REMEMBERS THE HORRORS OF THE RACIAL STRIFE AND VIOLENCE IN THE DEEP SOUTH >> WE KNEW THAT EVERY TIME THAT WE TOOK A RIDE, THAT IF W DIED, WE DIED. ASHLEY WAS THERE A FEAR THAT YOU ARE NOT DOING THE RIGHT THINGS OR GOING TO THE RIGHT PLACES? THAT YOU WOULD BE STOPPED BY POLICE OR HARASSE >> IF THEY TELL YOU MOVE -- IF YOU GOT ON A METRO BUS AND A WHITE PERSON WANTED YOUR SEAT, THEY COULD INSIST THAT YOU MOVE AND GO TO THE BACK OF THE BUS. IF YOU DID NOT DO WHAT THEY SAID , HE WOULD BE ARRESTED, SO YOU ALWAYS HAD TO DO IT, OR YOU PAID THE CONSEQUENCES. ASHLEY AT 21 BETTY DANIELS ROSEMOND THEN BETTY DANIELS DECIDED TO LEAVE SCHOOL AT LSU TO JOIN THE FREEDOM RIDERS. >> I WENT THROUGH SOME OF THE TRAINING. ONE OF THE GIRLS SLAPPED ME AND ALMOST KNOCKED ME DOWN, BUT THAT WAS PART OF YOUR TRAINING, TO SEE IF YOU COULD -- IF YOU WOULD RETALIATE. YOU COUL NOT RETALIATE. ASHLEY BETTY AND 4 OTHERS WENT ON A FREEDOM RIDE FROM NEW ORLEANS TO MOBILE, ALABAMA JUST DAYS AFTER ANOTHER GROUPS BUS WAS BOMBED. ON THE WAY BACK, WHEN WE GOT TO A LITTLE TOWN IN MISSISSIPP NOW, FREEDOM RIDERS WERE TESTERS. THEIR JOB WAS TO TEST THE FACILITIES TO SEE IF THEY WERE FOLLOWING THE LAW. MY JOB WAS TO MAKE A PHONE CALL. WHEN I GOT TO THE PHONE BOOTH, A TRUCK OF MEN IN A PICKUP TRU WHITE MEN PULLED UP AT THE , LITTLE BUS STATION. THEY LITERALLY DRAGGED FRANK AND THRE GIRLS OUT, PUT THEM IN THE BACK OF A TRUCK AND DROVE OF NOW I KNEW IF THEY FOUND ME. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ANOTH LYNCHING THAT NIGHT. ASHLEY: ALL OF THIS BECAUSE YOU ARE BLACK? >> OF COURSE. EVERYTHING WAS BECAUSE OF THAT. YOU JUST DID NOT STAND A CHANCE. ASHLEY: AND HERE WE SIT TODAY IN 2021, WEVE HAD OUR FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT HAVE HAD OUR FIRST FEMALE AND BLACK AND SOUTH ASIAN VICE PRESIDENT. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT WHERE WE ARE TODAY? >> OH, I FEEL GOOD. I REALLY DO. GOOD TO KNOW THAT PEOPLE WERE STILL WILLING TO TRY TO SEE TH CHANGE WILL COME AND THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE WHO RISKED THEIR LIFE TO SEE THAT THIS HAPPEN ASHLEY DO YOU FEEL THAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED OR ARE CLOSE TO THE DREAM THAT D KING SPOKE OF? >> WE HAVE WORK TO DO. IT IS NOT OVER UNTIL GOD SAYS IT IS OVER. THE BIBLE SAYS W MUST LOVE EACH OTHER, LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELVES. WE ARE COMPELLED TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. THAT IS WHAT IS MISSING IN THE WORLD TODAY. ASHLEY IT WAS MY COMPLETE HONOR TO SPEAK WITH HER. TODAY, THE 81-YEAR-OLD WHO JUST RECENTLY STOPPED WORKING LAST YEAR STILL SPEAKS TO AUDIENCES ABOUT THE WORK THEY DID AND THE HOPE OF A BETTER FUTUR SHE PLANS TO RELEASE A BOOK OF HER POETRY SOON. SHE SAYS WHAT DROVE HER THEN AND WHAT SHOULD DRIVE US ALL, IS TO BE THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE IN THE WORL TO SEE MORE OF OUR CONVERSATIONS IN OUR HISTORY AND HOPE SERIES GO TO THE PROJECT COMMUNITY SECTION OF WLW

