BRATTLEBORO — When it comes to learning about American history, the best teaching aids are the people who inspired the lesson in the first place.
I came away with that conclusion after meeting the Rev. James Breeden, one of the “Freedom Riders” during the Civil Rights Movement.
In the early 1960s, the Freedom Riders rode interstate buses into the still-rigidly-segregated South in an effort to force the federal government to enforce a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that stated racial segregation in public transportation violated the Interstate Commerce Act and was illegal.
The Supreme Court case, Boynton v. Virginia, overturned a judgment that convicted a black law student for trespassing by being in a restaurant in a bus terminal designated “for whites only.”
Rev. James Breeden's Dartmouth education, soft-spoken intelligence, and articulate manner belied the racial stereotypes of the time. Breeden was born in Minnesota in the mid-1930s and eventually would collaborate with civil rights activists such as the Rev. Andrew Young, the Rev. James Bevel, and the widely accepted face of the movement, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
At Dartmouth, Breeden was rooming with the only other black students at the school. This, he said, he didn't mind.
Then one day, he was told that he wouldn't be attending a conference at then-segregated Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He said he was displeased, but again didn't take it too much to heart.
But he minded these injustices more as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and other demonstrations garnered national news coverage and the Civil Rights movement grew.
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In 1961, Breeden got a telephone call inviting him to participate with other religious leaders in a Freedom Ride.
At this point, my teacher, William Holiday, leaned forward in his chair and asked Breeden if, knowing of the violence inflicted on previous Freedom Riders, he was at all fearful or hesitant.
Breeden's smile accompanied his response that he never hesitated. He said he knew what had happened to the Freedom Riders before him but was young and feeling invincible.
Breeden's group of Freedom Riders hit their first major obstacle in Jackson, Miss., when he was arrested while seeking restaurant service in a bus terminal.
After nearly six days in jail, the group of arrested demonstrators was found guilty on a “breach of peace.” They were bailed out, and when the case proceeded to the state level, it was dismissed.
Later, Breeden said, he had coffee with the Jackson judge who had found them guilty.
“Jackson is kind of a friendly community, except when there are outside agitators,” Breeden remembered the judge saying.
On his way down to Birmingham, Ala., he saw Sheriff Theopolis “Bull” Connor and his men turning fire hoses on demonstrators.
In Birmingham, he participated in various religious services. One of the more memorable stories Breeden shared with our class detailed his impromptu early-morning visit to a white church, where he dropped by and was allowed to participate in the service.
When he returned to the same church later in the day, he was denied entry.
He stayed, waiting, through the service. When it had ended, the choir recognized him and were furious that he had been denied entry. They invited him for coffee hour in the church basement.
Rev. Breeden's warm and wise manner, combined with his eye-opening recollections, certainly made for a more-than-worthwhile hour.
By the end of this Social Studies III class, it was clear that I would never forget the Freedom Riders.