(Dominican Republic), arrived in 1613, setting up a trading

FREEDOMRIDERS

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traders, sailors, and farms, these enslaved workers helped to eighteenth centuries, Africans were an important part of the city's population, reaching a peak of over 20 percent at the middle of the eighteenth century.

During Dutch rule, enslaved Africans were put to work building the fort, mill, and new stone houses. The African

laborers, some with previous experience building colonies in South America, did much of the arduous work of building a European-style town in New Amsterdam. They cleared land

for farms and shore areas for docks. Former Native American trails were broadened (Broad Way) to accommodate horse

The Maerschalck map of the City of New York is a historic map made in 1754 that clearly shows the African Burial Ground and its surrounding neighborhood. Photo provided by the Library of Congress.

This aerial photo shows the outdoor memorial at African Burial Ground NM in its entirety. Photo provided by NPS.

drawn wagons. Operating and working in the colony's sawmills, the enslaved laborers provided lumber for shipbuilding and export back to Europe.

By 1640, about 500 people lived in New Amsterdam, which was community of shops a few dozen homes, and several

warehouses belonging to the WIC. Enslaved farm workers often oversaw the colony's farms for absentee Dutch owners, planting, harvesting and managing the day-to-day operations. These farming skills would soon win something very valuable for some of New Amsterdam's enslaved

population-their freedom. During the worst fighting of the Dutch and Indian War, the first community of free blacks in the colonial United States was formed.

On February 25, 1644, eleven enslaved men were freed and given grants of farmland in the dangerous frontier territory

of Manhattan extending eventually from what would later become Canal Street to 34th Street.

Freedom for these black farmers did not mean an end to slavery in New Amsterdam. Slave labor continued as a major

element of the colony's public works projects. In 1653, upon

Governor Peter Stuyvesant's orders, the colony's enslaved workers helped to build New Amsterdam's most famous fortification “The Wall" (Wall Street), which spanned to

Manhattan Island from the East River to the Hudson River.

In 1658, the same labor force constructed the region's first

major highway, connecting New Amsterdam with the island's second largest and newly founded village in the north frontier (at 110 Street and the East River). The eleven-mile "road to

New Haarlem" later became better known and remembered as the Boston Post Road.

north of New Amsterdam. Their wives were granted freedom

Slavery was a chief concern of Governor Stuyvesant, who

of the WIC. In time, they were able to buy the freedom of

and New England, but primarily throughout the Caribbean.

also, but their children remained the enslaved property

their children. The farms owned by the free blacks spanned

the "Negro frontier" "land of the blacks," the Central region

cultivated the distribution of slaves into Virginia, Maryland, Under Stuyvesant, the WIC encouraged English and French

planters in Barbados St. Christopher, and other islands to g

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87

Westview Community Cemetery at sunset. Historic African American cemetery in Pompano Beach, Florida.

convert from tobacco and cotton to the more lucrative sugar production. Island by island, planters were shown how to

consolidate their small island farms into large plantations, change to sugar, and invest in slave labor. The WIC invested

heavily in all aspects of the cane production providing credit

plant equipment, and enslaved African laborers. By the 1650's, Barbados, the first successful model for the exploitation of

slave labor in the Caribbean had revolutionized the demand for enslaved Africans into the West Indies. Stuyvesant worked

diligently, from his base in New Amsterdam to Curacao, to repeat the process in other receptive islands.

In 1664, the English conquered the Dutch colony, and New Amsterdam became New York. Named for James II, the Duke of York, who was the principle investor in the "Company of

Royal Adventures Trading to Africa," the English slave trading

enterprise. The Duke soon afterward gave port privileges and

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warehouse priority in the New York colony to ships engaged in the slave trade.

The English imposed strict laws regarding slavery and rescinded many rights for free blacks, including the right to own land on Manhattan Island. During the period, New York's African labor force - primarily skilled and semiskilled and mostly enslaved worked as carpenters, blacksmiths, printers, sailors, dock loaders tailors, seamstresses, bakers, and servants.

In 1711, a marketplace for the sale of slaves opened on a pier located at Wall Street and the East River. By legislative act of the Common Council (City Council) the market, known as the Meal Market, became the city's official slave market where African men, women, and children were sold or rented on a daily or weekly basis. The market operated until 1762, though it was not the only place where slaves were bought and sold

in Lower Manhattan, including the Merchant's Coffee House,

a reputation as an Indian translator and owner of six slaves

colonial New York indicate the city was a major hub for the

cemetery's founding is unknown, the Van Borsum family

slave trade in North America.

continued its tacit approval of its use until its closing in 1794.

Although the city's slave population ranged between 15 to

As the enslaved population grew in New York so did the

market were re-directed to other slave holding territories

city blocks. Evidence from the cemetery indicates that when

York market sometimes received shipments of African

deceased kin and loved ones to rest. However, harsh legal

city's economy, with investments in commodities like sugar,

were permitted in funeral processions or at graveside services

the Fly Market, and Proctor's Vendue House. Records from

(five African and one Indian). Though the exact date of the

20 percent, most slaves purchased through the New York

burial ground, eventually covering 6.6 acres, or about five

in the American South. Documents also note that the New

possible, traditional practices were employed in laying

children under the age of thirteen. Until the Civil War, the

restrictions were applied too, as no more than twelve persons

cotton, and tobacco was heavily dependent upon slavery.

and interment was not allowed at night, the customary time

Shut out of churchyards within the city a burial ground for

to have a written pass in order to travel more than a mile

Africans developed on a plot of land outside of the city, owned in 1673 by Sara Van Borsum, a Dutch woman with

for many African burial rituals. Enslaved blacks were required away from home. For many, that was about the distance from their Lower Manhattan homes to the cemetery. g

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89

Assembly member Charles Barron organized Reparation Rally and Press Conference at NYC African Burial Ground Memorial.

