Category Archives: Freedom

The restored vintage Greyhound bus that is to be unveiled at the Freedom Rides 60th Anniversary Event on Tuesday May 4 in Montgomery, Ala., is seen on Wednesday May 3, 2021.

Mickey Welsh / Advertiser (TNS)

Its hard to imagine today that only 60 years ago, boarding a Greyhound bus and taking a seat next to a passenger of another race was revolutionary; an act that could leave you flat out on the pavement or at risk of fatal harm.

But Montgomerys Freedom Rides Museum is in the business of remembering.

For a decade, the museum has told the stories of more than 400 young men and women, Black and white the youngest of them 13 and the oldest 22 who boarded interstate buses headed south in the summer of 1961 with a strict purpose: to compel authorities to enforce Supreme Court decisions banning segregation on buses and in transportation facilities throughout the U.S.

Bernard Lafayette Jr. suffered three cracked ribs in Montgomery at the hands of an enraged white mob for his effort. Then days later boarded a bus to Jackson, Mississippi, where he and other Freedom Riders were arrested. At 21, Lafayette said the experience taught him how to live with pain for the purpose of virtue.

If you went on the Freedom Rides you had to make out your will, said Lafayette. So grave were the risks.

That integrated travel on buses, trains and planes is now viewed as unremarkable points to the Freedom Riders triumph. But the Museum wants to ensure their efforts arent taken for granted.

On the 60th anniversary of the Riders sojourn from Washington D.C., the Freedom Rides Museum and Alabama Historical Commission unveiled a new mobile exhibit: a restored Greyhound bus of the same model that carried Riders south.

Dorothy Walker, director of the Montgomery museum, said their intention is to hit the road, taking the Freedom Riders stories to schools and cultural sites in Alabama and throughout the country when it isnt on display at the old Greyhound station where the Museum is now housed.

Were talking about 18 to 20-year-old students who decided they were going to challenge the system of segregation. To arrive in Montgomery on a bus just like this one and to get there and theres nobody there to protect them. They dont know that theres a mob waiting. Its taking people back to that moment. We hope that when people experience the bus, they experience that range of emotions these students must have gone through, said Walker.

The bus was gifted to the AHC in 2019 by the Greyhound Bus Museum and restored by ABC Companies in Faribault, Minnesota. Walker said it was essentially a shell without seating. It now features the original color scheme, historic seats, compartments and windows with some updated features such as air conditioning and power steering. The costs were covered by donors, while the city covered storage at its lot. Walker said the bus will feature a soundscape experience in the hopes of transporting visitors back to 1961, as well as informational banners and an interactive suitcase exhibit.

From this series: Could the Freedom Riders make a difference against todays racism?

The exact number of surviving Freedom Riders is hard to know. Two of the most prominent Freedom Riders, Congressman John Lewis and Reverend C.T. Vivian passed away last year on July 17. Even the youngest activist would be 73 years old today. Their mobility is a concern the Museum has also factored into the new mobile extension. Walker said she hopes to take the bus to the Riders themselves so that they can engage their communities with this history.

Valda Montgomery was 13 years old when her father Richard Harris sheltered Freedom Riders at their South Jackson Street home after their bus pulled into Montgomery on May 20, 1961. At the Museums 60th anniversary event, she remarked at the irony that she now leads an organization, Friends of the Freedom Rides Museum, that works to preserve their history-making activism.

The making of a movement: She was 13 when a bloodied John Lewis arrived at her home, looking for refuge

It just amazes me what in the world my mother and father were thinking when they said, you can come here. Now I understand what John Lewis meant when he said, they were so courageous to open their doors. Each day I get a greater appreciation as I delve deeper into the history of that event. It gives credence and validity to my memories. Im more inspired to keep the story going, said Montgomery.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: The story of how the Freedom Riders revolutionized American travel, transit 60 years ago

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AL: The story of how the Freedom Riders revolutionized American travel, transit 60 years ago - MassTransitMag.com

Media, Law & Policy

Roy Gutterman

Roy Gutterman, associate professor of newspaper and online journalism and director of the Tully Center for Free Speech in the Newhouse School, wrote an op-ed for Syracuse.com: Assaults on press freedom, here and abroad, endanger democracy. Gutterman is an expert on communications law and the First Amendment.

Gutterman writes that in 1991, a group of international journalists and press freedom activists joined together to write the Declaration of Windhoek on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press, which outlined principles of press freedom for media, governments and citizens across the globe. Gutterman says that the declaration came at a time where emerging democracies were in need of free press ideals, as America was setting the standard. The document is celebrated each year on UNESCOs World Press Freedom Day, May 3.

Now, 30 years later, Gutterman says that these issues regarding freedom of the press are now hitting much closer to home, not only in seemingly far-off places. As much as our First Amendment is a symbol and statement to the world about the constitutional and legal protection afforded to the press and speech,anti-press political rhetoric overthe past few years sought to minimize the protections and diminish the role of the institutional press, Gutterman writes.

