Freedom Riders command the stage with personal anecdotes at UMKC panel

Illustration by Jacqulyn Seyferth

On April 20, the Kauffman Conference Center hosted a panel of four Freedom Riders to speak about their experiences fighting for desegregation. The panel featured activists Dion Diamond, Joan Browning, Dr. Lenora Taitt-Magubane, and Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr. 

In the minutes before most public events, there is usually an awkward silence as people sit and check their phones to pass the time. The energy of this event was completely different; the room was animated with the chatter of introductions and conversations between strangers. Panelist Joan Browning made her way through the small audience, introducing herself to every person with a handshake and a warm smile. Even before the event began, the panelists and attendees shared a sense of comradery and kinship. 

To start the discussion, the panelists were asked how they got involved in the Civil Rights movement. The room fell silent as Dr. Bernard Lafayette took the microphone to give the first answer. Lafayette looked at the audience and broke out into song, diminishing any existing tension, as well as winning hearty chuckles. He continued to recollect his childhood in Tampa, Florida, with his grandmother. The pair rode the local streetcar frequently. To ride the streetcar, they had to pay in the front of the car, get off, and walk around to the back door to board. Seven-year-old Lafayette would run to get to the back of the car before the doors closed because sometimes the conductors would take off and leave them behind. “That’s what I always wanted to do…keep the doors open.”

Riding the streetcar was the initial experience that led to Lafayette becoming involved in the Civil Rights movement. As a boy, Lafayette recalls thinking, “When I get grown, I’m going to do something about this problem.”

Dr. Lenora Taitt-Magubane’s experience with activism began when she left New York City to attend Spelman College in Atlanta. Taitt-Magubane described the large cultural difference in segregation between the North and South. The North was still segregated, but less overtly, whereas the South had segregation spelled out in signs plastered everywhere. 

Taitt-Magubane’s first sit-in took place at a theater during her college years. She was invited to go to a theater show with some of her fellow students, but they were told to leave once they arrived at the theater. They found their seats and sat down anyway, and soon after, the lights all went out. Taitt-Magubane later found out that the theater had called the Mayor, who said, “Turn out the lights so no one will see them.” In addition to this, the surrounding seats around the students were left empty because the theater offered seat changes to other audience members “to not be contaminated.” 

The students sat through the show, but when they left the theater, they were met with flashing lights of cameras and reporters documenting them.

“Little did I know that was a sit-in, but it wasn’t a planned sit-in. It was just going to the theater,” says Taitt-Magubane. 

Joan Browning describes herself as “the most unlikely Freedom Rider of all” as one of the nine white southern women who participated in the movement. Browning chuckled as she revealed that her fellow panel members call her “The Token Hillbilly Freedom Rider.” 

Browning’s activism involvement began in college when she started worshiping at a friend’s African American church. At first, this was not an act of conscious protest, as she just enjoyed attending their worship. Soon after, her college started receiving phone calls from people saying they would burn down the church, harm the college, and harm Browning. 

Browning joined “Operation X,” which trained activists to protest and remain nonviolent. They formed picket lines to protest racist stores and diners. She describes one of the group’s diner sit-ins, where a Klansman approached one of the activists with a knife. The group’s designated leader, Bill Didley, jumped in front and took the knife to the chest, telling the rest of the group to run. Browning says that Didley was charged with “carrying a concealed weapon, but the weapon was in his chest.” Luckily, Didley survived the attack. 

When Dion Diamond was handed the microphone, he stood up and proclaimed, “God stepped out into space, said, ‘I’m lonely, I think I’ll make myself a world.’” Having successfully gained the audience’s full attention, Diamond settled back into his chair and began discussing his upbringing. Diamond was raised 20 miles south of the capital of the Confederacy, where there were two sets of everything due to segregation—except the public library, where people of color were required to enter through the back door. 

Diamond’s engagement in sit-ins started during his time at Howard University. He sat at different lunch counters and movie theaters until the police arrived, and he ran.

“I don’t know what made me think I could make a difference, but I did,” says Diamond. 

Diamond participated in Freedom Rides in the summer of 1961. As Diamond and his peers rode a bus in Atlanta, he recalls his naive belief that the Alabama guardsmen present were there to protect the activists. They were the “same guys who put on a white robe at night.” 

Diamond’s activism led to him being arrested with seven different violations, including criminal anarchy and attempting to overthrow the state of Louisiana.

“And to tell you the truth, they were right,” says Diamond. While in jail, guards bribed inmates to rough him up in return for good behavior—other inmates who knew what Diamond had been arrested for protecting him. 

As the panel came to a close, a woman asked the panelists about their experiences with mental health. The woman happened to be Crystal Herriage, mother of Congresswoman Sharice Davids. In response to her question, Diamond answered, “Never had psychiatric help, but I needed it. Not just from Freedom Rides and sit-ins, but growing up in a segregated society”. 

Taitt-Magubane described a group of psychiatrists who provided free counseling to people involved in the movement, and Lafayette emphasized the importance of support from relationships.

“It’s important to have a good partner, whether a family member or wife—it gives you reinforcement and confidence. Don’t try to do it by yourself,” says Lafayette. 

The panel ended with Lafayette sharing his wisdom regarding activism today.

“If we’re going to make a difference, we’ve gotta get these young people trained—all of us have to be for our young people—what makes the difference in individuals is not their experiences, but how they interpret those experiences,” says Lafayette.