Lost Grrrls

coolchicksfromhistory:

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, 1961.

Joan, a 19 year old Freedom Rider, was sentenced to two months in prison for her involvement in the integration of a Jackson, Mississippi bound train.  She served more than the required two months because each addition day reduced her $200 fine by $3.

In the Fall of 1961, Joan transferred from Duke University to historically black Tougaloo Southern Christian College because she felt integration should be a two way street. 

Today Joan is a retired teaching assistant living in Virginia and mother to five sons.  After the 2008 election she brought her Obama pin to the grave of Medgar Evers.  

This is pretty cool to see, but I’d also like to hear what’s happened to other individual Freedom Riders.

However, reblogging for the “integration should be a two way street” comment, because I agree (people of color are much more likely to voluntarily move into white neighborhoods than vice versa), but at the same time, there are a lot of other issues that come along with that idea, such as complications of gentrification. Too tired to go into it now, but it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, and I wonder if perhaps the issues we face with gentrification now weren’t quite so stark 50 years ago.