Despite these restrictions, the African Burial Ground served

intact burials (full or nearly complete human skeletons)

Archaeological excavations have shown that the dead were

during construction of the new sidewalk in front of the

as an important focus for African community identity. buried individually, most in wooden coffins, arms folded

or placed at their sides and oriented with heads to the

west. Bodies were buried in shrouds, fastened with brass straight pins, and were sometimes buried with items such as coins, shells, and beads. Overtime, the Burial ground became densely crowded with burials stacked three and

four deep in some places. Some archaeologists estimate that 20,000 men, women, and children were buried at the cemetery.

In 1795, the land of the African Burial ground was

subdivided and sold for house lots. Because it lay in a

ravine, the land was leveled with as much as twenty-five feet of fill, ensuring the survival of many graves under the basements of later buildings.

In the twentieth century, the area where the African

Burial ground is located developed as New York's government center. During these years the existence of

Tweed Building on Chambers Street. Unmarked beneath

the bluestone sidewalk, thousands walk by or over the burials daily, unaware that much of the cemetery still

exists under the neighborhood's sidewalks, roadbeds, and buildings.

The African Burial Ground was designated a New York

City Historic District and a National Landmark in 1993.

Between 1991 and 2003, an analysis of the human

remains was conducted at Howard University. On October 4, 2003, some ten thousand participants in the "Rites of

Ancestral Return" helped re-inter the ancestral remains

(each in a hand-carved wooden coffin made in Ghana) on the preserved portion of the site. Nearly 8,000 personal

handwritten messages from the living to the African ancestors were also buried with the remains. In February 2006, by order of Pres. George W. Bush, the African Burial ground was proclaimed a national monument.

the. African Burial ground, though recorded on old maps,

On October 5, 2007, the African Burial ground National

excavation of the northern portion of the burial ground

to Africans of early New York and Americans of African

was effectively forgotten. In 1991-1992 archaeological

occurred as the site was being prepared for construction

of a federal office building. The remains of 419 men, women, and children were excavated: nearly half of whom

were children under twelve years of age. In 1999, nine

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were found on the southern edge of the historic ground

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Monument became the first National Monument dedicated

descent. It is the newest National Monument in New York

City, joining the Statue of Liberty, Governors Island, and Castle Clinton.

Article provide by the National Park Service.

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&

Diversity

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& Inclusion IN THE

WORKPLACE TODAY

D

iversity education has been a part of American since the end of segregation. First, as a response to the Civil Rights Movement with a goal of becoming a country that can coexist. Unity was a dream, but diversity

training tried to give us the tools to work and live side by side. As civil rights increased throughout the years and marginalized communities grew louder voices and took more firm and legal stances against injustice, diversity training continued in the '80s and '90s as a legal defense of those newly passed civil rights laws. Though diversity and inclusion work always seems to stem from a struggle, we’re in a moment in time where marginalized communities can go beyond the fight but carve an environment where they thrive and reach their maximum potential.

Much like before, the current wave of support for Diversity Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives was birthed from an ocean of Black pain and trauma. The terror that would come to define the year 2020 came early – beginning in March with the death of Breonna Taylor by the hands of the police serving a no-knock warrant. Then, two months later, with the video release of the murder of Ahmaud Arbrey (he was murdered in February) by essentially white vigilantes. Concluding with the public lynching that was the murder of George Floyd by a police officer kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes, 2020 was a succession of roaring protests. g

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Protests demanding accountability and justice took the streets by storm, but what differentiated these protests from the countless others from years past was the stillness, time, and undivided attention that the Covid-19 pandemic allowed. Covid-19 wreaked havoc throughout the country, leaving death and destruction in its wake. The onset of the pandemic led to a national quarantine, with most large cities issuing stay-at-home orders, so for the first several months, everyone was at home. Along with the trauma and protests that consumed the news feeds, Covid-19 brought with it a new disparity, the Black community was the most affected through infection rates, lack of adequate access to healthcare service, death toll, risk of infection, and unemployment.

The nation sat cramped on a couch together, watching the continuous news of Black trauma and disparity. It was bearing such witness that national corporations and organizations began making public statements against injustice, racism, sexism, and homophobia and shared commitments to combat injustice and contribute to systemic change. The concepts of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) had grown in awareness over the last several years, but the events and revelations of 2020 kicked those efforts into hyperdrive. With the country forced to pay attention, there was no way to escape the reality that a drastic change was needed, and it was needed right now.

WHAT IS DEI, WHAT DOES IT MEAN

Across the airwaves and social media timelines, the words Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Equality were gradually added to our lexicon. These terms became graffiti throughout every company newsletter, boardroom agenda, and public statement. Some of the largest companies have pledged billions to support racial justice, equity, and improving diversity. But to utterly understand the gravity of this undertaking and what its success would look like, we should have a strong understanding of the terms.

