The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s produced a number of celebrated leaders, renowned national figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Jim Farmer, Fannie Lou Hamer, and John Lewis. Virtually all of them are gone now, but many of us who inspired them with their distinguished eloquence and charismatic leadership remember the vital role they played in “redeeming the soul of America,” as Dr. As King put it in 1963 to create a “beloved community” based on freedom and justice for all who missed their lofty dreams, the memory of their heroic struggle is an enduring source of hope and inspiration for millions of Americans.
Raymond Arsenal. (Photo by Sudsy Tschiderer) [ PHOTO BY SUDSY TSCHIDERER | Photo by Sudsy Tschiderer ]
Unfortunately, an important part of this story is often overlooked. In remembering and celebrating the civil rights struggle, we sometimes fail to recognize the sacrifices and contributions of the thousands of ordinary activists who propelled and supported the movement from below. These largely unsung heroes, often referred to as the “foot soldiers” of the nonviolent movement, deserve our attention and respect, especially now that many of them are leaving the scene.
Earlier this month, two particularly brave foot soldiers died within a few days. One, Ernest “Rip” Patton, was black; the other, David Myers, was white. But identifying them by race is largely irrelevant to their shared history of commitment and courage.
Both were men of faith and deep moral conviction. And both were Freedom Riders, born weeks apart in 1940, two of the more than 400 volunteers, mostly college students, who in 1961 put their bodies on the line by boarding Liberty buses to challenge the Jim Crow laws, which is racial segregation among interstate passengers.
Ernest “Rip” Patton
The Freedom Rides organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) were non-violent, but deliberately confrontational and dangerous, in order to force the newly elected Kennedy administration to take a firm stand for civil rights by intervening to defend the constitutional. Protect the riders right to equal access to public transport. All Freedom Riders, including Patton and Myers, knew they risked injury and maybe even death hop aboard those Freedom buses that headed into the clan-infested deep south. But ignoring the terrible warnings from friends and family and refusing to pass responsibility for change on to future generations, they decided it was time to fight for freedom now, not freedom later.
Rip Patton and Dave Myers were ordinary people who found the moral and physical courage to do extraordinary things. Born and raised in a black working class family in Tennessee, Rip was an accomplished student and musician who won a scholarship to the Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College in Nashville, where he became a drum major in the college’s famous brass band.
After attending nonviolent workshops by divinity student and Gandhian intellectual James Lawson in 1960, he became involved in the Nashville sit-in movement, and on May 24, 1961, he was one of 15 drivers in the first greyhound along with John Lewis and Jim Farmer -Freedom Bus from Montgomery, Alabama, to Jackson, Mississippi. He was arrested at the Jackson Greyhound Terminal, convicted of trespassing, and later spent more than a month at the infamous Parchman Prison Farm.
Rip’s involvement in the Freedom Rides resulted in his permanent expulsion – along with 13 other riders – from Tennessee A&I. Undaunted, he continued his civil rights activities for several years, but without a university degree he was demoted as a truck driver in car transport. During his over 30-year tour, he sometimes found a part-time job as a jazz drummer. But he never got the chance to take advantage of his hard-earned college education.
In 2008, when he retired in Nashville, he and the other Tennessee A&I Freedom Riders were finally awarded honorary doctorates, thanks to political pressure from noted journalist and former Justice Department official John Seigenthaler. Over the next decade, after several books and an Emmy-winning PBS documentary put the former Freedom Riders in the spotlight, Rip enjoyed a second career as a coveted civil rights lecturer and tour guide, underscoring his presentations with beautifully rendered baritone freedom songs.
David Myers [ Provided ]
Dave Myers went a different way of moving. Born in poverty on a remote Indiana farm, he became a star student and high school track star whose only chance at higher education was to get a track scholarship to the historically determined Black Central State College in Wilberforce, Ohio, to accept. As one of the few white students at Central State, he fell in love with one of them, Winonah Beamer, a poor white Cleveland girl who shared his commitment to the social gospel and pacifism. Inspired by a mentor from the Quaker faculty, Myers traveled to Montgomery, where he took part in a Freedom Ride to Jackson on May 28, 1961. Ignoring his advice, she took a ride on June 9th and ended up in the same Jackson Jail where he was incarcerated.
Winonah (Beamer) Myers as a college student and Freedom Rider in 1961 [ Provided ]
Both ended up in Parchman Prison, where she stayed for six months and defiantly refused to take bail, despite the warden attempting to intimidate her by putting her in a death row cell. During her last three months in prison, the outwardly gentle but stubborn 19-year-old was the only remaining Freedom Rider in Parchman. Dave and Winonah married in April 1962, raised large families and enjoyed fulfilling careers, she worked as a mental rehabilitation counselor for disabled adults, and he worked as a newspaper and television photographer and reporter.
In the late 1990s, after retiring and moving to a trailer park in Ellenton, Florida, they became the pillars of a predominantly black church and frequent speakers to high school and college students, many of them of their harrowing personal battle stories and redemption. Winonah died in March 2018, but they worked part-time for several years, he as a volunteer in a biological research project and she (after she initially refused employment because of her criminal record!) As a toll collector on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
It is difficult for me to fully live up to my deep respect and admiration for these unsung heroes. Getting to know Rip and Dave (and Winonah) and others like them changed my view of what it means to be a responsible and caring citizen. Whether we are aware of it or not, their actions for racial equality and social justice six decades ago enriched the lives of all of us.
Faced with a seemingly dangerous future, threatened by democracy, decency and the planet we live on, we hope that we can draw on the precious legacy of foot soldiers. Who knows, if we keep them in our hearts and minds, the memory of their strength of character and purpose, and most importantly their ennobling commitment to an inclusive, beloved community, could help illuminate the path to a brighter future.
Raymond Arsenault, John Hope Franklin Professor Emeritus of Southern History at the University of South Florida, is the author of Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice.
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