Freedom Rider Takes Students Back in Time
One of the last living Freedom Riders, and a quietly fierce advocate for civil rights, shared her experiences with upper school students on Monday, Oct. 28.
At the age of 19, Joan Browning was one of only four white women from the South to join the Freedom Rides, a series of political protests against segregation by Blacks and whites who rode buses together through the American South in 1961.
After the Freedom Rides, Browning worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an autonomous student group made up mostly of Black college students, who practiced peaceful action protests, alongside civil rights leaders like Julian Bond, Ella Baker and John Lewis.
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Browning started college in 1959 at Georgia State College for Women when she was 16. She became involved in the freedom rider movement, but this ultimately led to her dismissal from the school. She moved to Atlanta and increased her activism in the civil rights movement.
During the Freedom Rides, Browning was arrested and jailed for a week in Albany, Georgia. As she described the experience to students, she noted that even under arrest, she was segregated from the Black women who travelled with her by being put in her own cell. She described acts of violence by people opposed to desegregation, and acts of bravery and resilience by the people who planned and participated in the bus protests.
During the Freedom Rides, Browning was arrested and jailed for a week in Albany, Georgia. As she described the experience to students, she noted that even under arrest, she was segregated from the Black women who travelled with her by being put in her own cell. She described acts of violence by people opposed to desegregation, and acts of bravery and resilience by the people who planned and participated in the bus protests.
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One of the last living Freedom Riders, Joan Browning, visited Barstow on Oct. 28.
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