Breach of Peace: Portraits of the Mississippi Freedom Riders
In the Spring and Summer of 1961, several hundred Americans — blacks and whites, men and women — entered Southern bus stations, train stations and airports to challenge state segregation laws. Under federal law, interstate transportation facilities were no longer allowed to discriminate, but most did and were not interested in change. Over 400 people would be arrested in that landmark campaign, an "insistent and innovative movement that seized the attention of the nation in 1961, bringing nonviolent direct action to the forefront of the fight for racial justice," according to historian Ray Arsenault in his good new book Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice
Though the campaign was widespread across the South, the primary focus of the Freedom Rides came to be Jackson, Mississippi, where over 300 people were arrested. The Mississippi Freedom Riders were from all over the country, primarily New England and the Midwest, California and the South (especially Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana). Many were college students, though some were older, and a few were still in high school. All were convicted of breach of peace and did time in the city jail; most all of them also did six weeks at the state's infamous prison, Parchman.
The name, mug shot and other personal details of each Freedom Rider arrested were duly recorded by agents of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a combination PR/investigative agency whose purpose was to "perform any and all acts deemed necessary and proper to protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi." The files of the agency, shut down in 1973, were made public in 1998 after a lengthy court battle and are now housed at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Though I lived just an hour's drive north of Jackson, in a little town called Carthage (map), I was only four in 1961, and not yet aware of my state's troubled racial history or the emerging Civil Rights movement.
Two years ago, I came across the Freedom Rider mug shots in the Sovereignty Commission files; they are compelling historical images, unintentionally moving portraits of ordinary citizens who were willing to put themselves in harm's way to win the rights guaranteed by the Constitution but still denied to so many. I decided to try to find as many of the Mississippi riders as I could and make contemporary portraits to accompany these earlier photographs.
To date I have photographed 19 former Freedom Riders. The mug shots and my portraits of Helen and Robert Singleton, a couple who traveled from Los Angeles to Jackson to be arrested on July 30, 1961, were published in the July 2 issue of the New York Times Magazine. These pictures are also online at the newspaper's website, along with the mug shots and my portraits of two other riders — Richard Steward, then a college student in New Orleans, and Fred Clark, then a high school student in Jackson.
You can see the portraits of two additional riders on my photoblog: Euguene Levine (right), a World War II veteran who drove from Oklahoma to Jackson and got himself arrested — twice — in the train station, and Stephen Green, then a Middlebury senior and now a Vermont state legislator. I will be publishing the mug shots and portraits of more Mississippi Freedom Riders in the coming days.
Update February 2008: Since this was published, I have photographed many more Freedom Riders and the series has become a book. Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders
Posted on July 01, 2006, in Mississippi. | Tag this with del.icio.us
Comments
please inform me as other portraits are made available to the public. it's important this part of us history not be lost or forgotten. it also shows the power of the indiviual to make a contribution & difference in society. unfortunately, far too many of today's youth don't have that sense of optimism & power.
Posted by: jay muse at July 3, 2006 03:57 AM
please inform me as other portraits are made available to the public. it's important this part of us history not be lost or forgotten. it also shows the power of the indiviual to make a contribution & difference in society. unfortunately, far too many of today's youth don't have that sense of optimism & power.
jay muse
Posted by: jay muse at July 3, 2006 03:57 AM
What a wonderful piece of history you have documented. While I understand this is a continuing project,is there a possibility of the exisitng collection being exhibited? I am director of The Howard Thurman Center at Boston University.
Posted by: katherine kennedy at July 3, 2006 04:18 PM
Thank you for documenting these brave individuals and for documenting this significant movement. I am curator at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN and would like to learn of the possibility of an exhibition of your work on this subject.
Please keep me posted as things develop and other images are added to the site.
Posted by: Barbara Andrews at July 3, 2006 05:02 PM
Please let me know as soon as you have these available. These people are our elders, our inspiration. They have walked the path ahead of us and lead the way with such dignity and courage. We need to see their faces, to know what true elders look like.
I am so grateful for your work,
Sherry Anderson,
co author, The Cultural Creatives; The Feminine Face of God.
Posted by: Sherry Ruth Anderson at July 3, 2006 07:57 PM
I was struck by the dates of the arrests in the NYT photos---it's my husband's actual birthday. Thank you for documenting the struggles of those whose work allowed him to have a better life as an african american man than they did. I'll be saving the Times clip for our son, so that when he's older, I can help him understand his history and the sacrifices others have made for him and generations to come.
Posted by: Lisa Gomez at July 5, 2006 11:26 AM
Thank you for sharing your work with the public, what an amazing project. I was born in 1968 and I've often wondered what happened to the many young people who participated in these protest; how were their futures shaped by their participation and what are they doing now to advance racial equality. Please keep me posted in new photos and bios. Good luck and God's Speed on future successes.
Posted by: Indigo at July 5, 2006 02:37 PM
Thank you for documenting this. I intend to share these pictures and memories with my eleventh grade students after we study Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience." Best of luck in this very important project.
Posted by: Roxanne Guillory at July 7, 2006 10:19 AM
fabu! when's the book due out?
Posted by: lawrence d. warren at July 7, 2006 02:32 PM
I wanted you to know tat I posted a link to your wonderfully important and creative work on my own blog http://politicstheoryphotography.blogspot.com/; If you have plans to mount a touring exhibiiton let me knkow as I'd like to arrange for it to come to Rochester (NY) too!
Posted by: Jim Johnson at July 10, 2006 11:41 AM
I was so struck by the photos in the NY Times Mag that I cut them out and brought them into work to post near my desk with a few other faces that give me hope and persistence. I never got South myself during that stretch of history, but my own life has been so deeply shaped by what those folks did that they feel like my people. Please let me know when there is an exhibit or when you publish these.
Posted by: janet gallagher at August 24, 2006 03:57 PM
Thanks for sharing this wonderful piece of history. Having grown up in North Carolina, I know the story. I was able to participate in the marches in Raleigh,NC in 1963 while attending St. Agustine's as we marched with the students from Shaw Uiniversity. We thank the Freedom Riders for their support as we stand today on all of their shoulders!!!
Posted by: Nan Puryear at June 18, 2007 08:54 AM