November 13th, 2015

A UNCA professor talked about how the Freedom Riders of 1961 helped spark the Civil Rights movement, at the Humanities Lecture Hall Wednesday night.

Dwight Mullen is a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and an active member of the African American community.

“Would you ride a bus like the Freedom Riders of 1961, knowing you will probably get killed, or at best sent off to prison? You may say yes, but that would mean you clearly don’t understand the weight of the situation,” said Mullen. “I don’t know if anyone could easily say yes.”

The Freedom Riders were African American activists who would travel through the south either on whites only buses, or would sit in the white designated sections. Most of them were young college students who would voluntarily drop out of college to help the cause.

When traveling through Alabama during the spring of 1961, a bus full of activists was attacked, sparking weeks of protest and beatings by white supremacists and other racial hate groups. The lack of protection provided by the government for the Freedom Riders was a key talking point during the evening.

“When does a democracy stop being a democracy?,” said Mullen. “Clearly, the majority of people in the state of Alabama didn’t want blacks riding their buses, and they remained segregated (in the south) long after federal law had changed. That in itself is its own type of democracy.”

Protection from local police was basically nonexistent at this time for African Americans in the southern United States. It was not unusual for blacks to be openly discriminated against such as this, however the level of public violence during an era of so-called “peace” helped give momentum to the Civil Rights Movement.

Eleanor Williams, an African American woman who was a college student in Tennessee at the time of the bus rides said, “I remember watching some of these kids come back to college after they had made it to New Orleans. You could tell some of them had seen things that would follow them for a long time.”

“Even Martin Luther King said they should stay home. Thats how dangerous the situation was,” said Mullen.

By the time they got to Birmingham there were hundreds of angry protesters waiting for them at the bus station. The entire city, including Bull Connor, the city’s mayor, was waiting with clenched fists for the riders to appear.

“Again and again they took beatings without even raising a hand against their oppressors,” said Mullen. “Imagine the level of conviction you have to possess for you to take a beating that could take your life, and not even raise a hand in anger.” Mullen continued, saying “You don’t even know if its going to work, you have no results to compare your efforts to, so how do you know you’re not just acting in vain?”

Without much help from the local or state police, the Freedom Riders would eventually make their historic trip from Atlanta, Georgia, to New Orleans, Louisiana. Battered, beaten, and tired, they inspired hundreds and hundreds more to travel by bus throughout the south.

Alex Cox, a local student and attendee said, “I can’t imagine having to drop out of college and risk my life to stand up for my rights as a human. Its something that nobody should ever have to do.”