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School News | Monday, April 06, 2015

‘You can see color, but you don't have to act on it'

Freedom rider re-lives civil rights experiences with Columbus students

Columbus senior Octavio Fernandez takes the opportunity to chat with Rip Patton about the history and changes that he has helped make in American history as a Freedom Rider and civil rights activist.

Photographer: CRISTINA CABRERA| FC

Columbus senior Octavio Fernandez takes the opportunity to chat with Rip Patton about the history and changes that he has helped make in American history as a Freedom Rider and civil rights activist.

MIAMI | Ernest “Rip” Patton shares a last name with one of America’s most famous World War II generals, but he walks in the peaceful footsteps of Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Not only does he walk spiritually with Christ and Gandhi, he also had the honor of walking physically with King.

“I’m here for a reason, but not to fight back,” he told an assembly of students at Christopher Columbus High School, where he spent the day March 13 sharing his first-hand experiences of the civil rights movement.

Patton was one of the Freedom Riders of the 1960s who refused to take a swing at those who punched, beat, brutalized and publicly humiliated him and other activists. He was one of many peaceful protesters on a mission: to end segregation.

He had been invited to Columbus by history and government teacher Mary McCullagh.

“He is real living history,” said David Pugh, principal at Columbus.

“To hear it first hand, there’s nothing better,” added John Lynskey, assistant principal. “The boys will remember this day and pass it on.”

Christopher Columbus High School history and government teacher Mary McCullagh introduces Freedom Rider Rip Patton. McCullagh had met Patton at a conference and invited him to speak at Columbus High.

Photographer: CRISTINA CABRERA| FC

Christopher Columbus High School history and government teacher Mary McCullagh introduces Freedom Rider Rip Patton. McCullagh had met Patton at a conference and invited him to speak at Columbus High.

What's your passion? Freedom Rider Rip Patton shares his history as a Freedom Rider and civil rights activist. He also encouraged Columbus High students to pursue their passions.

Photographer: CRISTINA CABRERA| FC

What's your passion? Freedom Rider Rip Patton shares his history as a Freedom Rider and civil rights activist. He also encouraged Columbus High students to pursue their passions.

After each lecture, Freedom Rider and civil rights activist Rip Patton took the time to answer questions and take photos with Columbus High school students.

Photographer: CRISTINA CABRERA| FC

After each lecture, Freedom Rider and civil rights activist Rip Patton took the time to answer questions and take photos with Columbus High school students.

With his well pressed suit and tie and a tenor timbre to his voice, Patton reminds audiences of a jazz or blues musician — careers that were part of his life’s adventures. But he now reserves his voice for singing in his church’s choir, and sharing his experiences as a Freedom Rider with younger generations.

At 75, his memory of those events is as vivid as the moment 54 years ago when he boarded a Greyhound Bus and joined the Freedom Riders — men and women, black and white, young and old — who headed for the American South to force an end to segregation.

Although a 1956 U.S. Supreme Court ruling had outlawed segregation in public facilities, southern states were refusing to comply, and continued to maintain separate drinking fountains, restrooms and lunch counters for blacks and whites.

At the time of the Freedom Rides, Patton was a 21-year-old student at Tennessee State University.

“Many of us were the first generations to go to college,” Patton said. “When the bus rides and protests started our parents would tell us ‘I didn’t send you to school to go to jail.’ I would ask them, ‘What good is an education if I can’t sit where I want?’ We were getting an education, just not the one they wanted us to get.”

The first Freedom Riders set out from Washington D.C. to New Orleans in time to commemorate the seventh anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education — the Supreme Court case that ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

Along the way, the Riders entered whites-only restrooms, drank from whites-only water fountains, ate at lunch counters reserved for whites-only, and tested other whites-only facilities. Traversing Virginia and North Carolina drew little attention, but the atmosphere changed when they crossed into South Carolina and Alabama. By the time they reached Birmingham, their tires had been slashed and an angry mob, including Ku Klux Klan members, awaited them with fists, metal pipes and pitchforks.

“Because there were regular people riding with the Freedom Riders on that bus someone happened to have an 8 or 16 millimeter camera and took pictures,” Patton said. “The footage in the Freedom Riders movie during the Birmingham bus bombing scene is not staged. It’s real.”    

Those first Freedom Riders set the wheels in motion for similar rides, and drew the attention of people such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Facing international conflicts with Russia and Cuba, Kennedy asked Riders for a “cooling off” period. The students refused.

“The foreign press questioned how was it possible that the U.S. could get involved with Russia and Khrushchev if they had a conflict with their own people,” Patton said.

He was part of the third group of Freedom Riders, who went from Montgomery, Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi with a National Guard escort. The group included 14 other students from Tennessee State University, but the ride was no college road trip. They knew trouble awaited them. All students and riders even signed their last will and testament.

“Diane (Nash) wanted us all to sign because she knew someone was going to die,” said Patton, referring to one of the student leaders of the civil rights movement. “We were willing to die to right the right to ride on a bus.”

While they had support and protection, the Riders were still arrested for “trespassing” in whites-only facilities.

“There were 27 of us in jail, booked and fingerprinted,” Patton said. “And we just started singing. Bernard Lafayette started singing, ‘Busses are coming, oh yes,’ and he named every city where each of us was from. When the guard told him to shut him up, he asked, ‘What are you going to do? Put us in jail?’”

Eventually, Patton and the Riders were moved to the maximum-security Parchman State Prison Farm in Mississippi. They continued to sing not only to keep their spirits up, but to communicate. The music soothed the jailed, but not the jailors.

“They would tell us, ‘This is not a concert hall, how could you be happy singing about what happened?’” Patton recalled.

At the prison, guards continued to try to break their spirits, taking away their toothbrushes and mattresses, turning off the air conditioning during the day, blasting it during the night, and even putting stool softener in their food. But the Riders kept singing.

Relying on the Bible and the nonviolent methods of Gandhi, Patton and the other Riders survived their prison sentence — May 24 through July 14 or 15, he cannot recall exactly. He was one of the last of the 27 Riders released.

Upon returning to Nashville, he was expelled from school. It was not until 47 years later that he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Tennessee State University.

“I had no resentment because I knew what I was doing was right,” Patton said. “We knew that our generation was going to make a difference.”

While Patton continues to share his story and the story of those who fought peacefully for civil rights, he continues to advocate for peaceful ways of making changes.

“With the Ferguson riots, the teen’s parents could have been coached into making a positive statement out of a negative situation,” Patton said. “We as a people have to change. We have to teach to not be segregated. You can see color, but you don’t have to act on it.”

Above everything, Patton hopes that his sacrifices will inspire new generations to pursue their dreams.

“If you have a passion, follow it. Jump on it, go after it. You have the opportunity to make change. You can make it happen.”

Senior Andrew Forero (left) and Andres Gomez (right), members of Rho Kappa Social Studies Honor Society, take a photo with Freedom Rider Rip Patton. Patton was invited to Christopher Columbus High School to speak about his actions as a civil rights activist and Freedom Rider during the 1960s.

Photographer: CRISTINA CABRERA| FC

Senior Andrew Forero (left) and Andres Gomez (right), members of Rho Kappa Social Studies Honor Society, take a photo with Freedom Rider Rip Patton. Patton was invited to Christopher Columbus High School to speak about his actions as a civil rights activist and Freedom Rider during the 1960s.


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