Part of Guttermans mission in leading the Tully Center for Free Speech is to uphold the work of journalists who risk their lives in the name of free speech. Gutterman says that this week the Tully Center will give an award to Igor Rudnikov, a Russian journalist who survived an assassination attempt and was jailed for over a year for running a newspaper that was critical of Russian leadership. It is people like Rudnikov, Gutterman writes, that uphold the original principles of the Windhoek Declaration and are dedicated to telling the truth.

To read his essay in its entirety, visit Syracuse.com.

Syracuse University media relations team members work regularly with the campus community to secure placements of op-eds. Anyone interested in writing an op-ed should first review the Universitys op-ed guidelines and emailmedia@syr.edu.

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'Assaults on Press Freedom, Here and Abroad, Endanger Democracy' - Syracuse University News

Freedom boys tennis coach Matt Potts won the District 11 singles championship his senior year at Liberty High School.

Now, 29 years later, Potts got to watch his son, Freedom sophomore Noah Potts, win the district Class 3A championship.

Top-seeded Potts posted a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Parkland junior Dan Zolatarev on Wednesday afternoon at Parkland High School.

Its amazing, the Freedom coach said. Its a neat thing for me. I can remember chasing this goal when I was back in high school with my dad. Pretty awesome. Pretty awesome thing.

The sophomore had other things on his mind on Wednesday, like winning the district gold.

I was more focused on myself winning than anything, Potts said.

After the first set was tied 2-2, Potts won four of the final five games to clinch the 6-3 win.

The second set was all Potts as he swept the Parkland player in straight games.

As soon as I went up 3-0, I knew I was in control, Potts said.

The younger Potts enjoys being coached by his dad, but admits its not always easy.

Its frustrating at times to have your dad coach you, but its nice, Potts said.

The Freedom sophomore defeated fourth-seeded John Willis of Stroudsburg 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday morning in the semifinals.

Zolatarev, the seventh seed, posted a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Southern Lehighs Spencer Goodman in the semifinals.

Potts advances to the state tournament and will play the fourth-place finisher out of District 1 in the first round on May 28.

Matt Potts, who is also the Northwood Racquet Club Tennis Director, said his son definitely earned this championship.

In the last 16 months, he has dedicated himself and worked really hard, the Freedom coach said. Its one of those things. When he earns it, you really want him to win. He put in the time and worked hard. So, definitely a little bit nerve-racking. Its nerve-racking watching all of our players. But obviously for districts, watching your son, its nerve-racking.

On Wednesday, Potts bounced back from a loss to Libertys Anthony Ronca in the semifinals of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference tournament on Friday.

I knew in EPCs when I lost, I just wasnt hitting the ball well, Potts said. And I knew if I just came out and was aggressive, hit the ball heavy, hit the ball in. And run people around, finish forward, I knew Id have a good shot at winning.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting lehighvalleylive.com with a subscription.

Josh Folck may be reached at jfolck@lehighvalleylive.com.

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Freedom boys tennis Potts wins district title, follows in fathers footsteps - lehighvalleylive.com

opinion

For the past two weeks I have been exploring the loss of freedom we are currently experiencing. To conclude this discussion, I would like to consider three basic and unavoidable enemies of freedom which, I have already mentioned, have kept the great bulk of humans for the great bulk of history in an un-free environment.

The first is circumstance. You cannot control where you were born, to whom you were born, when you were born, the suite of DNA encoding what you areor the social and political environment surrounding us all. I always wince when well-meaning adults tell children they can be anything they want to be -- even President of the United States. Fat chance!

My parents and teachers, in ways subtle and unsubtle, let me know I could aspire to certain accomplishments, while others were out of my reach. At 5-feet-9-inches tall, 141 pounds soaking wet, a career in professional sports was out of the question. Although postmodernism pretends you can change your being - say, your biological sex --normal people understand this nonsense for what it is.

Find the second enemy by looking in a mirror. When it comes to freedom, you are your biggest barrier. Consider Maslows Hierarchy of needs, put forward in 1943. He propounded a five-stage pyramid for human motivation, starting with the most basic needs for food and shelter, then going on to security, then belongingness. The top two move into the areas of freedom, but the vast majority of human beings in a modern society never get much beyond stage two or three. Thank capitalism and science that almost no one is forced into stage one any more.

During my years of teaching, I had the pleasure of teaching the capstone course for business majors. At the last class I held a very informal chat with the students reflecting on their years of education, and what they were seeking going forward. I was at first shocked when I asked them, given the very wide range of opportunities and choices they now had before them, that the number one criterion they sought in a job was security. Id say about 80% so chose. When I pointed out how self-limiting an insistence on job security could be, it made no difference. They were afraid, and fear will supplant freedom always and everywhere. The irony is, at least of those students whose subsequent careers I am still aware of, the least fearful students have the best paying and most secure jobs.

