THE FREEDOM RIDES began as

of others?-intopractically fuIL&me erend James A. Pike of the Episcopal

an effort to enforce theSupreme
civd-nghts n d t a n t s . T h i s IS only the church. Looking back on it, our igpo-
result
of Americas r m c e of what was to come was truly
Court decislon in the B o y m t o n case, most obvious
b u t quickly de+oped intoa
pro- flrst organized jail-in.
.astonishing.
It is reallylaughable t o read the
Iouged, nation-widecampaignto
fill
Our training in New Orleans
the jails of R(lmiss1ppi. This strategic ohenrepeatedcharge
thL1t we were consisted ol an afternoon of lectures ,
shift in ernphaus-from
Freedom ccp a ~ dagitators or, i n anothervergiven by CORE staflmember J i m
troub1ema.k- NlcCain, who worked under the conXlde to jaiI-in-was
improvised s ~ o n , chaldenedracial
under great pressure as a response t o ers W e were, if anything, the typi- stantfear of arlest. With t h e best
Amerlcan
innocents
abroad, will in the world, he could n o t pretheunyieldingtactics
of Souchern cal
officialdom.Agamstthedeadly
re- totally unprepared t o cope w ~ t h t h e pare u s for the ullknown. It became
ality of a centurJ: of Iitigaiion curious customs of Sout,hern justre, increasinglyclear that we wkre inthere seems t o benoalternative
t o completely untrained in nonviolence.
volved in a ccmovement rafher than
Armedwith 1;ldthing b u t our good a planned offensiire. As the crush of
dmect. action..
Anyform of directaction in the Intentions, we traveled across half a Ridersstreamedthroughthe
New
&utR todaymay lead t o jailings. . continent to lend qur bodies to the
Orleanscheck-yoint,
the most t h a t
(Tmhe
mass arrest of hundreds in Al- struggle agamst bigotry. 1.f my own could be accomplished was t o reduce
h h y , Georgia and New Orleans are intormnl poll is correct, very few of the confusion to some sort of brder.
the Riders were previously active in It was a heroic eftfort at organizaonly the most dramatic recent cases
in point.) Nevertheless, the jail-in clviI rights, especially bhose from the tion improvised under the most difa deliberate,plannedeffort
to fill Noqth. They were not professionals; f d t condltions.
they were not even CORE members. I n Jackson, everything was routine
the jails-is
somethingnew.
0
1
1 a
small scale, the jail-in recei7red its If t h e truthbe known, the Riders and efmflciency. Our arrestproduced
received theirtrainingfromthe
headlines back holne 111 the San FranmostseveretestintheMaximum
Security cell block of the State Peni- State of Nhssissippi, notfromthe
cisco Bay Area, but i? was just antentiaryatParchmann,
Mississippi. NAACP.
other day in the busy life of Captain
Ray of the Jackson city police. As
W h a t doe5 it mean t o g o t o jail
our mixed group entered .the white
for freedom? How did the Freedom OUR GROUP of fifteenvolunteers
probably
not.
too atypical. waiting room at the train depot,, hk
Riders
stand
up to
this
difflcult was
There were twelve whites and three
issued his famouscommand for the
test?
before the small
1 joined the firstCalifornia con- Negroes, ranging in age from eighteen umpteenthtime
tingent which left San Franciscoon . to thirty-four. About. half of the crowd of onloqkers: "Maeve on. We
at
June 17 and was arrested in Jackson, group had lived or wol3ked in t h e refused. W e *ere underarrest
South at one time
or another;two
last!
Miss., onJune 22. I spentthirtynine days in jail-a
week i n the were from New Orleans. They came
Jackson city jail, two weeks in Maxi- from many walks of life, !but a good THE OPERATION had been rationwere
students
os ex- alized with true American Ingenuity
mum Security a i d about a week in percentage
an all-white male dormitory. I have students. One man left behind a wife andworkedwithwondm,usspeed.
We were Captain Ray, looking more harassed
returned to Jaclcson twicesince m y andtwosmallchildren.
than fePocious, checkbd us of f , ona
release, the first tlme in response to jolned at the last minute by Father
GrantMuse,
who camewiththe
list that hadbeen
phoned t o h h
a nhass arraignment,andagainto
have my second trial in front of .a blessings of his Bishop, the Rt. Rev- b y t h e CORE staff8in New, Orleans.
Everyonewaspresent.
Thepaddy
court of record. I spent three weeks
wagon was ready with its special deof intensive training a t a CORE m tail of officers; Judge Spencer of, the
stitutein Virginia and, in my spare
municipal court was ready; our Iawmoments, I have attended press conyer was ready. T h e sentence of four
ferences, giventalksandwalkedon
months and $200 was by now roupicket hnes. .I do not think my extine. As we passed through the variperience is atypical. I do not reo w stages of confinement-fingermember , a n y passionate
desire
to
printing,photographing,questioning
spend a good part of my life commut--we were Treated whh grim b u t
ing betLween San
Francisco
and
frigid politeness. I felt morelike an
Jackson. By its legalistic maneuvers,
inductee than a prisoner. There was
theState of Mississippihastransalittlebanter
as wewaited t o bk
formed me-and how many hundreds
questioned b y t h e overburdened officials. Captain Ray had worked up
some rather
devastating
repartee
and many of the Riders were eager
\

