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

(off camera speaker): But the main one is, what do you think that the freedom rides accomplished? Pauline Edythe Knight-Ofuso: A number of things. First of all, the freedom rides accomplished a breakdown in segregated travel throughout the country. On all modes of transportation, planes, airplanes, you know, we had problems on airplane, buses, trains, any place. For opening of facilities as you travel by car, there was no, nobody born after the 60s can say that they had to stop on the side of the road to go to the bathroom. Okay. It opened up jobs. We had, I had never seen a black bus driver before I was 21 or 22. We had Greyhound and Trailways, hire bus drivers. I even saw a black conductor on a train, after that. So there were just so many avenues that were opened.

It made the economy better when, you know, you have people spending now, and can use facilities. And then you had people training. It made jobs better. And it opened up jobs that worked, blue collar jobs, or menial jobs, people had an opportunity to go to all kinds of job facilities and be trained. And then people graduating had an opportunity. As a matter of fact, being at Tennessee State, the urban league was so proud of the accomplishments that had been made. We had a reunion of all the Tennessee State students in the early sixty's to see just how many people had gotten better opportunities because of our activities.