Talk about the work that you and John Lewis
did to desegregate the Greyhound buses?
Yes.
Well, after the sit-ins took place and we
were able to desegregate the lunch counters,
one of the places that we had the, you know,
integration was the bus station itself, because
we had lunch counters at the bus station,
and so therefore we also sat in at those lunch
counters.
So, the Greyhound bus station was completely
desegregated before the Freedom Rides started.
At Christmas of 1960, John Lewis and I decided
we were going to take the Greyhound bus, but
we were going to sit on the front seat.
The Greyhound bus was still segregated, even
though the station was integrated, in Nashville.
So, I sat behind the driver, and John sat
behind the next seat in the front of the bus.
Well, we rode all the way from Nashville and
got off at Troy, John did, and I continued.
And we desegregated that bus.
So, when the Freedom Rides were announced
by CORE, Congress of Racial Equality, there
was no question that we were going to go on
the Freedom Rides.
And so happened that John was 21 in February
of that year, of 1960, and I was not going
to be 21 until July.
So, we applied.
John Lewis got accepted, but I didn’t get
accepted because I needed parental permission,
and my parents wouldn’t give permission.
My father would say, “I’m not going to
sign your death warrant.”
So, there was already — before the Freedom
Rides started, there was some question about
whether or not we would survive.
Well, John went on the original ride, and,
as mentioned, he was beaten up there in the
first leg, in the first part of the Freedom
Rides.
But we decided we were going to continue.
And the reason why the Freedom Rides continued
is because John Lewis came back to Nashville
and said, “Let’s go.”
So we got permission to take over the Freedom
Rides, so I didn’t need parental permission.
So, he and I got together, and he took the
first group, and I had the backup group, because
you have to have a backup group in case if
the first group got arrested, the only way
you can continue is to have some more people
ready to go.
And so, we had strategy, and we had experience,
and we had leadership ability, and we continued
that Freedom Ride from Birmingham on into
Montgomery.
In Montgomery, we were met with violence.
And this was after we had traveled from Birmingham
to Montgomery with armed guards.
The federal National Guards and all those
people were surrounding us, because they had
promised to give protection, the governor.
But once we got to the bus station, all of
the protection disappeared.
And we were on the platform, and Jim Zwerg
was beaten up, and John Lewis was clobbered.
And I got kicked in the chest and had three
broken ribs.
So, there was nothing you could do with broken
ribs, so I went through the entire Freedom
Rides with three broken ribs.
I didn’t tell my fellow Freedom Riders,
because they might have insisted that I not
go.
So I just kept quiet.
I quietly suffered the entire trip.
