Interview With Catherine Burks-Brooks, a Student at Tennessee State University (2009)

So how did you know, how did you find out about the Freedom Riders? Well, I found out about the Freedom Riders, probably through one of our members, John Lewis, which was a member of the original Freedom Riders that started with CORE out of Washington. So in some ways, you were following them a little bit with the students in Nashville, were you following them? And the problem with what was happening? Yes, we were following them, and what was happening with the Freedom Ride in Nashville. You know, we had been demonstrating, had been to jail several times. As a matter of fact, I had also been to jail here in Birmingham before the Freedom Ride. And so when CORE gave up the ride, and then we were ready to take over. So we're going to just hop right into that. How - When did you hear that there was a real problem in Anniston and Birmingham with the CORE part of the ride? Do you remember how you -- where you were, how you heard it? Yes, we were on a picnic. We were celebrating something, probably some victory we had. Maybe we just were having a nice time.

But I think we were celebrating some victory that we had with one of the sit-ins or stand-ins there in Nashville. And so we heard of what had happened in Anniston and also what had happened in Birmingham at the Trailway Bus Station and that CORE could no longer continue to ride. And so we decided then that we cut out from our picnic and decided to go and have a meeting. And decided that night that we would take up the Freedom Ride. Do you remember what the discussion was there in the meeting, I mean why -- you know, you guys are in Nashville. Why did you take it upon yourselves to do these Freedom Rides? Because we felt that it should continue, that it shouldn't stop, that we had to carry it on. Because we felt that we should be able to sit and ride on the bus in any place we wanted to. And that would have been a set back for the group, for the race, if you just stop right there.

Well, you know, one of the reasons why the Freedom Riders, the original group from DC, stopped was because they got so beat up, They were beat up, you know, hurt and everything. Was there fear for you all, fear of what was going to happen? Yes, there was fear, but we had been trained. And we had been demonstrating for some time. And we had experienced going to jail, we had experienced beating. And I had myself, I was never beaten, but I had experienced one of the fellows saying that he was going to put a cigarette out on my face. And so I guess to some, this is all - look, we had no fear of that. And we felt that this is something that we must do.