Mary Harrison Lee and Hezekiah Watkins answer questions regarding the Freedom Riders in the 1960s during a panel discussion Wednesday. Photo: Anna Brigance, The Daily Mississippian.
Civil rights activists Mary Harrison Lee and Hezekiah Watkins discussed their involvement in the Freedom Riders civil rights movement as part of a discussion panel in the Overby Center Wednesday evening.
Lee and Watkins reflected on how curiosity drove them to the movement more than vindication. They also explained how their experiences in Jackson in 1961 led to their continued involvement.
“I was not even aware of what the Freedom Riders were doing, but I’m glad I got to be a part of it and glad to be here to share my story with you,” Lee said.
The Congress of Racial Equality organized the Freedom Rides in 1961. The rides were a series of trips taken by activists attempting to nonviolently protest the non-enforcement of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that made segregation unconstitutional on interstate buses and in related facilities.
CORE originally routed the rides toward New Orleans, but complications led them to Jackson.
Curious about the Freedom Riders, Lee signed up as an alternate when James L. Bevel came to Tupelo College to recruit local riders. She cited her empathy for a fellow Mississippi native, who would have been the only local female rider, as her main reason for accepting when Bevel asked her to take part.
Audience member Detra Payne expressed the value she saw in Lee’s commentary.
“That notion of just being supportive (of) another human being, ‘I didn’t want the girl to be by herself’, we still, as human beings, need to get back to that,” Payne said. “We need to get back to that connection.”
Law enforcement arrested 328 people at the Freedom Riders’ arrival in Jackson including Lee and Watkins. At 13 years old, Watkins was the youngest among the arrestees sent to nearby Parchman Prison during the movement.
Watkins came to see the Freedom Riders he had seen on television with no intention of getting involved.
“If I wanted water, my place was to drink from the fountain that read ‘color only,’” Watkins said. “If I wanted a sandwich, my place was to go to the rear of an establishment. That was my knowledge. That was my belief. That was my understanding of being black in Jackson, Mississippi, as a 13-year-old child.”
Senior African American studies major and West Point native Ashley Ridgeway expressed her reasons for attending.
“I’m currently writing a research paper on the Civil Rights Movement in my town,” Ridgeway said. “I thought it would be good to come and hear the perspective of a freedom rider, and I got to meet two (riders).”
The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Created Equal Initiative sponsored the event. University of Mississippi Libraries and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture received grants to participate in the initiative in conjunction with the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.
— Drew Jansen
ajjansen@go.olemiss.edu
