Freedom Riders talk at museum presentation

CARBONDALE – For Black History Month the African American Museum decided to honor those who risked their lives for equal rights.

The museum in the University Mall screened an hour of the PBS documentary “American Experience: Freedom Riders” and had two of the riders in attendance. The event was co-presented by WSIU at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Ernest Rip Patton of Nashville, Tenn., and Genevieve Houghton of Carbondale attended the screening and spoke to those in attendance.

They were two of many who boarded buses in 1961 and travelled to the south to challenge segregation. Patton, who was a 21-year-old Tennessee State University student at the time, was arrested and spent 62 days in Parchman State Prison in Missis-sippi. He had previously taken part in the 1960 Nashville sit-ins.

Patton said he had been taught the non-violent movements of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi in col-lege and decided to take an active role in the civil rights movement.

He said when he and the other freedom riders decided to take the buses to the south the risk was very clear. Patton said the riders split into groups so if something happened to the first, the second could continue on and so on. The participants also signed their wills and wrote let-ters in case they didn't make it back.

“We figured someone was going to get killed and we were ready to make that sacrifice,” Patton said.

He said Montgomery, Ala., is where it got really ugly and the riders and camera crews were met with violence.

Houghton said taking part in the ride was the “most important thing (she) could do with her life” and went despite family telling her it was a bad idea.

Museum co-founder and coordinator and Carbon-dale City Councilwoman Corene McDaniel said she was excited to have both of the freedom riders at the event.

“To have two of them at the same time – oh my gosh, that's an honor,” McDaniel said.

codell.rodriguez@thesouthern.com

618-351-5804

See the original post here: