April 9, 2021
Mug shots of some of the Freedom Riders arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, are on display at the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Freedom Riders were a brave group of more than 400 civil rights activists, many of whom were just teenagers, who put their lives on the line to dismantle segregated busing in 1961. By doing so, they secured what historian Ray Arsenault called the civil rights movement’s “first unambiguous victory” [PDF]. To mark the 60th anniversary of their nonviolent campaign, here are some essential facts about the Freedom Riders and their mission.
1. The Freedom Riders tested states’ compliance with two Supreme Court rulings.
Updated Mar. 2
Warning: The descriptions in this story and a photograph of a public lynching are graphic and disturbing.
Six years ago, a crew replacing light poles on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street found an engraved metal plate. It was a few feet off the ground, blackened with graffiti and hidden behind a planter bursting with bird of paradise, almost invisible.
âAt this intersection, Nov. 12, 1914, John Evans a black laborer from Dunnellon was lynched,â it said, âcondemned by a secret council of 15 of St. Petersburgâs most influential citizens, he was then turned over to a mob of 1,500 white residents and murdered.â
Posted: Jan 12, 2021 5:00 AM AT | Last Updated: January 12
Mary-Jean Robinson left the hospital sober and moved into a rooming house with a reputation for housing people with drug problems. She said she maintained her sobriety and helped some people along the way, but thinks Miramichi needs a live-in drug recovery program.(Mary-Jean Robinson/Submitted)
Ray Arsenaultâs USFSP students talk about their teacher
The retiring professor taught at the St. Petersburg campus for 40 years.
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Updated Dec. 11, 2020
Ray Arsenault taught thousands of students during his 40 years at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. We asked a few of them for their comments about him. The responses are edited for length.
The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea.
It sounds cliched to say that I would not be who I am today if not for Ray. But the truth fits the cliche here, like Ray to teaching, book writing and a Tampa Bay Rays ball cap. I owe my career and whatever success Iâve enjoyed to his guidance and wisdom, to say nothing of his unsparing generosity. Countless students can say as I can that my life changed in immeasurable ways when Ray became my mentor early in graduate school. Thirty years later, he remains a mentor and always will be.