T h e NATION

Ft

to test their wits against the enemy,

now th,ht he seemed so human. After
all, ,shouldnt the spirit of nonviolence melt theheart
of themost
rigid non;hehever?
And in truth the Riders left a perrnranent,,ineffaceable
mark on the
jails of Mississippi. They were a new
kind ,of prisoner.Young,eager
to
communicate and cooperate, yet determined,theypresentedanalmost
insoluble
problem
for
the police
mind.Theirvery
existence insuch
numbers
constituted
a continuous
dhreat to thecastesystemandto
the hoary traditions of prison Me.
The burden of the state was multiplied by the need forspecialtreatment.,TheRidershadto
be separated from other prisoners, especially
from Negroeswhomightgetbad
ideas.Andwith
goodreason,since
t h e Riderstookeveryopportunity
tq explain, t o argue, to make joke,s
about 01 JimCrow, t o preach philosophy and morality to their jailers,
and to sing fihhelr never-ending songs
about such upsetting
subjects
as
equa1,ity and freedom and love. Even
worse, the Riders just could n o t react properly t o h e a t s and punishment. They went on hunger srrkes;
theyvolunteeredenmasse
for solitaryconfinement;theydemanded
their rights, not
understanding
t h a t t h e y had none.

FOR example,onenightCaptain

Ray stalkedinwith
an ultimatum:
stop singing or go t o solitary. Six of
usvalqnteered.
I dont know who
was more surprised, ourselves or .Capt i m Ray, but nhe die was cast (as
they say)! The dlodr to solitary
clanked shut on me. I had lmnaged
to smuggle in m y gJasses and a book
and I ,read for a few minutes from
a tiny slit of light under the door.
The cell was about six by six by
nunc feet; it had a hole in the loor
forelin~ination, but was.otherwise
bare and clammy. Soon the word was
out. T,hejallbegan
to rock wirh
freedom songs, shouts of encouragenlent ,and cries of shame. I heard a
girls voice: Father Muse is in solitary! Atteraboutforty4ive
minutes, t h e doorclankedopen.
Both
sides beat a strategic retreat in this
ipstance. We, kept singing-but ,we
layrered our voices.
This kind of incident was repeated

