Freedom's Children (24 page)

 

ROBERSON, BERNITA : Birmingham, Alabama. Bernita was jailed with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Birmingham protests in 1963. She was about ten years old, she says, when she began questioning the rules of segregation. “You grow up thinking you're second-class, that whites are superior. And I was one who just rebelled against that.” After teaching for seventeen years, Bernita Roberson Sawyer now owns her own business, a travel agency in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

ROBERSON, JAMES: Birmingham, Alabama. James grew up across the street from the church and home of activist preacher Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. “I was blessed to live then. I lived in a poor section of Birmingham, next to a church where a country minister began to say it's time for a change. I would not exchange the experience of living on that street corner and in that section for anything in the world. What most whites do not realize is that it was through the church that black people went to share the news, hear the word, and find out what was going on.” In 1969 James became the first black salesman of Pontiac motor vehicles in the state of Alabama. Later, he was principal of a predominantly white school in Leeds, Alabama. After his retirement from the Alabama school system, he opened his own car dealership in Birmingham.

 

RUSSELL, LARRY : Birmingham, Alabama. When the civil rights movement began, Larry was a high school student. “I was ready. I had seen enough. I had questions that I wanted answers to. I got involved in the demonstrations by good old common sense, and being tired of the old stigma.” Larry was jailed for ten days during the 1963 demonstrations. He lives in Birmingham with his wife, Mary Gadson Russell, and works for the telephone company.

 

SHUTTLESWORTH, FRED, JR.: Birmingham, Alabama. With his sisters Pat and Ricky, Fred participated in civil rights activities. The time he spent at the interracial Highlander camp in Tennessee had a powerful impact on him. “I didn't realize how important it was for me to see folks from all over the world. We had not had experiences with white people until 1960. We had a chance to get to know that they're just like you, and that they play ball just like you do, sing like you do. There are a lot of black folk in the South who never had that experience.” Fred went to jail with his sisters for refusing to sit in the back of the bus on the trip home from the Highlander camp. Today Fred Shuttlesworth, Jr. lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and teaches ninth and eleventh grades and college freshmen.

 

SHUTTLESWORTH, PATRICIA: Birmingham, Alabama. Pat was fourteen years old when she and her sister Ricky tried to integrate Phillips High School in 1957. They and their parents were attacked by a white mob and prevented from entering the school. But this violence did not stop the Shuttlesworths' protest activities. Today Patricia Shuttlesworth Massengill lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and teaches special education in elementary school.

 

SHUTTLESWORTH, RICKY: Birmingham, Alabama. Ricky was active in the Birmingham civil rights movement spearheaded by her father. She and her family survived a bomb attack on their home. “I was eleven years old when it happened. I heard a deafening sound, and then everything was blackened. I knew it was a bomb.” But there were positive experiences as well. She felt “a part of something, a movement for change. I guess the movement made me want to help those who can't help themselves, those who can't speak.” Today Ricky Shuttlesworth Bester lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and teaches developmentally handicapped high school students.

 

SIMPSON, EUVESTER : Itta Bena, Mississippi. After high school, Euvester became a staff worker for SNCC. She believed that if blacks registered and voted and organized, “then maybe we could change some things. I didn't like the way things were, so I became a full-time SNCC worker. Being involved was probably the most important thing I've ever done in my whole life.” Today Euvester Simpson Morris works as general manager for a management consulting firm in Columbus, Mississippi. She has also returned to college for a degree in political science.

 

STEELE, JOHN: Longdale, Mississippi. Michael Schwerner and James Chaney came to John's home when they were trying to set up civil rights programs in Neshoba County. They also came to his home when they were investigating the burning of Mount Zion, a black church in Longdale. It was to be the last day of their lives. Mickey Schwerner once told John that “freedom is worth dying for, fighting for other people's freedom.” John says, “He made me see that freedom is not free. He paid the price for freedom.” Today John Steele lives in Longdale, Mississippi.

 

TARVER, JUDY: Fairfield, Alabama. Judy was a senior at Fairfield High School, near Birmingham, when she was arrested and jailed for civil rights activities. She went away to attend college in Ohio. “When I came back and saw blacks driving buses, and the signs were down, I felt like I had something to do with it. I felt good about it. It's unreal how different it is. There are blacks
behind
the lunch counters. They're sitting at the lunch counters. I'm living on the same street that white people are living on. That would have been unheard of then.” Today Judy Tarver Bostick is a medical technologist at a hospital in Birmingham.

 

TAYLOR, FRED: Montgomery, Alabama. Fred was thirteen years old when he participated in the bus boycott. “I remember people walking the streets. It made sense to me when I would hear Dr. King tell the story about this woman saying, ‘My feet are tired, but my soul is rested.' ” For Fred, “the movement gave me a sense of somebodyness. I was the first person in my immediate family to even finish high school. If the movement had not happened, I don't know where I would have ended up in life.” Today Reverend Fred Taylor lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and is the coordinator of direct action—marching, picketing, civil disobedience—for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference nationwide.