Woman who fought for racial equity as a Freedom Rider reflects on the past, gives outlook on the future

Updated: 5:59 PM EST Feb 16, 2021

Betty Daniels Rosemond, 81, grew up with Jim Crow laws and segregation being the norm in New Orleans, Louisiana. She saw firsthand how racism held her family back when her mother tried to vote or buy a home and was ultimately denied.She decided she wanted to be a part of a movement that was changing the country, so she joined CORE, or the Congress of Racial Equality, to become a Freedom Rider."We knew every time we took a ride that if we died, we died," Rosemond said.Rosemond said there was a general fear growing up that she could be stopped by police or harassed at any moment for simply being out.You would be stopped, but you had to, if they tell you to move, for instance, if you got on a metro bus, and a white person wanted your seat, they could insist that you move and go to the back of the bus because that part was for Black people, she said. And if you didn't do what they said, you will be arrested. So there was always you had to do it, or you pay consequences."At 21, she decided to leave school at Louisiana State University to join the Freedom Riders."I went through some of the training and one of the girls slapped me and almost knocked me down, but that was part of your training to see if you retaliate, and you couldn't retaliate," Rosemond said.Betty and four others went on a Freedom Ride from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama, just days after another group's bus was bombed.On the way back, when we got to a little town in Mississippi, now, Freedom Riders were testers. Their job was to test the facilities to see if they were following the law," said Rosemond.Her job was to make a phone call back to their headquarters in New Orleans."When I got to the phone booth, a truck of men in a pickup truck, white men, pulled up at the little bus station. They literally dragged Frank and three girls out, put them in the back of a truck and drove off. Now, I knew if they found me, it would have been another lynching that night," Rosemond said.We asked Rosemond how she feels now that the nation has seen its first Black president, and its first female, Black and Southeast Asian vice president. Oh, I feel good. I really do, she said. Its good to know that people were still willing to try to see that change will come and there are still people who risked their life to see that this happens."Rosemond said she believes we're close to the dream that Dr. King spoke of, but there's still work to do."You know, we have work to do it. It's not over until God says it's over. The Bible tells us this, that we must love each other, love our neighbor as ourselves, we are compelled to love one another. And that that's what's missing in the world today," Rosemond said.

Betty Daniels Rosemond, 81, grew up with Jim Crow laws and segregation being the norm in New Orleans, Louisiana.

She saw firsthand how racism held her family back when her mother tried to vote or buy a home and was ultimately denied.

She decided she wanted to be a part of a movement that was changing the country, so she joined CORE, or the Congress of Racial Equality, to become a Freedom Rider.

"We knew every time we took a ride that if we died, we died," Rosemond said.

Rosemond said there was a general fear growing up that she could be stopped by police or harassed at any moment for simply being out.

You would be stopped, but you had to, if they tell you to move, for instance, if you got on a metro bus, and a white person wanted your seat, they could insist that you move and go to the back of the bus because that part was for Black people, she said. And if you didn't do what they said, you will be arrested. So there was always you had to do it, or you pay consequences."

At 21, she decided to leave school at Louisiana State University to join the Freedom Riders.

"I went through some of the training and one of the girls slapped me and almost knocked me down, but that was part of your training to see if you retaliate, and you couldn't retaliate," Rosemond said.

Betty and four others went on a Freedom Ride from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama, just days after another group's bus was bombed.

On the way back, when we got to a little town in Mississippi, now, Freedom Riders were testers. Their job was to test the facilities to see if they were following the law," said Rosemond.

Her job was to make a phone call back to their headquarters in New Orleans.

"When I got to the phone booth, a truck of men in a pickup truck, white men, pulled up at the little bus station. They literally dragged Frank and three girls out, put them in the back of a truck and drove off. Now, I knew if they found me, it would have been another lynching that night," Rosemond said.

We asked Rosemond how she feels now that the nation has seen its first Black president, and its first female, Black and Southeast Asian vice president.

Oh, I feel good. I really do, she said. Its good to know that people were still willing to try to see that change will come and there are still people who risked their life to see that this happens."

Rosemond said she believes we're close to the dream that Dr. King spoke of, but there's still work to do.

"You know, we have work to do it. It's not over until God says it's over. The Bible tells us this, that we must love each other, love our neighbor as ourselves, we are compelled to love one another. And that that's what's missing in the world today," Rosemond said.

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Woman who fought for racial equity as a Freedom Rider reflects on the past, gives outlook on the future - WLWT Cincinnati