The This Is Nashville staff is off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We are rebroadcasting an episode about the Freedom Riders that originally aired in May. 

On May 17, 1961,10 members of the Nashville Student Movement boarded a bus from Nashville to Birmingham, Alabama, as part of the Freedom Rides. The riders were arrested in Alabama and then sent back to the Tennessee border in the middle of the night. However, they helped bolster the Civil Rights Movement as it continued to roll across the South. 

In today’s episode, we explore the legacy of Nashville’s Freedom Riders with poets and a journalist. Then, we’re joined by a local Civil Rights activist to learn more about her participation in the sit-ins and the role that education plays in preserving the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. 

But first, a new report shows that a high number of Tennessee children continue to be abused after their families come to the attention of the Department of Children’s Services. WPLN Special Projects Editor Tony Gonzalez joins us to discuss the report and ongoing troubles at DCS.

Guests:

Quote to note:

“Unlike the Freedom Riders and so many others who had extensive training with Dr. [James] Lawson, I had maybe 15 minutes. … They just told us how to behave. They gave us a set of rules, to be polite, and when they try to drag you out, just become a sack of potatoes, don’t resist.”

— Gloria McKissack, on participating in her first sit-in at Wilson-Quick Pharmacy in 1962, several months after the Freedom Riders returned to Nashville

Additional reading: