1961, July 23, I was a Freedom Rider. I traveled with my father Cecil Thomas, and my friend Tom Schooley, by bus from Jackson to Montgomery. We got off the bus and integrated the Black eating section of the Montgomery Bus Station (now a Museum). That day, there were no police or mobs. We were not arrested. We then stayed the night in the home of Rev. Ralph Abernathy.
The next day, July 24, 1961, we flew back to Jackson with the Petway family, Rev. Matthew Petway, and his son Alphonso and daughter Kredelle (the "Flying Petways"). At the Jackson airport, Cecil Thomas, Rev. Petway, Alphonso Petway, and Kredelle Petway, were arrested for disturbing the peace by drinking water from the segregated fountains. Steve and Tom were not arrested, and went to stay at Tougaloo College.in Jackson for several more days..
We had flown from San Francisco to Jackson, Mississippi on the "Mission to Mississippi," an interdenominational group of about 14, mostly ministers from the northern California East Bay area on July 20, 1961, The night we arrived from Jackson, we went to a meeting at Tougaloo College where Dr. M. L. King welcomed us and spoke. Dr. King had asked that northern ministers and others come to Mississippi to join in the Freedom Rides. Some of our group were arrested in the next couple of days at the Jackson airport, serveral tried to meet with Mississippi political leaders, and several went to Washington D.C. to try to see Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
We worked with SCLC.
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