In the summer of 1961, the Freedom Riders, a group of mostly young people, both black and white, risked their lives to challenge the system of segregation in interstate travel in the South. The purpose of the rides was “to test the Supreme Court’s ruling in Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional” (CORE, 2006). In 2001, participants gathered in Jackson, MS to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, where a number of oral history interviews were collected. Additional interviews about the events occurred over the following year.
A short documentary on the Freedom Rides: The Children Shall Lead
Interviews:
- Frankye Adams-Johnson, Freedom Rider
- Zev Aelony, Freedom Rider
- Thomas Madison Armstrong, Freedom Rider
- Michael Audain, Freedom Rider
- Robert Baum, Freedom Rider
- Janet Braun-Reinitz, Freedom Rider
- Joan C. Browning, Freedom Rider
- Fred Clark, Freedom Rider
- Marv Davidov, Freedom Rider
- Kredelle Petway Dendy, Freedom Rider
- John Dolan, Freedom Rider
- Robert Filner, Freedom Rider
- James Forman, Freedom Rider
- Rabbi Martin Freedman, Freedom Rider
- Thomas Gaither, Freedom Rider
- Rev. Francis Geddes, Freedom Rider
- Albert Gordon, Freedom Rider
- Stephen Green, Freedom Rider
- Wayne Hartmire, Freedom Rider
- Robert Heller, Freedom Rider
- Edward Kale, Freedom Rider
- Bernard Lafayette, Freedom Rider
- Lewis Lansky, Freedom Rider
- Mary Harrison Lee, Freedom Rider
- Margaret Leonard, Freedom Rider
- John Lewis, United States Representative and Freedom Rider
- Mary Little-Vance, Freedom Rider
- John Maguire, Freedom Rider
- Charles McDew, Civil Rights Activist
- John Moody, Freedom Rider
- Joan Trumpower Mulholland, Freedom Rider
- Frank Nelson, Freedom Rider
- Sandra Nixon, Freedom Rider
- Claire O’Connor, Freedom Rider
- Hellen O’Neal-McCray, Freedom Rider
- Charles Person, Freedom Rider
- Rev. Alfonso K. Petway, Freedom Rider
- Rev. Ralph Roy, Freedom Rider
- Carol Ruth Silver, Freedom Rider
- Sandra Nixon, United States Attorney General’s Assistant
- Helen Singleton, Freedom Rider
- Robert Singleton, Freedom Rider
- Woollcott Smith, Freedom Rider
- Peter Stoner, Freedom Rider
- Clarence Thomas, Jr., Freedom Rider
- Rev. John Washington, Freedom Rider