The Freedom Riders were back in Jackson recently. This time they were honored and not carted off to Parchman Penitentary like they were in 1961.
Several of them were saluted Thursday, Nov. 11, at the Alamo Theatre in downtown Jackson.
More than 300 hundred of them were pivotal in fighting segregation on the bus and train systems in the south. They were college students from throughout the country who boarded the transportation vehicles then to protest against racism and discrimination.
Veterans of Civil Rights member Reverend Willie Blue said Mississippi was the toughest state the young protestors had to endure. “The brutality of it all was terrible,” Blue said.
“In Jackson, they put them down in the cattle pens like cattle, and some of them were taken to Parchman where they were stripped naked; 20 of them in one cell. They had one little whole in the floor as a toilet,” he said. “People don’t know this stuff and it’s our fault, because we have not told our history as it should be told. Other people have been coming here telling our history, but we have not told our part yet.”
Thursday’s event was a prerequisite to telling that history. The history makers were back to remember and educate people about the importance of their non violent protest against racism. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, New York and Washington, D.C. were represented by those who attended.
Freedom Rider Henry “Hank” Thomas was on a bus loaded with college students that was firebombed. The doors were blocked to trap them. They all got out through collective force.
Thomas, who faired better than some of the others who were on the ground, was asked by an officer whether he was okay. And when he said yes, the officer knocked him to the ground with a heavy object.
He told The Mississippi Link that even though they endured a lot in order for change to take place, he would do it all over again. “Anything that’s wrong has been a part of me. I usually don’t think of the consequences. I knew I had to do something about it,” he said. Thomas told the audience he is proud to be a Buffalo Soldier.
He was also among those arrested and sent to Parchman. “Anything to humiliate us was done,” he said. “…That was part of the humiliation, the dehumanizing process,” Thomas said told reporters.
Jackson resident and Milwaukee native Hezekiah Watkins was 13 years old when he was arrested for trying to buy a ticket at the Jackson Greyhound bus station, located then on Lamar Street.
“I was taken to Parchman and put on death row,” Watkins said. He was released after a couple of days when it was discovered that a 13 year-old had been mistakenly sent there. He later joined the movement and was arrested more than 100 times.
Lewis Zuchman, a Freedom Rider from New York said he hope what they are doing and did will motivate young people to stand up for what is right. Zuchman was inspired to become a Freedom Rider when he saw Thomas on television seeking more participation in the movement.
Exerpts of a movie documentary about the Freedom Riders, written by Stanley Nelson, was shown during the event.
The entire documentary will be aired by Mississippi Public Broadcasting in May 2011.
The 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders will be observed May 22-28, 2011 in the metro Jackson area. It is being coordinated by The Mississippi Freedom 50th Foundation.
Thursday’s pre-celebration was sponsored by MINACT and coordinated by Jackson State University and The Freedom 50th Foundation.
“The turnout was beyond our expectations,” said JSU Interim President Leslie Burl McLemore.
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