endlessly. The
Riders
were
being
trained by experts. How many thousands of young people are receiving
similar educations in *he South?
The State of Mississippifinally
evolveda rather predictable answer
to
the
problem
of isolating &e
mountingnumbers of Riders. Governor Barnett vetoed the dangerous
idea OF forcmgtheRiders
t o pick
cottononthecountyprisonfarm
and
made
the
fateful
decision t o
send then1 to the State Penitentiary
atParchin 1111 with theflimsy ex?
cusethatthere
was noroom
elsewhere. Convicted of a ,misdemeanor,
thcRiders
were henteforthtobe
treated as rhe worst felons!
Thirteen of uswerepackedinto
the bac,k of a small, jeep-sized truck.
W e moved aboutuntilwe
inte- inperpetual light. Therearethree
grated the truck and kept changing
sets of electrically-operateddoors beplacesinorder
t o ease our adling tween them and
the precious freelegs. Our trip was a nightmare of dom they have forgone. T h e doors
jolts,
sudden
stops
and
screaming
clang openandshutwithanun,
sirens. As we passed rhroughthe
earthly crash, setting the nerves OII
small towns on the way
North
edge. It was in chis grim mausoleum
chroughthedelta,area,
Sheriff G11- thattheRldersreceived.their
last
foys sirenmoanedthegladtidings
andmostmemorable
lessons.
t o his constituents, M ~ stopped
O
momentarilytowatchthe
Iatest b a d IT IS impossibleto, prepare anyone
of Riders bound for Parchmann.
forthehumiliating,brutal
atmosWe smoked our last cigarettes and
phere of even the best prison. Ttl:herc
silentlyprayed
$herewould
be no arc ,110 rules. 116precedents.
, ,
breakdown. Compared to this somnoFrom the Leginning, the gloves
lent countryside, with its ndes and
.
were off. We strippedbeforetke
miles of cotton field,s and field hands,
guards aud a few Ioc,al lzatalbles and
Parchmann, in anticipation, seemed
rolled our cIothes into a bundle. (We
likeahaven.
In my Yankee imagistood paralyzedfor a few momenta
nation it alllooked
like movie
a
while Father Muse patientlyexplaifi- 1
set from G a m with t h e JV,i?td. I
ed t h a th e
could not give u p his
found myself humming a little song
onlyremaininggarment-the
Holy
taughtme
by a Riderfrom New
Sacrament-whkh
he
had
strapped
Orleans:
around his naked body.) W e walked
Theres a man OR a big, white hoss; barefooted, two by two, intoour
Don know his, name, but they call cages andstoodthereembarrassed,
him boss.
naked,outraged.
T h e Maximum Security Unit a t
We could see about two inches
ParchmannStatePenitentiary
is a of the ,faces OF our immediate nkighone-story,
cement-block
structure borsandquicklylearned
the views
composed of two wings. It is sur- of the voices,which made up our
rounded by a hi&, bapbed-wire ience little world. ,Views there were, of all
with guard towers at the
corners. Ift sizes, shapes
,and
intensities.
The
is a prison within a prison, especially
cell block-like
Saltres N o E&designed to break, the spirit
OF .the was a constant torment of argument,
touglxxt felon. It conta,ins the dogma, prayer and song.
The group
Prisons D e a t h ,Romw -arid the eIectric had elected
spokesman-CORE
a
chair.(T,hegirlRiderswereputin
National
Director
James
Farmer
t h a t wing.) The inmatesarc caged (the
guards
called him Flarmer
in small, two-man cells and look out Boy)-who
somehowmanaged
,to
upon a bare cement corridor bathed
maintain an immense dignity while
1

And yet evenhere t h e spirit qE

the movement prevailed. I n these almost hopelesscondltions the democratic forms conrinued.
SoIldarity
was somehow
recaptured
through
song, prayer and discussion. Even
our, nemesis-Deputy
Sheriff Thyssen-seemed a 11ttle msuEprised, even
curious. He asked a y o u n g Negro
why he-was smiling and -received n o
answer. He repeated the question in
his deadly way: Bay, what you got
t o smile about? Y o u injail,, you
knoNw* Sheri~ff, he answered, you just
wouldnt understand. Im smilmg because Im free.
And I was witness to the fact that,
indeed, a new
kind
of freedomtough, critical, unsentimental, knowing-is being forged in the j d s and
prlsons of the South.
Those
who
emerge from these jails wili never be
the same again. They
will go on t o
fight otherbattlesandtrainother
Riders. Mississippi will learn t h a t ~t
has aided the process it setoutto
hinder: i t has educated the ignorant
and
trained
the
naiye.
From
the
depths of their cells in the Maximum
Security
Unit
at Farchmann,
the
Riders have shown the entire nation
thedepths. of -their attachmentto
freedom and democracy
and
the
truth of one of their songs;
T h e only chain a man can stpnd
1 s the chain of hand in hand.

hoIding up, with one hand, an oversized pair of prisonbriefs.

