Freedom Riders Oral History Collection Digitization Project Log Sheet

Name of Interviewee: Marv Davidoff Name of Interviewer: Date: November 10, 2001 Place of Interview: Jackson, MS

Log of Topics/Names/Events discussed:

0:00-2:00 From , grew up in Detroit; reasons for participating in Freedom Rides and how he became involved, June, 1961

2:00-4:00 Because of David Martin (the “first hippie in ”) attended meeting on Freedom Rides organized by ; bomb threat at meeting

4:00-6:00 Greyhound Station in Minneapolis; travelled to Nashville, TN for orientation and then on to Jackson, MS; one of the first “Minnesota Beats [beatniks]”

6:00-8:00 Older rider in his group (29 years old); Bob Baum, Claire O’Connor also on ride; books he took with him for the trip; met Nelson and Marion Fulson in Nashville, Quaker couple

8:00-10:00 Housed by the Fulsons, who both taught at Fisk University; orientation led by and

10:00-12:00 Taken one at a time to Greyhound station in Nashville and given instructions for ride

12:00-14:00 In Yazoo City, MS, white youth looking for on bus; ; currently teaches course on active at St. Thomas University in St. Paul and teaches in justice and department as adjunct professor

14:00-16:00 Fear; arrival at Jackson, MS bus station and arrest by Captain Ray; arrest details

16:00-18:00 Interrogation; Jack Young, black attorney, met with Freedom Riders and discussed details of trial

18:00-20:00 Trial and conviction; Hinds County Jail

20:00-22:00 Support from Jackson’s black community; getting to know other Freedom Riders; transport to Parchman Penitentiary by Capt. Ray

22:00-24:00 Transport and reactions to Parchman

24:00-26:00 Parchman

26:00-28:00 Heath Rush cellmate in Parchman; service held by Freedom Riders in Parchman with Henry Thomas, singing

28:00-30:00 Reactions to situation

30:00-32:00 Sheriff Tyson of Hinds County Jail; treatment of prisoners

32:00-34:00 Punished for singing; religion vs. spirituality; treatment of prisoners

34:00-36:00 Minnesota group visited by their state’s Assistant Attorney General and shared truth about conditions treatment of SNCC members with Atty. General and Gladys Brooks of the Governor’s Human Rights Commission, in front of Sheriff Tyson

36:00-38:00 Never received any mail after telling Atty. Gen and Governor’s rep. about treatment; Parchman; Warden Fred Jones

38:00-40:00 Meeting with Warden; Parchman experiences

40:00-42:00 Parchman and release from Parchman

42:00-44:00 Post-release conversation with detective who interrogated him

44:00-46:00 Arrival in Minneapolis

46:00-48:00 Reasons for participating; return to for arraignment; ; Bill Conslar, Jack _____, and Carson Hall, attorneys for Freedom Riders

48:00-50:00 Chicago Eight; American Radical Movement for Justice and Peace; arrest record

50:00-52:00 Integrated Peace Walk, 1963-64 (); travelled to Cuba 6 times; met Martin Luther King, Jr. a couple of times

52:00-54:00 History; social change; hopes for future of America; “revolutionary nonviolence”

54:00-56:00 56:00-58:00 58:00-60:00