Mississippi city honors Freedom Rider legacy 60 years later
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press
Published: May 27, 2021, 12:45pm
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Denise Morse recalls a story about her father, the late C.T. Vivian, on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Miss. Vivian was among the activists arrested in Jackson in May 1961 after they challenged segregation as Freedom Riders. Vivian was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, and he died in July 2020 in Atlanta. Jackson's current mayor declared Wednesday as C.T. Vivian Day in Mississippi's capital city. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)Photo Gallery
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi’s capital city is honoring the civil rights activism of the late Rev. C.T. Vivian 60 years after he and other Freedom Riders were arrested upon arrival in Jackson as they challenged segregation in interstate buses and bus terminals across the American South.
After several days in a local jail, the young activists were transferred to Mississippi’s notorious Parchman prison, where guards beat Vivian and others — one of many times that Vivian faced violence as he worked to dismantle systemic racism and injustice.
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