In this photo, originally taken in 1961 and colorized more recently, we see Joan Trumpaur in the booking photo taken by the Jackson, Mississippi, police. She was one of the civil rights activists known as the "Freedom Riders."
Image colorized by Mads Madsen, flickr.com/zuzahin
The battle for racial equality has raged in America for over two hundred years and sadly continues today. During the height of the civil rights battle, brave Americans, both black and white, organized “Freedom Rides” to push the boundaries of racial inequality. These Americans, fighting for a better tomorrow, traveled to places where uneducated and ignorant people stubbornly held on to their racist ways.
These freedom rides occurred over a decade after the U.S Supreme Court ruled in Morgan vs. Virginia that segregated bus seating was unconstitutional. This was not the first round of Freedom Rides but the first to include women and the first to truly draw national attention to the deplorable treatment of black people by shameful Americans.
Going South
On May 17, 1961, Birmingham law enforcement took the Freedom Riders into custody, allegedly for their protection. However, they were released that evening in a remote area known for Klan activity on the Alabama-Tennessee border.(Getty)
Coordinated by the Congress of Racial Equality, 13 original Freedom Riders, seven black, and six white left from Washington D.C on May 4th, 1961. Their goal was to reach New Orleans on May 17 to honor the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education that ruled against segregation in public schools. They also intended to test two separate Supreme court rulings: Boynton v. Virginia and Morgan vs. Virginia. The first case declared that bathrooms, waiting rooms, and lunch counters could not be segregated.
Southern Hospitality
More than 300 Freedom Riders were eventually arrested.
The group passed through Virginia and North Carolina without issue but faced their first round of violence on May 12th in Rock Hill, South Carolina. John Lewis, civil rights leader and eventual United States House Representative of Georgia, was amongst the Freedom Riders. He and World War II veteran, Albert Bigelow were the first to endure violence from racists who savagely attacked them when they entered a “white-only” waiting area. After that ugly encounter, the group split in two and continued toward their goal. Unfortunately, it was far from the only run-in with racism of small-minded southerners.
Alabama Shame
The firebombed bus outside of Anniston, Alabama.(Getty Images)
Upon arriving in Anniston, Alabama on May 14th, the Freedom Riders’ Greyhound bus was greeted by an angry mob of over 200 bigoted white people. Rather than risk violence from segregationists, the bus driver continued past the station. The bus driver’s attempt to avoid bloodshed was for naught as the angry mob followed in their cars. After blowing out the tires, the xenophobes threw a bomb in the bus before brutally beating the Freedom Riders attempting to escape.
Institutional Racism
Eugene “Bull†Connor, a devout segregationist and Birmingham's public safety commissioner made a deal with Klan leader Bobby Shelton to keep police away.
Some might point out that the 200 hundred plus racists who attacked the Freedom Riders bus didn’t represent the people of Alabama. Unfortunately, Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor stated for the record that while he knew the Freedom Riders were arriving and that a violent mob awaited them, he did not provide any police protection because “it was Mother’s Day.” Local officials even gave the Ku Klux Klan permission to assault the Freedom Riders free of reprisal.
Headline News
Ku Klux Klansmen beat black bystander George Webb in the Birmingham Trailways bus station, May 14, 1961. The man with his back to the camera (center right) is FBI undercover agent Gary Thomas Rowe. (Oxford University Press).
The day after the Alabaman attack on the Freedom Riders, front pages all across America displayed the burning bus and bloodied Freedom Riders. The disgraceful attack and bloodstained photos drew international attention to the Freedom Riders’ cause and how non-whites were treated in America.
Government Intervention
Martin Luther King Jr. passed on becoming a Freedom Rider because he was on parole. He also warned them that “You will never make it through Alabama,†which turned out to be true.
Scrutiny over how “the greatest country in the world” treated black people was exactly what the Freedom Riders wanted. However, the widespread awareness of such violence also made it difficult for Freedom Riders to find a bus driver brave enough to continue the journey. U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy spoke with John Patterson, then Governor of Alabama, and various bus companies to secure a means of transportation and security for the Freedom Riders.
Attacks Continued
The Freedom Riders of 1961. (Mississippi Department of Archives and History)
As the story of the brave Freedom Riders' fight for change grew, both supporters and violent opponents flocked to the scene. In Montgomery Alabama, a white mob of fanatics again attacked the Freedom Riders. John Lewis was viciously attacked and left unconscious in a growing pool of his own blood. In Mississippi, many of the Freedom Riders were arrested and convicted of a “breach of peace.” During the court proceedings, the judge looked at the wall rather than listen to the defense of the Freedom Riders. Governor Ross Barnett instructed the guards of the infamous Parchman Penitentiary to “break their spirits, not their bones.”
Slow Change
The Freedom Riders underwent “intense role-playing sessions" to prepare for hostile bigots.
Despite the horrific and heinous treatment of the original Freedom Riders in the South, more and more Freedom Riders continued to ensure that the Supreme court rulings were upheld. More than 436 riders took part in over 60 Freedom Rides. At the end of May, Robert F. Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to take action. “The time has come for this commission to declare unequivocally by regulation that a Negro passenger is free to travel the length and breadth of this country in the same manner as any other passenger.” Three years later the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public spaces in America.
The image at the top of this post was colorized by Mads Madsen, a lover of historical images who is based in Denmark. You can see more of his work on his Flickr page.