The third enemy is others. Although the great majority of people aspire no higher than three hots and a cot, there is always an ambitious, sometimes ruthless, handful for whom power is the driving force. Power has many benefits, not least of which is that the more power one has, the more free one is. Power enables you to bend others to your will, since those others, seeking security, will be willing to allow you to dominate their lives as long as you give them the basics.

Power has many other benefits. In a corporate setting, for instance, at my dear old alma mater,Procter & Gamble, as the new kid at the bottom of the management ladder, I was highly constrained. I lived in a bullpen with several others, all sharing a secretary (they had secretaries back in those days). First promotion came with a higher salary, then my very own office (no windows yet). I moved two spaces closer to the right-hand margin of the organization chart. After eight or ten more promotions, I could have had a suite of offices on the 11th floor, and a million dollar salary back when a million was real money.

Whether in business, in academe, or in politics, whatever other drives and aspirations may fade with age, the lust for power never seems to burn out. I guess the miracle of the amount of freedom we still have in this country is that we have much freedom at all.

Charles Milliken is a Professor Emeritus after 22 years of teaching economics and related subjects at Siena Heights University. He can be reached atmilliken.charles@gmail.com.

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When it comes to freedom, you are your biggest barrier - Monroe Evening News

BUCHANAN, Va. (WFXR) The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), the only globally recognized organization providing standards for identifying legitimate animal sanctuaries and rescue organizations, has awarded accreditation status to New Freedom Farm as of April 20.

Accreditation signifies that New Freedom Farm meets the organizations rigorous and peer-reviewed equine care standards which are confirmed by a comprehensive site visit.

Accreditation also shows adherence to standards addressing the sustainability of the organization, ethical principles, finances, staffing, education outreach, security and safety and other operational aspects.

The status also provides a clear and trusted means for the public, donors, and grantors to recognize New Freedom Farm as an exceptional organization.

We are honored to announce New Freedom Farm is the first Veteran and Mustang organization in history to receive the prestigious Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries Accreditation. I literally started the process of applying for the GFAS accreditation on June 26, 2018, it became overwhelming, and I set it aside. On June 17, 2020, we had a flash flood, and an advisor to our board Gillian Deegan suggested I have a policy and procedure in place for disaster situations. It was then when I decided I wanted to follow the gold standards of care for animals. I wanted to be sure that not only our equine residents but also New Freedom Farm as an organization would enjoy the benefits of being guided by the highest standards. An accreditation from the GFAS means that we meet or exceed the rigorous peer-reviewed standards of excellence they set forth. I would like to thank Daryl Tropea from GFAS, Gillian Deegan, advisor to the board, the board of New Freedom Farm, the veterans, volunteers, and supporters of New Freedom Farm for all of the hard work that went into achieving this accreditation. Although we have reached our goal of Accreditation, we will continue to develop our facility, programs, and protocols to reach ever higher in our mission to heal our American Icons: the wild mustangs.

The GFAS Equine Accreditation Program is made possible by a generous grant from The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty To Animals and the Kenneth Scott Charitable Trust.

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Buchanans New Freedom Farm becomes accredited by Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries - WFXRtv.com

Laura GambleRegional President, Greater Maryland PNC Bank

I am a rower and if you know any of us, you know that many people consider us to be a little crazy. We get up before the sun rises and put in an hour or more of intense physical exercise before most people have had their coffee. Then we go to work and do our jobs as doctors, engineers, teachers, architects, scientists and even bank presidents.

There are very few things that come between me and my time on the water. Literally, it is the first thing I do in the morning, four days a week, from the end of March until the middle of November. Winter is a desolate time in the life of a rower in Maryland, you are just counting the days until you can get back in a boat.

But when you are in that boat, there is nothing quite like it the quiet intensity of the effort to get each stroke in time with your cremates, the feeling of the boat gliding unimpeded it is the closest I have ever come to the term flow or being in the zone. It also takes a very special kind of teamwork where if you are rowing with others, you must sync your efforts completely, or you wont get anywhere. There is nothing quite as frustrating as a crew who does not row well together. Usually you can make improvements and make progress, occasionally you cant. You just have to put the boat away, shake it off and come back to try again the next time. In so many ways, I find rowing to be allegorical to business and life in general.

Another of the things rowing has taught me, is to be in the moment. You can only focus on one stroke at a time, then it is done and you can only focus on the next one. You also cant bring things into the boat with you. There isnt much space, mentally or physically, for things that arent rowing related so you have to leave it on the dock and pick it back up when you are done with your row.

