Freedom Riders complete New Orleans journey 65 years after mob halted 1961 ride

Tribute at Xavier University comes amid voting rights concerns after Supreme Court ruling

Multiple generations of Black civil rights activists met at Xavier University in New Orleans on Wednesday to honor a group of Freedom Riders who completed the bus journey from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans that a segregationist mob firebombing cut short 65 years ago.

The original ride, the first in a series of trips protesting Jim Crow laws, was interrupted when a segregationist mob firebombed the riders’ buses in Anniston, Alabama, on May 14, 1961. The 13 riders escaped the bus before it exploded but sustained beatings from the mob. The next day, they flew directly to New Orleans and sought refuge at Xavier University after hotels refused to host them out of fears of further violence.

The latest cohort of Freedom Riders left Washington, D.C., on Oct. 17 and stopped in cities including Selma and Jackson before completing the route their predecessors were unable to finish. Among the riders were original participants of the 1961 Freedom Rides, including Steve Thomas, who traveled from Jackson to Montgomery.

Riders and supporters sang “We Shall Overcome” with interlocked hands, and faith-based activists addressed the gathering. The reception highlighted a legacy of Black political action amid concerns of voter suppression after the Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court decision — a ruling that, according to the Associated Press, gutted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act — and after a nationwide redistricting eliminated majority-Black congressional districts across the Deep South, including one of two in Louisiana.

“We are approaching another election and once again questions about voting rights, equal representation, civic participation and the integrity of our democratic institutions is before us,” said the Rev. Traci Blackmon, who is based in Missouri. “Across the nation, the communities are wrestling questions that should have been settled permanently long ago: ‘Who gets to vote?’”

The ceremony recognized original Freedom Riders from New Orleans, including Jerome “Big Duck” Smith and Dodie Smith-Simmons. Smith met with then-U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy in May 1963 and confronted him about the failure to protect him and other civil rights activists against angry white mobs across the South — a meeting seen as a pivotal factor that pushed the federal government to support the civil rights movement. Smith continued to fight for civil rights and mentor New Orleans’ youth until his death in August. Smith-Simmons, who attended the event, trained Freedom Riders when she was with CORE.

Before the Xavier ceremony, the riders stopped at the TEP Interpretive Center, located at the former William Frantz Elementary School, to meet founder Leona Tate, one of the first students to integrate the school in 1960. They then made their way to Xavier University’s St. Katharine Drexel Chapel for the recognition and a program highlighting the legacy of Black activism. Like the original bus trip, solidarity with historically Black colleges and universities ran through the new campaign, and student leaders paid tribute to the actions of their predecessors.

“Mr. Smith was more than a fighter and freedom rider. He was a father, a mentor, and a man who demonstrated love, courage, culture and commitment to his family. We honor him today, and his sacrifice, his service and his journey,” said Xavier University student Paytra Flood, who spoke at the event. “As we welcome back Freedom Riders to Xavier, we recognize that we are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us. As students at this historically Black University, we have the responsibility to understand history that shaped our communities.”

The original Freedom Rides confronted ongoing transit segregation. This year’s trip sought to mobilize voters and encourage activists to understand what they can do today to enact change.

Kredelle Petway-Phillips, a legacy Freedom Rider who participated in the recent trip, said she wanted to remind young Americans of the importance of their vote and their ability to make change. Her Freedom Ride was a July 1961 airplane trip from Montgomery, Alabama, to Jackson, Mississippi, where Jackson police arrested her and held her for three days. Her participation in the rides was seen as integral to the eventual desegregation of flights, and she said it was rewarding, when she returned to Jackson for the 50th reunion of her flight, to see Black people represented in the local government.

“It’s up to you young people to vote and keep the legacy alive,” Petway-Phillips said. “Fight for what’s right (and) vote for the common good of all people because what affects one affects the other. … We all suffer when one suffers.”

The Xavier ceremony wrapped up with a second line from the chapel to a statue of Norman Francis, who provided safe refuge for the May 1961 Freedom Riders when he was Xavier University’s dean of men. Francis, who died earlier this year, later became Xavier’s first Black and non-clergy member president in 1968.

“The reality is that we have to declare that there is more work to be done,” said Bishop Erika Crawford of the Eighth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which represents AME churches in Louisiana and Mississippi. “There are testimonies about what happens when we refuse to allow the last stops to be the final stop … This is the last stop, but don’t let it be the final stop.”