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Honoring the Freedom Riders 50Th Anniversary

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Honoring the Freedom Riders 50Th Anniversary Lighting The Road To The Future Data Zone Wicked Fun At Page 6 Voodoo Fest “The People’s Paper” November 5 - November 11, 2011 46th Year Volume 22 www.ladatanews.com Honoring the Freedom Riders 50th Anniversary Page 2 Newsmaker State & Local New President First Lady at Dillard U Visits NOLA Page 4 Page 10 Page 2 November 5 - November 11, 2011 Cover Story www.ladatanews.com The New Orleans Freedom Riders The Untold Story of America’s Freedom Fighters PART 1 the shape of the country and how it dealt with race relations forever . It was a time where a man and a people stood tall at a monument dedicated to a U S. President who set the slaves free, but a century later it was still a dream unrealized as below the Mason Dixon Line; segregation was the law of the land, and in the North economic opportunities were scant and rac- ism still prevailed as Blacks were locked out of the mainstream, po- litically, socially, economically and educationally . Today many things have changed; there is a Dr . Martin Luther King Holiday and Monu- ment, honoring the man and what he stood for, but during that time many courageous people who re- main out of the pages of history books put their lives on the line in Members of the Freedom Riders and other New Orleans Civil Rights Activists, gather at the Black Men of Labor Tribute held in their honor, which featured the unveiling of a new Mural dedicated to their heroic fight for equality for African Americans. the fight for justice . A recent docu- mentary focused on the “Freedom Riders,” a group of young people fighting for what’s right in spite many have trekked down from both Black and White that were By Edwin Buggage of the odds being stacked against 1619 until today . committed to the fight for justice . you . It is a Freedom Song that While we celebrate the lead- PBS recently aired a program that continues where the chorus sang ers of social movements it is the was both captivating and compel- is one of struggle, overcoming foot soldiers that walk in lock- ling, but a chapter was missing The Journey to Freedom and eventually triumphing over step with them that helped bring from this story . Absent was the The story of African-Americans obstacles to live the American about change in a society . And at significant contribution of the since setting foot on the shores of Dream . And to move the nation no time in our history was this as young people of The New Orleans what today is called America has closer to its motto of life, liberty evident as the period that stands Chapter of the Congress For Ra- been one of resilience and perse- and the pursuit of happiness and out as the turbulent 1960’s during cial Equality (CORE) . In the next verance . From the Underground of justice and fairness for all its the modern Civil Rights Move- two issues inside the pages of The Railroad to today it is a story of citizens; this has been the road ment, something that changed New Orleans Data News Weekly Cover Story, Continued on next page. DATA NEWS WEEKLY P.O. Box 57347, New Orleans, LA 70157-7347 | Phone: (504) 821-7421 | Fax: (504) 821-7622 INSIDE DATA editorial: [email protected] | advertising: [email protected] Terry B. Jones Contributors CEO/Publisher Edwin Buggage George E. Curry Glenn Jones Cover Story . 2 Data Zone . 6 Elise Schenck VP Advertising Charlene Crowell & Marketing Glenn Summers Cheryl Mainor Kingfish Kichea S. Burt Managing Editor Newsmaker . 4 Commentary . 8 Ray Bonnee Edwin Buggage Editor Art Direction & Production Lynesia Carson MainorMedia.com Editorial Submissions Executive Assistant State & Local . 5 Sports . 11 [email protected] June Hazeur Advertising Inquiries Accounting [email protected] Please call 504-309-9913 for subscription information or to obtain a back issue of the paper ONLY. Dated material two weeks in advance. Not responsible for publishing or return of unsolicited manuscripts or photos. www.ladatanews.com Cover Story November 5 - November 11, 2011 Page 3 Cover Story, Continued from previous page. we will tell you the story of the her the story behind them . She Where the social norms and cus- ful organization nationally during times, when I went to elementary New Orleans Freedom Riders; speaks of her time as a young girl toms of the times a young Black this time, the New Orleans Chap- school we got the old books from and highlighting the heroes and and the watershed moment when boy just looking at a White woman ter was significant in helping