V. Nashville Students Participate in the Freedom Rides Poetry by Joseph Hart Poetry by Maya Mayes

Nashville Students Participate in the Freedom Rides

On May 17, 1961: Nashville students travel to Birmingham to continue the Freedom Rides. Many of the original riders had been attacked and beaten in Alabama.

Freedom Rider Mae Frances Moultrie Howard stands by a burning Greyhound bus in Anniston, Ala. on May 14, 1961. Federal Bureau OfInvestigation

Dear Freedom Rider

by Joseph Hart It’s your turn to ride down the lonely highway to a land unknown to you, keep you heads held high, be not afraid because one day there will be books written about your day. Poems, novels, and newsletters alike speaking about Civil Rights.

Some Riders were bombed, some were beaten, others were killed. We were put in jail left to find our own way back home without any help. So, keep on keeping keep on, this fight that we might not win, just ride and I mean ride until its bitter end.

Dr. King didn’t ride but that’s okay, We Freedom Riders, We didn’t need him anyway. We took our stand We took it with pride, We thank God above that most are still alive.

So, it’s your turn now, don’t be afraid we are still with you until the coming of a new age.

Ride Freedom Riders ride.

Nashville Freedom Riders Rip Patton (left) and Bernard LaFayette (aisle) with Jim Lawson seated behind them on the bus headed into Jackson, Mississippi, 1961, crmvet.org

Poet’s Note: I had to process the fact that these students rode on a bus knowing that they were going to face racism and pure hatred. Their efforts took great courage and this is one of the things I wanted to bring out in this poem.

The Night Before

by Maya Mayes

My mind is packed full of what if’s?, should I’s?, and how comes?

Left brain: When you get on the bus, focus on the driver’s eye contact. Did his eyebrows twitch? Did his mouth frown like when you see a dead dear on the side of the road? This will determine his reaction to our protest.

Right brain: What if I become a world renowned legend for human and civil rights? Sacrificing my life for equality; A Martin Luther King Jr. I could have a cartoon created about me.

I just want to sleep. A hundred thoughts going through my head, but I know the decisions I’ve made and the impact I must make. My purpose is to fight for justice, as a minister I must expose the people to Christ.

A screen capture of Diane Nash from PBS's The Student Leader: A Short Film from Freedom Riders aired in 2010.

Poet’s Note: My poem is written in the perspective of Diane Nash. It describes her thoughts the night before leaving Nashville as a Freedom Rider. … I went into a daydream about a cartoon. I allow Diane Nash to wonder about the future beyond the freedom ride and the impact she will have on the country.