As many well-intended people were showing their support to social justice matters, it became apparent that not everyone fully grasps the breadth of these ideas. But this isn't a game of semantics; if we don't have a clear understanding of these definitions, not only will we risk inefficiency and inconsistency, but we may be counterproductive.

The ancient philosopher Socrates said, "the beginning of knowledge is a definition of terms," so to deep dive into the topics of DEI, what it is, and how to improve it, we'll need to break down some of the most common terms individually. g

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DIVERSITY

and exacerbated by systems, laws, and policies, so

gender identity and sexual expression, religion, ethnicity,

disparities and bring forth justice and fairness.

All the ways in which we are different. This includes race, nationality, ability, age, and socioeconomic background.

As simple as this seems, there are still misunderstandings.

The most common misinterpretation of diversity is referring to people as "diverse" because it still enforces an "otherness" or outside of what is "normal." People are

EQUALITY

A core tenant of democracy, equality evenly shares resources, opportunities, and treatment. Sometimes this is conflated with equity, but the difference lies in the fact that

people; diversity depends on the setting.

although equality gives an equal allocation of resources,

INCLUSION

that create barriers to success.

have a sense of belonging, have an equal voice and are

A common metaphor for these concepts is the dance

Inclusion is when all those from different backgrounds heard, and contribute to the group. A standard description of inclusion is "having a seat at the table." The best way to illustrate that is the Peanuts comic. Franklin was the only Black character, but during the Thanksgiving special, he sat alone, across from everyone eating together like a family. Franklin was a person who "added diversity," but it was evident that dinner wasn't inclusive.

EQUITY

An environment of equal access to opportunities and fair treatment. The defining concept inherent to "equity" is access. Social and economic disparities are perpetuated

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equal and adequate access is required to remedy these

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equity considers the different situations and conditions

party. "Diversity is being at the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance." But we can take this further.

Diversity is different people being at the party, dancing and having fun.

Inclusion is dancing with everyone else and being able to make music requests and suggestions for future parties.

Equity is the ability to be a part of the party planning committee.

Equality is everyone having the directions, time, location, and access to the party (transportation and distance) with an equal ticket price.

STRUGGLES IN DIVERSITY

Peering through the windows of any large company, you'll find one thing in common; everyone tends to look the same. Most industries struggle with workforce diversity, but the industry that suffers the most from a lack of diversity is the tech industry. As innovative and groundbreaking as it is, and though its technological advancements and products have defined our lives and woven themselves into our personalities, it still lacks in creating an environment representative of the diverse world it serves.

Consider the companies and products we use daily – Facebook, Google, Salesforce, Apple, and Twitter – Black and Latinx employees only constitute around five percent of their workforce, with the percentage being closer to two percent once they enter the boardrooms of leadership.

Unfortunately, gender has a similar disparity, with women only accounting for twenty percent in the top companies.

There have been some incredible strides to improve diversity in these companies, but an apparent disconnect remains as numbers struggle to break the single digits.

Leadership is another area reflecting almost criminal racial and gender disparity. Across all industries, the boardroom, c-suite leaders, and major companies' heads remain an allwhite boys club. Out of all fortune 500 companies, only 1%

Diversity without inclusion is tokenism, and diversity and inclusion without equity is merely moral theater – it's a spectacular performance that gets applauded, but everything goes back to normal once the curtains close.

WHAT DOES A LACK OF DIVERSITY LOOK AND FEEL LIKE

Looking at stats and numbers is one thing, but once you experience the daily existential crisis that is being "one of the only ones" in the workplace, you understand the deep, long-lasting psychological toll homogenous work environments have. Apart from what occurs within the workspace, the battles waged internally have equal impact.

Some of the everyday struggles are:

TOKENISM

The feeling, or treatment, like you were hired to fill a quota, to be the "diversity hire." This occurs when employees are hired but cannot express themselves, aren't heard, and can't contribute in a meaningful way.

IMPOSTER SYNDROME

Marked by intense self-doubt and feeling like a fraud.

WEARING THE MASK

An elevated form of "code-switching," it's not just switching how you talk, but how you act and present yourself to the world. W.E.B. DuBois discussed this as the “double consciousness” in his book The Souls of Black Folk in 1903.

Fortune.com conducted a survey entitled "Working While Black: Stories from black corporate America," where

they

asked

Black

employees

what

they

is Black and 4% women (only 3.2% release their race and

wanted their non-Black coworkers to know. Below

gender data), and out of the 23% of women that occupy

are quotes from that survey used to give a first-hand

c-suite positions, only 4% are women of color.

account of the struggles in work environments that lack diversity. The most significant complaints are:

If you want to evaluate if an organization is sincerely dedicated to its diversity initiatives, look at the leadership. Here is where we see the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion exhibited in real-time. If there is no diversity in leadership, there is no system of equity, thus authentic diversity, and inclusion.

Macro and Microagressions Sometimes you experience egregious offensive comments, but what encompasses the "death by 1,000 cuts" is the subtle comments - the microaggressions. g

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"I overhead a racist conversation and was

offended by what was said. First response

of HR: I'm sure they didn't mean any harm."

– Charlene, 37

"With microaggressions and microinequities in the workplace, I feel strangled and die a little bit every single day."

