Freedom Rides Archives

Last fall, UMW students and city residents retraced the route of the Freedom Rides, the historic protest to desegregate interstate travel, organized by James Farmer. Members of the UMW community are working with the City to establish a historic marker on the site of the old bus station in Fredericksburg, the Freedom Riders’ first stop on their 1961 trip. Photo by Lynda Allen.

James Farmer Multicultural Center Assistant Director Chris Williams, Assistant Professor of History Erin Devlin and Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation Christine Henry were interviewed in The Free Lance-Star about their efforts to work with the City of Fredericksburg to establish a Virginia state historical marker at the site of the old bus station where the Freedom Riders stopped first in their quest to desegregate interstate transportation in 1961. The station formerly stood on the corner of Princess Anne and Wolfe streets, near where the fire station is now.

Some of the riders were arrested in North Carolina, South Carolina and Mississippi. In Anniston, Ala., a mob of Ku Klux Klan members slashed the bus’s tires as it attempted to leave the terminal, and later threw a firebomb at it.

UMW students and staff and community members visited the field where the bombing occurred last fall, as part of a trip recreating the journey of the Freedom Riders.

“To our surprise, there was no marker out there. No historical marker saying that right here, the original 13 Freedom Riders were fire-bombed,” said Chris Williams, assistant director of UMW’s James Farmer Multicultural Center, which organized the trip. “I was enraged and so were the students.”

Back home in Fredericksburg, Williams was still thinking about ways the story of the Freedom Riders and James Farmer could be told better—and that led to the idea of placing a highway marker at the site of the old bus station.

Williams, Devlin and Henry, in partnership with the City of Fredericksburg, have started the process of applying for the marker from the state Department of Historical Resources. Read more.

More than 50 years ago, a 19-year-old college student named Joan Trumpauer Mulholland bought a flight to Mississippi and joined the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. It was 1961, the year that dozens of sit-ins occurred in diners and drugstores and the same year that the Freedom Rides challenged segregated interstate bus travel in the Deep South. Mulholland, a white teenager raised in the South, was arrested and sent to prison for two months for her involvement in the protests.

Joan Mulholland, shown during a trip to UMW in 2011, will be a part of UMW’s Black History Month celebration on Feb. 3.

Mulholland will share her story at the University of Mary Washington on Monday, Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. as part of the Black History Month celebration. The evening will begin with a showing of the new documentary, “An Ordinary Hero,” which chronicles her unlikely journey. After the documentary, Mulholland and the film’s director will lead a discussion and answer questions.

Mulholland was among the former Freedom Riders who joined UMW as it commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides in 2011 with a three-month celebration. The centerpiece of the celebration was a 1960s-era bus and exhibit of historical photos on Ball Circle.

UMW’s Black History Month celebration also will feature the following events:

Saturday, Feb. 1 – Black History Month Kickoff Celebration: Gospelfest
- 3 p.m. in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium
Tuesday, Feb. 4 – Great Lives Lecture: Martin Luther King Jr.
- 7:30 p.m. in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium
Thursday, Feb. 6 – Civil War to Civil Rights: Trail to Freedom Teacher Resources Toolkit
- 7 p.m. in Lee Hall, Room 411
Wednesday, Feb. 12 – Black History Month Keynote Speaker: Angela Rye, principal at IMPACT Strategies and the youngest woman to serve as executive director and general counsel of the Congressional Black Caucus
- 7 p.m. in Lee Hall, Room 411
Wednesday, Feb. 26 – An Evening of Jazz: A Tribute to America’s Great Black Artists
- 7:30 p.m., Lee Hall, the Underground

All events are free and open to the public. For more information and a detailed list of events, visit http://students.umw.edu/multicultural/programs/black-history-month-celebration/.