Whites, it was not a good experi- sheroes that fought to build a bet- she decided to become a fighter or getting “out of line” or other so- the organization in planning and ence, when you went to the mov- ter tomorrow . for freedom following in the foot- cial breaches could get you killed . training . Smith-Simmons says, ies you had to sit upstairs and you steps of her sister who was one of One such instance made national “We worked closely with the na- begin to ask yourself why can’t I tional organization, I remember go here or can’t do this? there was a rally at New Zion Bap- As we get close to the date tist Church on Third and LaSalle where five young people from where A .L . Davis presided as Min- New Orleans boarded a bus in ister, also Dooky Chase hosted a search of exercising their rights banquet for the Freedom Riders as citizens . “We were in Mc- and when the bus was bombed Comb Mississippi, Jerome Smith, those who were injured came Thomas Valentine, Alice Thomp- here and we found them medical son, George Raymond and I were help, housing and so forth .” beaten, “Continuing she recalls While they were known as the this grisly episode, “We were in Freedom Riders they were in- the terminal, and we were kicked volved in other projects aimed at and beaten by segregationist, uplifting Blacks, “Jerome Smith but that did not stop our drive to set up training for Freedom Rid- continue our fight it only made ers in New Orleans, forty percent us stronger; it made me feel like of the people who went to Jail in I wanted to fight even more be- Jackson were members and were cause you can’t give up .” trained by New Orleans CORE, I was training people in non-vio- Reflections and Change: New Orleans Freedom Rider Doratha “Dodie” Smith-Simmons with fellow Freedom Riders and other lent techniques,” says Doratha The Struggle Continues Historical Civil Rights Leaders “Dodie” Smith-Simmons of their And although times were tough multi-pronged approach to prog- for African-Americans during the and international news when Em- ress . She says the issues they time of this peculiar institution mitt Till, a young boy from Chi- faced had to be all inclusive be- they found a way to have joy in cago was visiting Mississippi and cause the tentacles of segregation their life and to live with dignity, reportedly, “wolf whistled” and were so pervasive in society . Doratha “Dodie” Smith-Simmons said something that was deemed says her parents were instru- inappropriate by the Whites . So Sick and Tired of Being mental in her navigating through much so that the woman’s hus- Sick and Tired those turbulent times, “I think it band and others came to get him As history is written men are depends on how you were raised, out the house in the middle of pushed into the front and placed my parents taught me I was just as the night and subsequently killed in many visible leadership roles good as Whites and I knew there him throwing his body in the Tal- in the movement, but there were were things they could do and I lahatchie River . a lot of women who worked in couldn’t do but I never thought While this made the news the movement and also helped they were better than me .” Con- there was many of these stories organized as well as marched . tinuing she says it is because of Local Ministers and Civil Rights Activists who were instrumental in that were never told as countless An example of this is Fannie Lou this she got involved in fighting CORE were honored at the ceremony. bodies were in the bottom of riv- Hamer nationally and locally for the rights she felt her people ers and seas, and as the great Bil- Oretha Castle Haley, “I would deserved, “I think that’s why Doratha “Dodie” Smith- the first students to desegregate lie Holiday sang of lynching, that say that if you look at the move- when I joined the movement I was Simmons: A New Orleans LSU-UNO, that today is the Uni- Strange Fruit hang from trees . ment women were the backbone in it for the long-haul and when I Freedom Rider Speaks versity of New Orleans (UNO) Smith-Simmons says of these of the movement, but there were was in McComb when we were Doratha “Dodie” Smith-Sim- “My sister was one of the first times the community was at a men who were brave as well and beaten I was eighteen not think- mons is a veteran of the Civil Rights Blacks to desegregate LSU-UNO breaking point and something we all worked together to knock ing I would see nineteen but thank Movement and was a member of and was a member of the NAACP needed to be done to change and down the walls and end segrega- God 50 years later I am still here .
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