Remembering Freedom Riders

For the past few weeks in US History, our class has been discussing the topic of civil rights. This has been by far my favorite unit that we have learned this year due to the interactive activities we have done in order to complete more in-depth learning. In particular, I really enjoyed traveling to Montgomery, Alabama to further educate our class on civil rights. I found this field trip extremely eye opening and memorable due to the horrific stories and fact filled museums that we visited. Although I found every exhibit and tour fascinating, the most memorable aspect of the trip was learning about the freedom riders campaign. This story not only shocked me, but it really made myself reflect on our states history considering this event started in 1960, which was only 59 years ago! This made an impact on myself as a student leading me to want to try and make a difference. This is the reason why I chose to design my own memorial in order to honor everyone who was involved in the terrible incident.

Before further analyzing my memorial design, I wanted to know who the Freedom riders really were. Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, which were bus trips through the American South starting in 1960 through 1961. These Freedom Rides were conducted by CORE, other known as Congress of Racial Equality. In early May of 1961, CORE sent seven blacks and 6 whites from Washington DC on two public buses bound for the deep South where racial equality was a larger problem. This racial activist group wished to accomplish the goal of testing the supreme court ruling on segregated interstate travel in the Confederate state. In these rides, the African Americans planned on flaunting the states laws by sitting on the front of the buses and using "whites-only" waiting and restrooms in the bus terminals. The first few weeks of this activists movement seemed to happen without any incident. It was only until May 14, 1961 were the Freedom Riders campaign took a dark turn.

On May 14, 1961, attacks on the Freedom riders intensified. One of the two buses stopped in Anniston, Alabama where mobs of whites surrounded their bus at one of the towns bus stations. This mob popped the buses tires and vigorously screamed at the passengers inside. As the mob continued to be unsatisfied with their hostile actions, a white man broke the back window from the outside and threw gas into the entire back end of the bus. It didn't take long for the bus to turn into flames, leaving everyone inside to die. Luckily, all of the Freedom Riders escaped, but it was described as a "scene from Hell". Meanwhile, the other Freedom Rider bus was stopped in Birmingham by another mob of whites that was even larger than the mob in Anniston. It was estimated that around 100-200 whites were there surrounding the bus, forcing all of the Freedom Riders to come outside. This white mob beat the riders with baseball bats, lead pipes, and bicycle chains. Not only where they being attacked, but they were being left to suffer due to no help from he police. Learning about this traumatizing event was extremely eye opening to me, making me want to do something to help and memorialize this event.

Before starting my artistic journey and designing something to remember our Freedom Riders, I first had to decide whether I wanted to make a memorial or a monument. After careful thinking, I chose to honor these activists by creating a memorial. I wanted the focus of my design to be a place where you could reflect and honor the Freedom Riders rather than just making a singular structure to commemorate a person or event. I wanted there to be a more deep and peaceful feeling to my piece to represent racial conflict slowly disappearing. In order to commemorate and memorialize this event, I really wanted to capture where it all started, which was a bus. As you can see in the picture below, I wanted to make the bus statue the main focus of my memorial, for this was the activists source of transportation for their movement. I wanted to build this bus out of steel, due to this being a strong and sturdy metal. I chose this in order to show how strong and brave these activists were to stand up in what was right for them. Personally, I can't even imagine getting on a bus everyday and possibly not coming home due to racial rules. As you look closer, you can see that the windows of the bus are filled with the Freedom Riders faces. I thought it would be symbolic for family members of those whose lives were lost or effected in this event could be recognized for their strength and bravery as well. While brainstorming other possible ideas for my memorial, I knew I wanted my main purpose of this memorial was to let people in our generation to be able to reflect on the attacks. In order to do this, I wanted to set the steel bus sculpture on a pedestal so the public could physically look up to it, while the sculpture was also surrounded by water leading to this piece literally reflecting in the water. Lastly, I wanted this memorial to be peaceful. I wanted this once chaotic and terrifying place to now be one where individuals can feel safe and at home. In order to do this, I planned on planting trees and other types of greenery all around the memorial. I think the trees are a great symbolism of color where we were once so segregated, and I believe my memorial will be a lovely place or any of the public to wind down and remember this terrifying event with grace.

After completing this project, I can say that I that I really enjoyed being able to create my own design that I felt could memorialize the Freedom Riders. This learning experience was extremely eye-opening for me, for I had no idea how many lives were so strongly impacted by acts of racial differences. Because of this, I was excited to brainstorm ways that I think a community could memorialize this event hoping to bring peace to the heart breaking matter.