The pandemic has made rowing harder, just like everything else. We couldnt row together throughout 2020 and all our competitions were canceled. To keep everyone motivated, we have been rowing on the ergometer (rowing machines) together via Zoom and have had many Zoom brunches to keep in touch. I cannot wait until we can get back in an 8+ (eight-person boat with a coxswain) again and row to the Inner Harbor on a clear Saturday morning!

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Passion In Action: Finding freedom on the water - Maryland Daily Record

This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.

Religion and policy experts agree its grown harder in recent years for people of faith in the U.S. to live out their beliefs. But they have different ideas about which ongoing threat to religious freedom should be seen as most serious.

Tevi Troy, who served as the White House Jewish liaison under President George W. Bush, believes the biggest problem facing American faith communities is intolerance.

Across the country, people have become obsessed with telling each other how to live, he said during an April 22 panel discussion hosted by Religion News Association.

We have to have a little more respect for people of different views, he said.

The Rev. Joshua DuBois, who was one of Troys co-panelists, offered a similar warning, although he directed it at a more specific group of people.

He thinks faith leaders who supported President Donald Trump in the hopes of securing new religious freedom protections need to atone for Trumps divisive approach to leadership and rebuild trust within their communities.

The voices who fight for religious liberty dont have any credibility anymore. I think it will take years to rebuild that, said the Rev. DuBois, who worked on faith-related policy and served as a spiritual adviser to the president during the Obama administration.

The Rev. Johnnie Moore, who worked with the Trump administration, pushed back on this claim during the panel. However, he did agree that rising partisan tensions have put religious freedom at risk.

My greatest concern is politics, he said, noting that religious liberty, as a concept, has become less popular as bipartisan cooperation has become more rare.

The situation has gotten so out of hand that some government officials felt justified in forcing churches to shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rev. Moore added.

What weve seen ... is the vast overreach of certain states and it ought to cause all of us alarm, he said.

Melissa Rogers, the current executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, also drew peoples attention to the events of the past year, highlighting moments in which churches or religious Americans were attacked.

In the U.S. today, many people dont feel comfortable wearing religious symbols or sitting in a house of worship, and that should be heartbreaking for everyone, she said.

Some people in the U.S. really feel like they are unable to practice their faith without fear for their physical safety. They cant walk down the street wearing a yalmulke or turban without fear that somebody will attack them, Rogers said.

She and other officials in the Biden administration plan to do what they can to reduce this fear and boost religious freedom more broadly, she added. Already, theyre working on increasing access to nonprofit security grants and hosting listening sessions with persecuted people of faith.

I am convinced that if every fair-minded Americans could sit and listen to someone who feels they cannot practice their faith without fear than they would be on fire to change this, Rogers said.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan governmental advisory group that tracks religious persecution around the world, released its 2021 annual report this week. I wrote about what the commission said about COVID-19, Chinese surveillance technology and President Joe Bidens first three months in office.

This week, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in a case that could redefine the relationship between state officials, nonprofit organizations and charitable donors. My latest story takes a look at the legal precedents involved. Although its not directly linked to religion, the case could hold consequences for charities that work on religious freedom and other faith-related causes, including abortion rights and immigration policy, as my article noted.

Many religious business owners include a morality clause in their employment contracts. They require workers to abide by strict ethical standards, such as a prohibition on pre-marital sex.

Employees who have agreed to a morality clause can get fired for violating their bosses ethical expectations even if theyre otherwise good at their job. In some cases, such firings are controversial, since letting someone go for getting pregnant or being gay would, in other contexts, be an obvious violation of federal employment anti-discrimination law.

In light of a morality clause-related lawsuit filed against Dave Ramsey, who is best known for doling out faith-based financial advice, my colleague Jennifer Graham took a look at whats at stake in efforts to invalidate morality clauses.

Its odd to say, but getting pregnant and having a baby made me think about infertility more than ever before. My heart breaks for women and couples who try to conceive but cant, especially for those who dont hear much from religious leaders about their plight. I really appreciated Kaya Oakes recent piece for the Catholic magazine America about how the women of the Bible helped her grapple with infertility. Women who dont have children and are not (nuns) also have many gifts to give the church and the world, she writes.

If youre interested in learning more about last weeks Religion News Association conference, check out my Twitter threads on each of the four panel discussions. Speakers addressed faith-based political activism, what its like to be a religious adviser to the White House, faith groups response to COVID-19 vaccination and the relationship between religion and comedy.

I cant imagine fasting from sunrise to sundown, as Muslims do during the month of Ramadan, let alone doing so while playing in multiple professional basketball games each week. Kyrie Irving, a Brooklyn Nets star who is participating in Ramadan this year, recently told reporters that playing while fasting has been an adjustment.

Get weekly stories to help deepen your understanding of religion in the public square.

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Whats the biggest threat to religious freedom in America today? - Deseret News

Connecticut banker Walter Schuppe and his wife, Lori Schuppe, a nurse, are on a mission to photograph, listen to and learn the stories of as many veterans as they can. Their purpose is to honor these veterans' service to America. Their project is called "The Faces of Freedom."

