Lives on the Line
"It was midnight when I got to the [college] dormitory and packed a few things. We caught a bus that morning at 3:45 A.M.
I kept thinking about what I was doing as I boarded the bus. ...I felt certain that we were writing history...I could see how strongly someone would have to be dedicated because at this point we didn't know what was going to happen. We thought that some of us would be killed. ...
On the ride from Birmingham to Montgomery I was very relaxed. I dozed off. When I awoke in Montgomery, I felt something was wrong.
There was no mob, but I felt apprehensive. Then I looked around and saw no policemen whatsoever. I saw only about eight or ten people standing in the door of the bus station. ...The other Freedom Riders had walked down a little to the left on the platform. I saw Katherine and John Lewis being televised by NBC. ...I saw this Life reoporter sort of spread his arms out as if to keep those eight people back....
A man with a cigar began to beat the NBC cameraman. ...The crowd knocked the cameraman down and he dropped his camera. One man took it and smashed it on the ground....I saw the cameraman start moving down the street. The mob was after him. ...
At this point, our [cab] driver decided to pull off. There were two exits. We went to the exit facing us. There was a crowd coming in this exit. ...At the other exit, we were blocked by cars....
Blocked in by the cars, we [girls] looked back. The mob had attacked the fellows. I saw Jim Zwerg being beaten brutally! Some men held him while white women clawed his face with their nails. And they held up their little children--children who couldn't have been more than a couple of years old--to claw his face....
We were still listening to the radio for the outcome of the violence. We heard that the mob had swelled. Other people were being attacked besides the Freedom Riders. [U.S. Attorney General] Kennedy's assistant, Seganthaler, had been hurt and was suffering a minor brain concussion....
The next day, Sunday, we were to meet at the First Baptist Church. ...A mass meeting in our honor was scheduled for that night, with Martin Luther King as the main speaker....
Before the address, we received word that a very large mob had assembled outside....Then one of the federal marshal's cars was set on fire and the white mob began to stone the marshals. ...They [the mob] began to throw tear gas canisters....The church was overcrowded and the teargas made it difficult to breathe. ...
Eventually, very early in the morning, most of the people were taken home in large Army trucks.
From Montgomery we went to Jackson....We didn't know what would happen when we got to the Mississippi line."
--Lucretia Collins, June 1961
from The Making of Black Revolutionaries by James Forman
I kept thinking about what I was doing as I boarded the bus. ...I felt certain that we were writing history...I could see how strongly someone would have to be dedicated because at this point we didn't know what was going to happen. We thought that some of us would be killed. ...
On the ride from Birmingham to Montgomery I was very relaxed. I dozed off. When I awoke in Montgomery, I felt something was wrong.
There was no mob, but I felt apprehensive. Then I looked around and saw no policemen whatsoever. I saw only about eight or ten people standing in the door of the bus station. ...The other Freedom Riders had walked down a little to the left on the platform. I saw Katherine and John Lewis being televised by NBC. ...I saw this Life reoporter sort of spread his arms out as if to keep those eight people back....
A man with a cigar began to beat the NBC cameraman. ...The crowd knocked the cameraman down and he dropped his camera. One man took it and smashed it on the ground....I saw the cameraman start moving down the street. The mob was after him. ...
At this point, our [cab] driver decided to pull off. There were two exits. We went to the exit facing us. There was a crowd coming in this exit. ...At the other exit, we were blocked by cars....
Blocked in by the cars, we [girls] looked back. The mob had attacked the fellows. I saw Jim Zwerg being beaten brutally! Some men held him while white women clawed his face with their nails. And they held up their little children--children who couldn't have been more than a couple of years old--to claw his face....
We were still listening to the radio for the outcome of the violence. We heard that the mob had swelled. Other people were being attacked besides the Freedom Riders. [U.S. Attorney General] Kennedy's assistant, Seganthaler, had been hurt and was suffering a minor brain concussion....
The next day, Sunday, we were to meet at the First Baptist Church. ...A mass meeting in our honor was scheduled for that night, with Martin Luther King as the main speaker....
Before the address, we received word that a very large mob had assembled outside....Then one of the federal marshal's cars was set on fire and the white mob began to stone the marshals. ...They [the mob] began to throw tear gas canisters....The church was overcrowded and the teargas made it difficult to breathe. ...
Eventually, very early in the morning, most of the people were taken home in large Army trucks.
From Montgomery we went to Jackson....We didn't know what would happen when we got to the Mississippi line."
--Lucretia Collins, June 1961
from The Making of Black Revolutionaries by James Forman
posted by Jay Taber at 12:18 PM
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