Freedom Riders: Spring and Summer 1961, Marjorie Diggs Freeman

Artwork Overview

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Freedom Riders: Spring and Summer 1961, 2012
Where object was made: Durham, North Carolina, United States
Material/technique: photo transferal; commercial cotton fabric; grosgrain ribbon; colored-pencil drawing; machine quilting by Nancy Cash; cotton cord; hand appliqué; photo transfer; African cotton fabric; cotton batting; ink drawing
Accession number: EL2017.072
Not on display

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Label texts

And Still We Rise

1961: In May, student volunteers begin taking “freedom rides,” bus and rail trips through the South to test a new Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in interstate travel facilities unconstitutional. The program, sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, involves more than 1,000 African American and white volunteers. Several groups of freedom riders are attacked by angry mobs. At least one bus is burned, scores of passengers are injured, and hundreds of volunteers are jailed in prisons, yet the rides continue through mid-September.

Exhibitions