Honoring Veterans and Preserving Their Stories

The Schuppes spent April 24 at the Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas in Brevard with a demanding schedule of 16 appointments-a new veteran scheduled every 30 minutes-to learn about, honor and capture his or her image. Veterans participating were Ray McCall (Desert Storm), J.D. Bolt (Korean War), Elizabeth Tilston (WWII), Dorothy Managan (WWII), Ed Cottrell (WWII), Bill Lack (Korean War), Tom Greenway (Korean War), Duke Woodhull (Cold War and Vietnam War), Mike DiRocco (Vietnam War), David Grant (Vietnam War), Jug Gerard (Vietnam War), Phil Mayrand (Vietnam War), Phil Seymour (Vietnam War), Howard Thiele (Vietnam War), Ray Pavlik (Vietnam War), and David Morrow (Vietnam War). Each of their portraits will be displayed in the museum when completed.

Partnership with the Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas

Walter Schuppe is well-known to eight World War II veterans from Transylvania and Henderson counties. On his first trip here in 2018, he made photographs of WWII veterans Tom McCrary, Pooch Pace, George Sarros, Harold Wellington, Bill Siniard, Verl Luzena, James Brush and Larry Hoffman. These professionally matted and framed photos are proudly displayed in the museum today. The Schuppes also gave framed photographs to the veterans who posed for them, as well as displaying their photographs in the Schuppes' hometown museum in Avon, Conn.

At 6 a.m. the next morning, the Schuppes set out driving to Caledonia, Miss., to interview and photograph Bradford Freeman. Freeman is one of only two surviving members of the WWII D-Day 101st Airborne Paratroops "Band of Brothers," made famous by the book and TV series.

The "Faces of Freedom" Project

At the end of a very busy day, Walter Schuppe said, "The most difficult thing we do is to limit our time with each veteran to just 30 minutes."

Lori Schuppe added, "We're interested in the stories of their lives after they served as well as their military stories. They're all fascinating to us."

Walter recalled, "When we started the project and interviewed the first veteran, we thought we'd just take a few photographs, ask a few questions and be out the door in 20 minutes. It turned out that three-and-a-half hours later, we left the veteran and his wife and realized that there was going to be a lot more to this project than we anticipated."

The Schuppes do this travel, photo developing, framing, and shipping of finished photos at their own expense.

Walter said, "When I turned 60, I realized I wanted to do something to make a lasting positive tribute. I didn't serve in the military. I've had an easy life compared to people who served. I wanted to honor them."

If you are a veteran or know of a veteran who would like to participate in this project, contact Walter Schuppe at (860) 558-1072 or walter11_ [emailprotected]

Additional Veterans Honored in Print

WWII P-47 Fighter Pilot Ed Cottrell shared the story his harrowing landing after his engine was shot out by Nazi fire.

All the veterans photographed are included in books sold at the museum. The book "Welcome Home, Brother: Memoirs of Vietnam War Veterans" by Michel Robertson profiles 31 Vietnam War veterans. "We Shall Come Home Victorious," stories of WWII veterans by Janis Allen shares the stories of 36 WWII veterans. A book of Korean War veterans' stories is now being collected by Michael McCarthy for publication. McCarthy invites any veteran who served in-country Korea between 1950 and 1953 to contact him at [emailprotected] um.net or (828) 507-3171, as he adds more Korean War veterans' stories to his book.

The Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas is located at 21 E. Main St. beside the courthouse in Brevard. Admission is free. Open hours are Thursday Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information or to schedule a group tour, call (828) 884-2141. Visit the website at http://www.theveteransmuseum.org.

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The Faces Of Freedom Project Stops In Brevard - The Transylvania Times

A project out of Texas A&M University is trying to preserve and protect an important piece of Texas history: freedom colonies. These were communities founded by formerly enslaved people starting just after the Civil War.

We spoke with Dr. Andrea Roberts, founder of the Texas Freedom Colonies Project, about her work and how people can get involved with preserving this part of history.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity.

KUT: What were the Texas freedom colonies?

Dr. Andrea Roberts: There's a lot of different names that we give historic African-American communities that were founded from 1865 to 1930, right after the emancipation of enslaved peoples in Texas all the way up through the Great Depression. And those are called freedom colonies by the author of the book Freedom Colonies, Thad Sitton. However, you can also call them Black settlements, freedmen's towns, freedmen settlements. And these are all the same types of places.

But this particular name was given to these places because, one, they were free. That is, they were away from a lot of the threats to African-American lives after emancipation so they were in remote areas. Bottomland people called it near flood-prone areas often because that was the land that was available. These are also places that were anchored by a church, a school, a fraternal lodge, or maybe all that's left now is a cemetery. But these were hustling, bustling communities founded by clusters of early African-American landowners shortly after the Civil War. All the way up to 1930, these communities were founded throughout Texas.

