Alabama State University News February 3, 2011 1961 Freedom Riders Make a Stop at ASU Veterans of the 1961 Freedom Riders movement shared their stories with ASU students during a panel discussion on Feb. 1. Nearly 50 years ago, an interracial group of activists rode interstate buses throughout the segregated South to challenge the 1960 United States Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia, which prohibited racial segregation in interstate transportation. In 1961, this group of activists labeled themselves Freedom Riders. On Feb. 1, 2011, veterans of the Freedom Riders movement convened at Alabama State University on a new mission -- to turn the terrible things that happened back then into a lesson for today. A panel discussion, held in the John L. Buskey Auditorium, included commentary from Ernest "Rip" Patton and Diane Nash, both were students from historically black universities in Nashville in 1961; and famed civil rights attorney Solomon Seay Jr., who worked to secure the release of Freedom Riders who were jailed in Montgomery. Patton, a Nashville native, was a student at Tennessee State University. Nash, who was from Chicago, just arrived at Fisk University. She said she knew what segregation was, but was naive to the real affects of the Jim Crow laws. She witnessed restaurant employees forbidding Nashville blacks to eat in their restaurants. She sought out the Student Central Committee of the Nashville Christian Leadership Council, hoping that would help her do something about the injustices she witnessed. That's where she met Patton, who had grown up in the segregated city. He was very familiar with Jim Crow but he too wanted to do something about it. "We practiced demonstrations," said Nash, who would rise to lead the student committee and coordinate the Freedom Rides from Nashville. "We certainly didn't know that we would be successful." Patton said for many students school became secondary and most put aside taking exams to participate in the Freedom Rides. "Many of us signed our wills because we knew there was a possible chance that somebody wasn't coming back," he said. "We were well-trained in scriptures and to sing hymns, which confounded our enemy. That's what got us through." SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 Skype:sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.