Overall

insensitivity,

lack

misunderstanding. Being

– JP, 40

of the

understanding, "only

one"

in

and work

environments is a constant reminder of being the "other."

There may be cultural or gender norms or customs that the rest of the team does not understand. These will range from project personality stereotypes, comments about and touching hair, or understanding diverse lived experiences.

"A Black man was murdered by the police, and my white peers just moved through life like absolutely nothing happened.

Meanwhile, I'm fighting back tears to move through meetings."

– Qwen, 42

much we try to escape it, we are influenced in one way or another. We are constantly being sold something: images, narratives, and what to feel, all of which affect or guide us in some way or another. And for technology, money, and media to have such an impact on the world, if the hands that construct and run these industries are not diverse, it can have a deleterious effect on society.

Technology

Everything from the products to the software that creates the technology can have life or death consequences for people of color. Smartwatches, motion sensors, and autonomous vehicles have been inconsistent in recognizing people with darker skin tones, which can cause a minor annoyance to have deadly consequences in the case of a self-driving car. As the documentary Coded Bias explored, artificial intelligence has an inherent bias issue that has threatened civil liberties and personal freedom.

Money

Advertising, over the last several years, large brands such as Gucci, Prada, H&M, and Pepsi have all come under intense fire for racist or racially insensitive advertising.

After massive social media backlash, these companies all had to issue public apologies for their insensitivity and missteps, and some companies saw a noticeable

"My first manager said that I was too direct, aggressive, and just scary."

– Charlotte 37

"The stress of being a Black man in

corporate America means we can't have

the full range of emotions. We can only be happy, never angry."

– Bernard, 57

HOW DOES A LACK OF DIVERSITY AFFECT OUR LIVES

Whether we like it or not, we live in a world run by technology, money, and media, and no matter how

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decrease in revenue and brand image.

Media

A famous phrase is "representation matters," which matters because how people see themselves on TV or online can impact how they view themselves and what they believe is possible. Sometimes acting as its system of checks and balances, the same social media where problematic statements are made will call out and hold people accountable for those same statements.

Social media and independent journalists and bloggers played a significant role in maintaining this ecosystem that evaluates and critiques concepts like cultural appropriation, systemic racism, and privilege, among a myriad of other topics.

A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION INITIATIVES

Although our society has experienced a communal storm, the sun that broke through the clouds was beautiful. As a country, we witnessed a grand reckoning with parts of our troubled past that still linger today, we accepted them, and we made incredible strides to address them. Never have we seen our most prominent companies, celebrities, brands, and community members take such firm stances against injustice and offered sincere support.

• There has been an almost 800% increase in job postings for dedicated diversity recruiters (Gartner analysis).

Everything may not be perfect, but we are in a position unlike any other time in history. More people supported social justice and equality causes, more people recognize them as real, and more people are willing to do the internal and external work to help our society become fairer and just. A few bumps in the road are always expected before the smooth stride that is sure to come.

More than just talk, there is a lot of action. Harvard Business Review reported: • M ore than 1,600 CEOs have signed onto the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion Pledge.

• 4 0% of companies discussed diversity and inclusion in their Q2 2020 earnings calls versus only 4% the same quarter a year prior.

• The number of HR leaders identifying DEI efforts as a

Resources https://recruitinginnovation.com/blog/diversity-in-tech/ https://money.cnn.com/2015/01/29/news/economy/mcdonalds-ceodiversity/ https://fortune.com/2017/06/07/fortune-500-diversity/ https://fortune.com/2016/06/06/women-ceos-fortune-500-2016/

top priority was 1.8 times higher in 2020 than in 2019

https://womenintheworkplace.com/

(Gartner research).

https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-to-measure-inclusion-in-the-workplace

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Madam C.J.

WALKER

AN EVOLUTION OF NATURAL HAIR CARE THEN AND NOW

N

atural hair has always been an important part of black culture and history. It was in the early 2000s and later in around 2010 that black hair was celebrated and the

natural hair movement boomed. But it was during the time of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s that

MADAM C.J. WALKER AND THE NATURAL HAIR BOOM

Madam C.J. Walker, a political and social activist during the 1800s had an incredible influence on the world of black hair care. Working as a laundress, Walker experienced hair loss due to the harsh environment

wearing afro hair was a way of reconnecting to black

and lack of appropriate afro hair care products.

roots and displaying the natural beauty that genera-

The solution for many women was to hide their hair

tions of black people have been forced to suppress.

damage with head wraps. But Walker embarked on a journey to find her own cure, recognizing the mark

The conversations around natural hair both within the

that such attire would have on her already tainted

black community and in society have not been easy.

status as a black woman.

However, individuals such as Madam C.J. Walker have made an important impact on black beauty and blackowned businesses, providing afro hair products during the worst of the Jim Crow era and becoming the first black American woman to be a self-made millionaire.

The representation and acceptance of afro hair are still growing. As more people of color become empowered by their natural hair, an interesting journey has been carved through time as it paves the way for a better future.

Walker’s hair system completely transformed the world of beauty for black women. Finally, there was a range of products that were designed to help afro hair to flourish. Her pomades, creams and hot combs sent sales through the roof and eventually, the business developed its own beauty school, factory, laboratory, and team of representatives named Beauty Culturists.

Of course, the story of natural hair acceptance is not linear. Undoubtedly, Madam C.J. Walker’s work g

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has paved the way for change, and it seems today’s

Today’s shelves are full of high-quality products

attitude towards natural hair has come full circle.

for all hair types and social media has played an

Moving away from chemicals and unhealthy hair

important role in educating everyone about caring

habits that fit into Eurocentric beauty standards, the

for natural hair and the important ties it has to black

accessibility of good products and love of natural

culture, history, and power. Whether you have kinks,

hair mirrors the important changes that Madam C.J.

curls, or coils there’s no better time to embrace your

Walker and many others contributed to the natural

natural beauty.

hair movement.

JOINING TODAY’S NATURAL HAIR MOVEMENT

The natural hair community has come on leaps and

102

Here are some top natural hair tips:

PURCHASE AFRO-FRIENDLY PRODUCTS

Despite there being many more hair care options

bounds. With black men and women unravelling the

you still need to be mindful of the ingredients being

negativity associated with black hair and replacing

used. In true Madam Walker style, stick to natural

it with power and self-love and embracing all that is

ingredients that will benefit your hair from the inside

natural has inspired people worldwide.

out instead of harmful parabens, sulfates and more.g

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

On it.

Ending racial injustice requires all of us to work together and take real action.

What can you do to help?

Educate yourself about the history of American racism, privilege and what it means to be anti-racist. Educate yourself

about the history of American racism, privilege and what it means to be anti-racist.

Commit to actions that challenge injustice and make everyone feel like they belong, such as challenging biased or racist language when you hear it.

Vote in national and local elections to ensure your elected officials share your vision of public safety.

Donate to organizations, campaigns and initiatives who are committed to racial justice.

Let’s come together to take action against racism and fight for racial justice for the Black community.

Visit lovehasnolabels.com/fightforfreedom

ALWAYS KEEP AFRO HAIR MOISTURIZED

TRIAL AND ERROR

curly hair shafts, so moisture retention is especially

starting your journey then do not be disheartened if you

important. Use oils, deep conditioners, and protective

have a washday fail, you just need to find what works

styles to keep your hair hydrated from root to tip.

for you. Try new things and before long you will learn

Natural oils can struggle when travelling down

PROTECT YOUR HAIR AT NIGHT

Ensure that your hair is being cared for around the clock by keeping it protected at night. A satin bonnet, scarf or pillowcase will minimize frizz and keep your styles looking great all week, so your cotton sheets do not cause havoc!

104

FREEDOMRIDERS

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No two heads of afro hair are the same! If you are just

exactly what your hair needs.

The story of the black hair love is one of slavery, protest, tears, self-hatred, rebellion, and finally, self-love. From past to present, natural hair care holds an important key to black history and thanks to important figures such as Madam C.J. Walker, a profound transformation historically and socially.

ALYSON, stroke survivor.

180 111

YOUR NUMBERS COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Lowering your high blood pressure could save you from a heart attack or stroke.

If you’ve stopped your treatment plan, restart it or talk to your doctor about creating one that works better for you.

Start taking the right steps at

ManageYourBP.org

USNS

John Lew

General Dynamics NASSCO launched the future USNS John Lewis (T-AO 205), the first of six vessels in the John Lewis-class fleet oiler program designed to support the U.S. Navy.

The 742- foot long vessel is designed to transfer fuel to U.S. Navy carrier strike group ships operating at sea, the oilers will feature the capacity to carry 157,000 barrels of oil, a significant dry cargo capacity, aviation capability and up to a speed of 20 knots. Photo courtesy General Dynamics NASSCO.

106

FREEDOMRIDERS

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wis

T

he Navy will christen its first-in-class John Lewis replenishment oiler, the future USNS John Lewis the ceremony was held on July 17, in San

Diego, California.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Nancy

Pelosi, will deliver the ceremonial principal address. Remarks will also be provided by Mr. James Geurts, performing the duties of Under Secretary of

the Navy; Vice Adm. Ross Myers, commander, Fleet Cyber Command and

commander, U.S. Tenth Fleet; Rear Adm. Michael Wettlaufer, commander, Military Sealift Command; and Mr. Marcus Tyner, nephew of the ship’s

namesake. In a time-honored Navy tradition, the ship’s sponsor, Ms. Alfre Woodard Spencer, will christen the ship by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, will

deliver the ceremonial principal address. Remarks will also be provided by Mr. James Geurts, performing the duties of Under Secretary of the Navy; Vice Adm. Ross Myers, commander, Fleet Cyber Command and commander, U.S. Tenth Fleet; Rear Adm. Michael Wettlaufer, commander, Military Sealift Command;

and Mr. Marcus Tyner, nephew of the ship’s namesake. In a time-honored Navy tradition, the ship’s sponsor, Ms. Alfre Woodard Spencer, will christen the ship by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow.

General Dynamics NASSCO launched the future USNS John Lewis (T-AO 205), the first of six vessels in the John Lewis-class fleet oiler program designed to support the U.S. Navy.

“Tomorrow we christen the first John Lewis-class replenishment oiler,” said acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Harker on July 16, 2021. “Leaders like

Representative Lewis taught us that diversity of backgrounds and experiences help contribute to the strength of our nation. There is no doubt that the future Sailors aboard this ship will be galvanized by Lewis’ legacy.”