 

WEBB, SHEYANN: Selma, Alabama. Sheyann was eight years old when she became an activist. Her involvement began when she saw a group of blacks and whites “mingling together. That was unusual to me. ... I had never seen them in a friendly or social environment where they were actually communicating.” That was the first of many meetings she attended. Within months she convinced her parents to go to a mass meeting, and for her ninth birthday present she asked them to register to vote. Sheyann was probably the youngest marcher on “Bloody Sunday,” when civil rights demonstrators were beaten and teargassed by police officers. Today Sheyann Webb Christburg lives in Montgomery, Alabama, and is the owner of a public relations firm that has developed cultural, social, and academic programs for young people. She and her husband also own a beauty salon.

 

WILLIAMS, GLADIS: Montgomery, Alabama. Gladis was a teenage activist in Montgomery during the 1960s. She was thirteen when she and her sister attempted to integrate a doctor's waiting room. She says, “We used to hold workshops and talk about the bus boycott, and how the movement started here. We were determined to keep the fire burning. The MIA was real important to us. We were young folks, and we got our mind on freedom.” Today Gladis Williams lives in Montgomery and works for the County Health Department as a home health aide and emergency technician.

Although most of the material in this book is comprised of the words of the people interviewed, I prepared for the interviews by extensive reading of civil rights movement history and literature, and careful and repeated viewing of the splendid documentary series “Eyes on the Prize.” Although all the books I read were instructive, several were steady reference sources:

 

 

 

Bates, Daisy.
The Long Shadow of Little Rock.
New York: David McKay, 1962; University of Arkansas Press, 1986.

Blaustein, Albert P., and Zangrando, Robert L., eds.
Civil Rights and the American Negro: A Documentary History.
New York: Washington Square Press, 1968.

Branch, Taylor.
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

Bullard, Sara, exec. ed.
Free At Last: A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Those Who Died in the Struggle. Montgomery, AL:
The Southern Poverty Law Center.

Cagin, Seth, and Dray, Philip.
We Are Not Afraid: The Story of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney and the Civil Rights Campaign for Mississippi.
New York: Macmillan, 1988; Bantam, 1989.

Garrow, David J.
Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
New York: William Morrow, 1968.

__, ed.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987.

Mendelsohn, Jack.
The Martyrs: 16 Who Gave Their Lives for Justice.
New York: Harper & Row, 1966.

Raines, Howell.
My Soul Is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1977; Penguin, 1983.

Webb, Sheyann, and Nelson, Rachel West.
Selma, Lord, Selma: Girlhood Memories of the Civil-Rights Days,
as told to Frank Sikora. Tus caloosa : University of Alabama Press, 1980.

Williams, Juan.
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954—
1965. New York: Viking Penguin, 1987 (companion volume to
Eyes on the Prize,
the PBS documentary series produced by Blackside).

Figures in italic refer to photo illustrations.

Additional photographs between pages 76 and 77.

Abernathy, Reverend Ralph

ACMHR. See Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR).

“Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round,”

Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR)

Alabama State College

Ambulances

“America the Beautiful,”

Arrests.
See
Jail/arrest experiences.

Assassinations.
See
Murders/killings/assassinations.

Baez, Joan

Baker, Ella

Baldwin, James

Bates, Daisy

Bathrooms/restrooms, segregation of

Belafonte, Harry

Bennett, Tony

Bethel Baptist Church, Birmingham, AL

bombing of parsonage

Freedom Riders and

pastor.
See
Shuttlesworth, Reverend Fred.

Bevel, Reverend James

Billings, Reverend

Birmingham, AL

Bethel Baptist Church.
See
Bethel Baptist Church.

bombings

buses

Children's Crusade

Freedom Riders

King, Dr. Martin Luther, Jr., in

marches/demonstrations/protests

mass meetings

Mother's Day Massacre

police

segregation experiences

sit-ins

Sixteenth Street Church.
See
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

See also
Carter, Myrna; Foster, Frances; Gadson, Mary; Hendricks, Audrey Faye; Roberson, Bernita; Roberson, James; Russell, Larry; Shuttlesworth, Fred, Jr.; Shuttlesworth, Patricia; Shuttlesworth, Ricky.

“Black is beautiful” slogan

Bloody Sunday (March 7, 1965)

Bombings

Abernathy home and church

Birmingham, AL

Gaston Motel

King home

McComb, MS, churches

Montgomery, AL

Nixon home

Shuttlesworth home

Booker T. Washington High School, Montgomery, AL

Boyd, Delores

Boyd, Henry

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Brown Chapel AME Church, Selma, AL

Brown, Minniejean.
See also
Little Rock Nine.

Buses

boycott.
See
Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Colvin, Claudette, and

Freedom Rides

Hamer/Simpson arrest

interstate

Shuttlesworth arrest

Carmichael, Stokely

Carr, Arlam

Carter, Myrna

Carver, George Washington

Carver High School, Montgomery, AL

Cemeteries, segregation of

Central High School, Little Rock, AR

Chaney, Ben

Chaney, James Earl

Children's Crusade

Churches

bombings.
See
Bombings.