Can you tell us where in Texas most of these communities were located?

When we think back to the 1860s in Texas, 1870s, we're thinking about a largely agrarian place, meaning lots of farming. And so when we think about where the majority of African-American landowners are, it's helpful to think about farmland ownership in Texas because a majority of the state was involved in some way in agriculture. So a majority of these settlements would be in rural areas when they were initially started. So that can be anywhere from what we would see as the edge of Austin to the center of Austin to 20 miles outside of Austin. It's important to remember that it wasn't as urban or as large as it is now. These were areas started by African-American landowners.

Think of this. In 1870, less than 2% of all farmland was owned by African Americans. By 1910, 31% of all farmland in Texas was owned by African Americans, so that means that you have a lot of African Americans who started these settlements as one of many landowners who clustered together out of security, safety and shared economic need and security.

What tended to happen to these communities and these settlements over time?

It really depends on whether or not we're talking about an urban, suburban or rural freedom colony. But just generally speaking, we can think about historically what has happened with African-American populations particularly in Texas.

We have several waves of the Great Migration in which African Americans sought out two things. They sought out political asylum and economic opportunity. Political asylum in that they wanted the opportunity to possibly exercise the franchise, the vote, and without threat of the Ku Klux Klan or other racial violence. And they also wanted to assert their ability to own land safely and not risk racial violence because there was great resentment against African Americans after the Civil War where whites were trying to recuperate their economic and political stature and had to compete on equal footing with African Americans in the marketplace.

Any accumulation of land in rural areas meant they had to leave because they would soon be threatened by white vigilante groups. And so these African Americans would then have to go to places such as Austin or Houston to seek opportunity and just start over essentially.

Unlike other parts of the United States, where the first wave of the Great Migration in the 1890s would take someone from Mississippi all the way to Chicago, we have such a rich freedom colony culture here because people would go from plantation to nearby freedom colony to another freedom colony and then to a city. And that city was already in the state. So you had a lot of instances in which African Americans were able to remain in the state and cultivate land ownership and remain connected to freedom colonies.

But more often than not, what happened is that they lost population when people moved away. You had infrastructure projects that either bifurcated some of our more famous freedom colonies or freedmen's towns throughout the state, such as in Houston or in Austin or Dallas. We had major freeways destroy what was left of a lot of these communities.

But in the infancy, or when these communities came about, they were often in rural places that saw either development or efforts to take their land either through land dispossession or legal subterfuge by whites. And so if it wasn't land loss, then it was infrastructure projects. And if it wasn't infrastructure projects and racial violence, then it was just the need to find more sustainable employment in the rise of petrochemical, and other industries really drew a lot of people out of rural areas, along with farm roads that led people back out of these areas as we relied less and less on agrarian and timber and all of those sorts of industries. So, those are just some of the reasons.

And then when we get into urban areas, it's really gentrification, people driven out of areas and then disinvestment in these areas when people move to the suburbs. And then there is a lot of disinvestment or lack of investment in these areas. And people left certain areas of Austin in droves, for example. There's a lot of economic, political and social forces that drove population out of these places and also made it difficult to retain ownership of land in these places.

It seems like this part of Texas history, the history of the Texas freedom colonies, the black settlements, is not a part of standard Texas history school curriculum. Why is this not taught? It was not part of any curriculum that I was ever taught or encountered.

I want to give more recent teachers a little credit because I know there are social studies teachers who endeavor to incorporate this into their classes and into their Texas history classes. But I, like you, went to school in the late '80s, '90s, and this was not part of Texas history. Instead, when we learned of Texas settlement, it was all about the sort of settler, Anglo settlers who made something out of nothing and created our great state. And these heroic narratives do not include the stories of African Americans who developed a much different relationship with the land, with native peoples, with the communities in which they settled.

And I think it's not included for a few reasons. One, history is written by the victors. All too often we know this to be the case that those who predominately are in power write the history that reinforces their position in power. And so that's part of what's happened with the writing of history more generally and in Texas.

But we have certain ideas about what makes a community a community [and] what makes a place, a place. The common narrative is that all African Americans ran into cities. They went straight from Galveston and somehow made it all the way to a major city and then began life as an African American. You just jumped from plantation to city or you sharecropped. But the idea that we had literally hundreds of settlements spring up has eluded us because I think it's a much more complicated story that these places don't show up on our maps in the same way that an incorporated community like Austin or any of these other places that we know is a city.

And so these were communities that may have been part of unincorporated areas. Now we know them as a neighborhood, but they might have been an independent freestanding place at one time. They may have fallen off of Texas Department of Transportation maps as they lost population. And so we often equate a place with a place that has an accumulation of people. And these places have part-time, full-time and people who maybe don't live at all in these places but consider them home and are stakeholders in the future of these places. And so that's a much more complicated way of trying to understand whether or not a place exists and has a story and a history.