The future USNS John Lewis is the first ship in its class and will be operated

by the Navy’s Military Sealift Command. The ship is named in honor of the late politician and civil rights leader. John Lewis-class oilers will be named for other prominent civil rights leaders and activists.

The John Lewis-class ships are based on commercial design standards and will

recapitalize the current T-AO 187-class fleet replenishment oilers to provide

underway replenishment of fuel to U.S. Navy ships at sea. These ships are part of the Navy's Combat Logistics Force.

In June 2016, the Navy awarded a $3.2 billion contract to General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego for the design and construction of the first six ships

of the Future Fleet Replenishment Ship, the John Lewis-class (T-AO 205), with

construction commencing in September 2018. The Navy plans to procure 20 ships of the new class.

Lewis passed July 17, 2020; the christening marks the one-year anniversary of his death.

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The

WHITE HOUS

HISTORICALLY B & UNIVERSITIES

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, - September 23, 2017 The Circle City Classic Parade is an annual event prior to the Circle City Classic football game featuring two black universities (HBCUs).

108

FREEDOMRIDERS

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SE INITIATIVE

on

BLACK COLLEGES U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION S

O

n August 8, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Executive Order 12232, which directed the

Secretary of Education to “implement a Federal initiative designed to achieve a significant increase in the participation by Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Federally sponsored programs.” The order specified that “… initiative shall seek to identify, reduce, and

eliminate barriers which may have unfairly resulted in reduced participation in, and reduced benefits from, Federally sponsored programs.” g

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African American academic students at Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee, ca. 1899. Ca. 1899.

On September 15, 1981, President Reagan, under

on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to the Office

Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities,

Previously, the White House Initiative was housed in the

Executive Order 12320, reestablished the White House which expanded the previous program and set into motion

a government wide effort to strengthen our nation’s HBCUs. On April 28, 1989, President George H.W. Bush signed

Executive Order 12677, reestablished the White House

Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, directing among other things, “The Director of the Office of

Personnel Management, in consultation with the Secretary

of Education and the Secretary of Labor, shall develop a program to improve recruitment and participation of

graduates and undergraduate students of historically Black

colleges and universities in part-time and summer positions in the Federal Government.”

On November 1, 1993, President William Jefferson Clinton

signed Executive Order 12876. This executive order reestablished the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, required a senior level executive in each agency have oversight in implementing

the order, and that the Office of Management and Budget be involved in monitoring implementation of the order.

On February 12, 2002, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13256. This executive order reestablished

the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges

and Universities and transferred the White House Initiative

110

FREEDOMRIDERS

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of the Secretary within the U.S. Department of Education.

Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education.

On February 10, 2010, President Barack H. Obama signed Executive Order 13532.

This executive order renewed

the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges

and Universities and demonstrated the President’s strong appreciation for the historic role these institutions have played in educating our citizens and the Administration’s commitment to assisting HBCUs with accomplishing their

mission. This order maintained the Initiative be housed within the U.S. Department of Education.

On February 27, 2017, President Donald Trump signed

Executive Order 13779. This executive order reestablished the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and be housed in the Executive Office of

the President and led by an Executive Director designated by the President.

PRESIDENT’S BOARD OF ADVISORS (PBA) ON HBCUS

The Board issues an Annual Federal Plan for Assistance to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to the

President on participation by HBCUs in federally-sponsored

programs; provides advice to the Secretary of Education

and makes recommendations in reports to the President

on how to increase the private sector role in strengthening HBCUs, with particular emphasis on enhancing institutional infrastructure and facilitating planning, development, and

the use of new technologies to ensure the goal of long-term

Harold L. Martin Sr. of North Carolina Bernard J. Milano of New Jersey Connie Rath of Nebraska

viability and enhancement of these institutions. Members

Kevin Wilson Williams of Tennessee

of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, other

June 19, 2020-President Donald J. Trump announced his intent to appoint the following individual to be a Member of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black

are appointed by the President and include representatives institutions of higher education, business and financial institutions, private foundations, and secondary education.

STUDIES ON HBCUs

HBCUs Make America Strong: The Positive Economic

Impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities: This landmark study changes the narrative about HBCUs and

details how much HBCUs support and make a difference

in local, state and national job creation and economic

development. The UNCF report also includes HBCU-and

Colleges and Universities:

Leonard L. Haynes III, of Louisiana.

REPORTS & STUDIES

Federal HBCU Competitiveness Strategy

White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and

Universities (Initiative) is excited to unveil the first Federal HBCU Competitiveness Strategy.

state-specific data.

To successfully implement Executive Order 13779, The

Department Releases Economic Impact Study: The National

at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the White

Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) defined the economic impact of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

White House Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation House Domestic Policy Council, the Initiative and federal

agency partners convened to explore how the federal

sector can best expand the overall impact of HBCUs on

Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 1976 to 2001:

the principal missions of agencies. This resulted in the first

Colleges and Universities, 1976 to 2001, a report that

the internal federal scaffolding required to safeguard HBCU

In September 2004, NCES released the Historically Black

Federal HBCU Competitiveness Strategy (Strategy) to build

presents a quarter-century of Historically Black Colleges

success for years to come and to continuously strengthen

and Universities trends.

their role in delivering on agency goals and objectives.

