Interview With John Lewis (2009)

What I remember traveling. I remember traveling in 1960 during the Christmas holidays with one of my schoolmates. I was traveling from Nashville to Troy, Alabama, about 50 miles south of Montgomery, and he was traveling to Tampa, Florida, but we had to board the same bus, and we were seated together right behind the bus driver, and this bus driver ordered us to move to the back of the bus, and we refused to move. He pushed his seat back on us. He tried to squeeze us or squash us. When we got to Troy, I got off the bus, and my classmate continued down the road to Florida. I didn't know what happened to him, but later I learned he made it there without any problem. Back in 1960 and before 61, it was tough. It was difficult. It was hard to face segregation and racial discrimination, and to see those signs that said colored waiting, white waiting, colored men, white men,

colored women, white women. Why was that so upsetting? To see the signs, to see the symbols of racism, of segregation, and discrimination was an affront, was an insult to our dignity. We had to change it. We had to change it to make it possible for other people to ride with a sense of dignity and with a sense of pride. Okay, let's cut. Lorenz, give me his application. All right, ready? We rolling? When I applied to be a Freedom Rider in the fall of 1960, I had to write an essay. I said in my essay, I'm a senior at American Baptist Theological Seminary and hope to graduate in June. But on the hand, Freedom Riders is much more of a challenge to what I believe than a degree.

I know that an education is important, and I hope to get one. But at this time, human dignity is the most important thing in my life. This is the most important decision in my whole life to decide to give up all if necessary for a freedom ride, that justice and freedom might come to the deep south. Your fellow freedom fighter, John R. Lewis.