Freedom Rides Anniversary, Day 4: Travelers Honor Slain Civil Rights Leader, Pledge To Continue Struggle
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A spirited group of city high school students and original Freedom Riders continued their celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides in Jackson, Mississippi by honoring civil rights leader Medgar Evers and listening to inspirational words from his widow. NY1's Budd Mishkin filed the following report. City high school students are retracing the steps of the Freedom Riders in 1961, when blacks and whites from around the country rode together to challenge segregation on buses and in bus stations in the deep South.
People who took part in the original Freedom Rides are also an integral part in this journey.
The latest leg of their trip led to an interfaith service at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi.
The students also unveiled a plaque at the Jackson home of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who was killed in 1963, and heard from his widow, Myrlie Evers Williams.
"It was not the publicity or to see your names in the papers. It was to change a system that needed to be changed, and you were willing to pay the price to do it," Williams said.
Much of the day was also spent on inter-generational story sessions. The older participants remembered how they furthered the cause of civil rights, while the students answered the question, "What is your freedom ride?"
"My freedom ride is to be a better man than my father, because he wasn't there when I was a kid, when I was little," said Iquan Richardson of Boys and Girls High School.
"You kids, after listening to you and your trials, I applaud you, because you are making it under some extreme circumstances," said Dion Diamond, one of the original Freedom Riders.