The groupdivided
thedayinto
periods, and desperately tried to stick
to a rough schedule. After breakfast
(grits, coffee, mol.asses and
white
bread) came devotions-ab pe&d of
prayer and song ysually led byone
of the ministers. This was followed
by a speciaI timesetaside
for debateandargument.(Bitter.
wyangling atbout tactlcs had rhreatened
to
undermine the precarious solidaity
of the voices.) After 1unc.h came
the quiet hoqr to sleep .away the
interminable afternoon, AJfter dinner
there were devotions once more and
then blessed sleep--if it same,
Votes were necessary to settle the
never-endlug, debates that broke out
overlargemattersor
small. There
were many strategies and manytactics offered; everyone had to(resist,
eachinhisown
way. Anycreative
act, no matter how small, was automatically a violation of prison discipline.
Imaginerhefrustration
of maintaining democracy under such physical condltions. Someone i n cell No. 2
on the far side makes a motion which
is ponderously passed from cell t o
cell, t o our pivot manand down
thethirteen cells os1 our side. Assuming the motion
managed
this
precarious pqss;lge witboht distortion
( o r objertion),thedebate
began.

Eacl? persons remarksandinterpolations had again to be passed around

the block. Aftereveryonehadhad
hls fvll s,ay, the voting would begin.
How does cell No. 4 vote?$fOne
for, one agains st." O.K. Cell No. 5 ,
what about you? Two abstentions.
We want to explain our albstentions.
A serles of lovy groans would break
out. This democratic spirit w,as doggedly defended to the very end. The
Freedom Riders would -not conform
t o t h e authoritarian
structure
of
prison life.
In Parchmann, we hadonly ourselvesto rely-uponfor passing the
time - no games,cards or reading
matter, po cigarettes, no exercise,
nothing but time,endlesslyadvancing in minutes, hours, days. So some
chewedwhite breadintopasteand
made chess sets, Others constructed
tiny decks of cards.Somesangand
told scories or played Twenty Questions. &hers moaned or shouted unexpe,ctedly,Some
wentonhunger
strikesandotherswent
t o solitary,
where ?hey weiejoined
by their
brslhers. At the twice-weekly showers, some creative souls draped themselves in sheets and mimedsulbversive
moralityplays before theoutraged
guards.. And a t times t h e cell block
rang with an almost maniaca1,roar as
rhe
Riders
(innocent
no
more)
shouted in unison against ehe outrage
done t p their bodies and souls.

TR,ADE associations are not straws,

d e s . If i t were n,ot &orthe upeupho- ,anOrbitinginfrared detector designnious sound, theUnitedStates

Air ed to give warning of the ascent -of
Force might well follow suit; soon i t an ICBM. Midas is impeccasbble; if
will be logging more mileage in vac- the Soviets wouldonlyrefrain
irom
uum t,han iu air. T h e militarization launching ICBMs, it would
have
of spaceunder tlie ,direction of the nothingto detect-except
our own
aerospace forces oE the United States ICBMs. Defense,however, does not
andtheSovietUnion
is proceeding stop with
detection
.and the Air
apace and during the next few years Forcehaslittle
confidence in the
can hardly be reversedexcept.by
a Armys Nike Zeus, designed to dequclear war,which
,would simulta- stroy the ICBM in the
terminal
neouslyreverse-everything
elve,
phase, as it hurtles d,own on the
Oqr own space plapnersare even -target. The ,Air Force wants t o go
more prolific in &eir projectjons
and after the ICB,M in t h e -boost phase,
promotionsthanarethose
of the when i t is asitting duck, comparaenemy. A few years ago our creative tivelyspeaking.Thissystem,
which
spirits came up with Project Mldas, goes und,er
the
innocent-sounding

but they show ,which way the wind

blows. IIn 1959 theAircraftIndustries Association, the
coordinating
andpublic-relationsarm of the aircraft
fabricating
companies,
burgeoned forthasthe
Aekoepace Industries Association. The change
was in recognitllon of thewaning
importance of mditaryaircraft
and
the risingrole of rocketsand mis-

~~
~~

_.

..

CARL DREHER, a% elzgi%eer twn-

ed writer, has lortg beem ob~ervimg,

for The Nation, the Jocinl m d political implicationsof the t e c h o l o g i c &
ann$ race.

Ths NATION