PRESIDENT TRUMP APPOINTED BOARD MEMBERS

This Strategy fortifies the Initiative’s resolve to evolve

Human Resource Management (SHRM).

efforts serving HBCUs to a cohesive and comprehensive

September 21, 2018 President Donald J. Trump announced

HBCUs to compete for federal investments. Moreover,

Johnny C. Taylor (Chairman), President and CEO, Society of

his intent to appoint the following individuals to be Members of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities:

the federal government from a collection of disparate

government-wide plan that will improve conditions for beyond guiding federal focus, actions, and investments, this

Strategy serves as a valuable “North Star” for nonfederal, state, local, and private sector engagement on the national

Aminta H. Breaux of Maryland

goal to support HBCU competitiveness.

James E. Clark of Florida

Importantly, this Strategy establishes the foundation, i.e.,

Phyllis Dawkins of North Carolina

the floor, not the ceiling, of federal HBCU leadership.

Rodney A. Ellis of Louisiana

It is our honor to present this Strategy to HBCUs and to

Marshall C. Grigsby of Maryland

federal and nonfederal public and private partners.

Billy Hawkins of Alabama

STATEMENTS OF FEDERAL AGENCY PRIORITIES

Jerry M. Hunter of Missouri Nickolas Justice of North Carolina Ronald A. Johnson of Georgia

In accordance with Presidential Executive Order 13779, federal agencies are required to prepare annual plans describing

efforts

competitiveness

of

to

strengthen

Historically

the

Black

capacity

Colleges

and

and g

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111

Universities, creating more favorable conditions under which

they compete for federal and private sector opportunities.

In furtherance of these objectives, the White House Initiative

on Historically Black Colleges and Universities requested these Statements of Federal Agency Priorities, setting

forth areas of opportunity for FY19 in connection with implementation of the executive order. In keeping with the requirement to yearly submit updated annual plans, federal

agencies also will continue to build upon these priorities, providing annual updated statements.

These statements of priorities inform areas of focus and

emphasis, providing Historically Black Colleges andUniversities

and the private sector with useful information to target their

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) U.S. Department of Education The Federal Application Process Sample Resume Federal Bureau of Investigation Beyond Compliance, Toward Safer Campuses Behavioral Threat Assessment for Campus Environment NASA

outreach to and engagement with federal agencies.

NASA Webinar PowerPoint

Department Releases Economic Impact Study: The National

NASA Blog

Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) defined the economic impact of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

HOW HBCUs CAN GET FEDERAL SPONSORSHIP

A new series out of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) is designed to expand federal support of HBCU research, programs, and

outreach through competitive grants and contracts. Check out the following entries:

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION • U. S. Department of Education • U.S. Department of Justice • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services • National Aeronautics and Space Administration • National Endowment for the Humanities For more details on the reports listed above, Board

Documents, and further information please visit, https://

112

Finding Jobs and Applying for Federal Jobs and Internships

National Science Foundation NSF Webinar PowerPoint NSF Blog U.S. Agency for International Development USAID PowerPoint U.S. Department of Justice Justice PowerPoint Justice FY15 Solicitations Justice COPS Justice Blog U.S. Department of Agriculture USDA PowerPoint USDA Rural Development Presentation List of CF Program Directors Rural Development Program Matrix

sites.ed.gov/whhbcu/policy/reports-studies/.

Rural Development Toolkit

FURTHER RESOURCES

March 24th Rural and Development Agency Webinar Transcript

WHIHBCU Federal Funding Webinars

National Endowment for the Humanities

Walkers Legacy Foundation

NEH PowerPoint

Fostering Entrepreneurship for College-aged Women

NEH Recording

The Education Trust

National Institute for Health

The Education Trust Webinar PowerPoint

NIH Blog

Oasis Data Collection Template

NIH PowerPoint and Recording

Office of Personnel Management

U.S. Department of Education

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

Raleigh, North Carolina, 2021: A Frontal View of Estey Hall at Shaw University on a March Morning.

ED PowerPoint Transcription U.S. Department of Defense DoD PowerPoint PowerPoint and Transcription

participation of blacks at every level in the formulation and implementation of policies and programs in American higher education.

THURGOOD MARSHALL COLLEGE FUND (TMCF)

Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is named for

the U.S. Supreme Court’s first African American Justice.

Grant Writing Workshop for HBCUs Webinar PowerPoint Slides

Established in 1987, TMCF supports and represents

GRANTS.GOV

schools that include public Historically Black Colleges

Grants.gov is your source to FIND and APPLY for federal

nearly 300,000 students attending its 47 memberand Universities (HBCUs), medical schools and law

grants. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is

schools. TMCF helps students with a clear intention

that is having an unparalleled impact on the grant community.

quality college education at an affordable cost. TMCF

UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND (UNCF)

students with top tier employment opportunities—access

proud to be the managing partner for Grants.gov, an initiative

UNCF’s mission is to build a robust and nationally recognized pipeline of under-represented students who, because of

UNCF support, become highly-qualified college graduates and to ensure that our network of member institutions is a

respected model of best practice in moving students to and through college.

and the motivation to succeed and acquire a highalso efficiently connects high performing, world-ready

that students or employers might not have on their own.