And the stories of how these places come about are often in the minds of elders, and we lose them daily. And so it's a bit of a race against time to capture not only the stories, but also to connect those stories to the progeny, the descendants of these people who have a rightful say in what happens to land in these places and what happens to cultural assets and environmental and natural resources in these places.

What is the Texas Freedom Colonies Project?

The Texas Freedom Colonies Project is ironically a bit of a way that I describe the relationship that I have with fellow descendants of these places. I have roots in historic Black settlements. I come from several different freedom colonies, whether it be Fourth Ward, whether it be Sunnyside in Houston, or any of the settlements that are in Central Texas and Washington County or in Fort Bend County where I was born. Part of this is coming out of that consciousness that didn't come to me until late in life that I had these roots in these places.

But the Texas Freedom Colonies Project is the name I gave to my dissertation research at the University of Texas at Austin. When I would go and speak with people about what I was doing, when I would interview them, instead of saying, Give me information for my project as an academic, I said, I'm starting this project that I want you to be a part of and build with me. It's called the Texas Freedom Colonies Project. So, that started in 2014, beginning with trying to understand the relationship between stories of place and preservation of place in the present and preserving and protecting these places from threats, and how grassroots communities were already working to protect these places, but simply needed more public support, investment and validation.

It's a social justice educational research initiative, which basically means that we collect stories. We collect data. We distribute surveys and really have conversation with folks in a lot of different ways, whether it's online through our atlas, whether it's at a public event, which we'll be doing again once we all get shots and get approval to do so. What we do is we find out how a place was created, through our surveys and through our conversations and demonstrations with folks. We record that information either on paper surveys; on recordings; through our Coffee Talk show, which is an online program that we have for descendants to share what's going on in their communities; and of course, through what people are most familiar with, which is our atlas, which is really a publicly available database, which we invite the public to add to.

We started with a baseline of research information that I gathered as a consequence of initial research in a few counties and a database based on Texas Historical Commission data, a handbook of Texas online data. And that initial baseline of research has then become a way for us to build the online holding place or gathering place of all of this data, this Black world of worlds.

And so essentially what we do is we collect and we connect and we co-create new stories of what the story of Texas is, essentially. And we do that through all of the events that I mentioned, as well as our Adopt-A-County program. So we're really a participatory planning, a participatory preservation and participatory research project. So, rather than coming to us for the answers, we ask people to create the answers with us and learn to be co-researchers because we think it's so important that we put the authority of the story of Black people's lives back in the hands of Black folks.

Texas Freedom Colonies Project

For people who may have some of those stories in their own families and are interested in becoming co-researchers with you all, what would be the best way for them to get started or to reach out to the project?

It's important for everyone to get really accustomed to setting their telephone on record whenever they're talking to anyone who, frankly, is maybe over the age of 65. We hold stories, we hold memories in a lot of different forms. And so one of the first things you can do is be a better listener. And to use that cell phone instead of a point of distraction as a place in which you can record and listen. So, that's just baseline what everyone should be doing.

In terms of working with us and collaborating with us, we really, really welcome that, and we don't truly exist if we don't have involvement from the public. So the first thing we'd like people to do is simply email us. You can email us at freedomcoloniesproject@gmail.com. That is sort of a catch all. You have any basic questions and we'll send you basic information about who we are and what we do and how you can get involved.

The other thing that you can do, which we're really excited about, is to come to our Facebook page and you'll learn about our events. If you go to the events location on our Facebook page, you can learn a great deal about us.

But what's really, really easy is to go to bit.ly/texasfreedomcoloniesproject. And that's a really easy, just one place where you can find all the information about who we are, what we do, what we're working on, what the opportunities for organizations are to collaborate with us. We often collaborate with folks on grants and develop some baseline support. And we have workshops. We have Adopt-A-County workshops that we love for folks to join us at. And this is our community of learners and archivists and preservationists and activists who want to collaborate with us on not just capturing the big, most well-known freedom colonies or freedmen's towns, but really hundreds of settlements throughout the entire state.

Can you tell us a little more about the specifics of the Adopt-a-County events?

There's a lot of things that we do to engage the public. It's been especially challenging for us during COVID-19 because of social distancing, requiring that we do much of our work virtually.

Our Adopt-A-County program started prior to that, but has really, really gained a lot of attention and activity because it's a volunteer program that draws together researchers across the state to begin to adopt a county to research. And our aim is to find more information about freedom colonies for which we already have data, but to also build community among volunteers and find freedom colonies that maybe we didn't know about.