Through its scholarships and programs, TMCF plays a key role in preparing the leaders of tomorrow. TMCF

is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization. For

more information about TMCF and its initiatives, visit: www.ThurgoodMarshallCollegeFund.org.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION (NAFEO)

HBCU LIBRARY ALLIANCE

the nation’s HBCUs; to place and maintain the issue of equal

to providing an array of resources designed to

to advocate policies, programs and practices designed to

and their constituents.

The HBCU Library Alliance is a consortium that supports

NAFEO was founded to provide an international voice for

the collaboration of information professionals dedicated

opportunity in higher education on the national agenda;

strengthen Historically Black Colleges and Universities

preserve and enhance HBCUs; and to increase the active

Please visit https://sites.ed.gov/whhbcu/resources/ for the links and information.

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HISTORICALLY BLACK & UNIVERSITIES LIST THERE ARE 104 COLLEGES IN THE UNITED STATES THAT ARE IDENTIFIED BY THE US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AS HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (HBCUs).

ALABAMA Alabama A&M University- Huntsville Alabama State University- Montgomery Birmingham-Easonian Baptist Bible College- Birmingham* Gadsden State College- Gadsden J.F. Drake State Technical College- Huntsville Lawson State Community College- Birmingham Miles College- Fairfield Miles School of Law- Fairfield * Oakwood University- Huntsville Selma University- Selma Shelton State Community College- Tuscaloosa Stillman College- Tuscaloosa Talladega College- Talladega Tuskegee University- Tuskegee H. Councill Trenholm State Community College- Montgomery

GEORGIA Albany State University- Albany Carver College*- Atlanta Clark Atlanta University- Atlanta Fort Valley State University- Fort Valley Interdenominational Theological Center- Atlanta Johnson C Smith Theological Seminary*- Atlanta Morehouse College- Atlanta Morehouse School of Medicine- Atlanta Morris Brown College**- Atlanta Paine College- Augusta Savannah State University- Savannah Spelman College- Atlanta

ARKANSAS University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff- Pine Bluff Arkansas Baptist College- Little Rock Philander Smith College- Little Rock Shorter College- North Little Rock

LOUISIANA Dillard University-New Orleans Grambling State University- Grambling Southern University and A&M CollegeBaton Rouge Southern University New OrleansNew Orleans Southern University-Shreveport- Shreveport Xavier University- New Orleans

CALIFORNIA Charles Drew University of Medicine & Science*- Los Angeles DELAWARE Delaware State University- Dover

114

KENTUCKY Kentucky State University- Frankfort Simmons College of Kentucky- Louisville

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA University of the District of Columbia Howard University

MARYLAND Bowie State University- Bowie Coppin State University- Baltimore University of Maryland- Eastern Shore- Princess Anne Morgan State University- Baltimore

FLORIDA Bethune Cookman UniversityDaytona Beach Edward Waters College- Jacksonville Florida A&M University- Tallahassee Florida Memorial University- Miami Gardens

MISSISSIPPI Alcorn State University- Lorman Coahoma Community College- Clarksdale Hinds County Community College- Utica Jackson State University- Jackson Mississippi Valley State University- Itta Bena

FREEDOMRIDERS

60 Years

Rust College- Holly Springs Tougaloo College- Tougaloo MISSOURI Harris-Stowe State University- St. Louis Lincoln University- Jefferson City NORTH CAROLINA Barber-Scotia College**- Concord Bennett College- Greensboro Elizabeth City State University- Elizabeth City Fayetteville State University- Fayetteville Hood Theological Seminary*- Salisbury Johnson C. Smith University- Charlotte Livingstone College- Salisbury North Carolina Central University- Durham North Carolina A&T State UniversityGreensboro Shaw University- Raleigh St. Augustine's University- Raleigh Winston-Salem State UniversityWinston Salem OHIO Central State University- Wilberforce

Payne Theological Seminary*- Wilberforce Wilberforce University- Wilberforce OKLAHOMA Langston University- Langston PENNSYLVANIA Cheyney University- Cheyney The Lincoln University- Lincoln University SOUTH CAROLINA Allen University- Columbia Benedict College- Columbia Claflin University- Orangeburg Clinton College- Rock Hill Denmark Technical College- Denmark Morris College- Sumter

K COLLEGES South Carolina State University- Orangeburg Voorhees College- Denmark TENNESSEE American Baptist University- Nashville Fisk University- Nashville Knoxville College**- Knoxville Lane College- Jackson LeMoyne Owen College- Memphis Meharry Medical College Tennessee State University- Nashville TEXAS

Huston-Tillotson University- Austin Jarvis Christian College- Hawkins Paul Quinn College- Dallas Prairie View A&M University- Prairie View Southwestern Christian College- Terrell St. Philip's College- San Antonio Texas College- Tyler Texas Southern University- Houston Wiley College- Marshall US Virgin Islands University of the Virgin Islands- St. Thomas & St. Croix VIRGINIA Hampton University- Hampton Norfolk State University- Norfolk Virginia State University- Petersburg Virginia Union University- Richmond Virginia University of Lynchburg- Lynchburg WEST VIRGINIA Bluefield State College- Bluefield West Virginia State University- Institute A great resource on these Colleges and Universities is The Hundred Seven organization the feature the first and only searchable database of all academic programs offered by HBCUs, please visit them at http://www.thehundred-seven.org. *Not recognized by US Department of Education as an HBCU*** Not currently accredited **

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