We have a list of communities that we know that at some time existed but they're not on the map, or they're on the map but we don't know for sure that they did have African-American population. And so we have a number of contests through the Adopt-A-County program where we invite people to work together in groups around the county and find more stories, more pictures, more sound recordings. You can upload to our atlas and share with us videos, sound recordings, images, documents, obituaries, funeral programs, newspapers. We invite all of that into our Adopt-A-County program so that we can begin to document and extract out of that data the dates in which these places were founded; who still attends maybe churches in these communities; when individuals still gather together to celebrate or raise money to protect and preserve churches in these communities. So, we're really building an online hub for anyone who's associated with these places to connect.

But we need the public to get involved in gathering the data, organizing the data and identifying all of this valuable information so that we can then build up this database for researchers and for advocates and for policy that can really support those doing the work on the ground to protect and preserve these places.

Those who email us will learn about what they can exactly do to get involved, and they'll get invited to two workshops. We have workshops where we'll be talking about community archiving, have lots of time for Q&A to talk about the nuts and bolts of working with personal archival information, to talking about what makes something historic and what makes a place worth protecting and what might you do to protect your materials.

And then we'll have another session in which we talk about challenges and victories that people have had with finding information. We have an event on Thursday, April 29 at 6:00 p.m. and then we have another on Thursday, May 20 at 6 p.m. And we usually have a pretty good time. We had nearly 30 folks at our last group meeting where we have a workshop or presentation and we have a chat and then we have our contest to incentivize folks finding more information. And so that's part of what we do as part of the Adopt-A-County.

We do have an actual goal in sight, rather than saying, OK, we're just trying to find lots of stories for the next few years until we find all the stories. We have a very specific goal. We have a list of 557 places that we originally found, and we're really trying to match those up with the real live people and stories and images and sounds of these places. And the Adopt-A-County program is the initiative we have that helps us to gather and store and share that information with the world.

The Texas Freedom Colonies Project is collaborating with the Bullock Texas State History Museum to gather photos of artifacts. Can you tell us a little bit more about that collaboration and how people can participate in that?

I would ask everyone as soon as you possibly can to Google Texas Freedom Colonies Storyteller Project and Bullock or go to the Bullock Museum website. And this is a really fun project. All you have to do is take an image of something like a tool that your grandparents had a photo, a picture of maybe a mixing bowl that your great-grandmother made your favorite cake in, and share that and share a few sentences about why that reminds you of the community that your ancestors came from.

It's really, really easy. Scan a picture, take a picture, upload it to the website, add a few sentences. And if you want to share more, email freedomcoloniesproject@gmail.com or come to us at the site bit.ly/texasfreedomcoloniesproject. It'll take you directly to all of these opportunities, whether it be the Bullock Museum where your story can become part of the Bullock Museums online websites so that the entire state can celebrate your communitys or your family's history. Or you can join us at our Adopt-A-County workshops or our Juneteenth Coffee Talk program, an online talk show on Wednesday, June 16 at 10 a.m.

So, we have a lot to do. And it doesn't happen without our descendant community. Whether you're in Austin, you're in Texas, you're in Nevada, you're in Europe, wherever you are in the world listening, you're a freedom colony descendant and your story matters.

Got a tip? Email Jennifer Stayton at jstayton@kut.org. Follow her on Twitter @jenstayton

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'History Is Written By The Victors,' But The Texas Freedom Colonies Project Works To Change The Narrative - KUT

JACKSON, Miss. Mississippi Public Broadcasting is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Freedom Rides by re-airing Remembering the Freedom Rides series on MPB Television and MPB social media platforms beginning May 4.

The series, comprised of 40 short videos, explains the historic significance of black and white activists who jointly rode interstate buses across the South in 1961 to challenge the non-enforcement of a Supreme Court ruling banning segregated interstate travel. The videos will air between regular programs on MPB Television beginning May 4 the anniversary date of when the Freedom Rides began and ending Sept. 13 the anniversary date of when the Freedom Rides concluded.

Look for the series on MPBs social media platforms during the month of May. A playlist of the videos is available via MPBs YouTube channelhere.

MPB is a state agency that also operates as a PBS and NPR affiliate broadcasting station. For more information visitwww.mpbonline.org. Find all MPB press releaseshere.

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Mississippi Public Broadcastingprovides relevant instructional and public affairs programming to Mississippians through its statewide television and radio network. MPB enhances the work of educators, students, parents and learners of all ages by providing informative programming and educational resources. MPBs locally produced programming focuses on the people, resources and attractions that reflect Mississippis unique culture and diverse heritage. Childrens television programs constitute a major portion of the daytime and weekend morning schedules. MPB provides a valuable resource to Mississippians in disseminating information as part of the states emergency preparedness and response system. Since 1970, MPB has won over 350 national, regional and statewide awards, including Emmy, Edward R. Murrow and Parents Choice Awards.

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MPB commemorates 60th anniversary of the Freedom Rides - Mississippi Public Broadcasting