Freedom Ride

04/26/2023

One of the many, many, many contributions Harry Belafonte made to the Civil Rights Movement was almost single-handedly funding SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, in 1961. After the two original buses from the CORE Freedom Rides were attacked in Alabama and the original riders flown to New Orleans, it was SNCC that insisted on continuing the rides, SNCC that stood up to the Kennedy administration, and SNCC that helped encourage hundreds of volunteers from around the country to travel to the south and fight for--and ultimately achieve--the desegregation of interstate travel.

In an interview for the "Eyes on the Prize" documentary series, Belafonte said, " There was really no, not, no, no aggressive voice doing for us what youth felt should be done. So I was very satisfied that, ah, SNCC served a very important dimension to the movement, that they were going to become the provocateurs. They were going to become the radical voice. They were going to become the voice of non-compromise, which I felt was vital to the movement."

My opera Freedom Ride tells the story of a young woman who is drawn into the Civil Rights Movement in the summer of 1961 and makes the difficult decision to risk her life traveling to Mississippi as part of these Freedom Rides. I named her Sylvie.

Provided to YouTube by RCA/LegacySylvie · Harry BelafonteBelafonte℗ Originally released 1956 . All rights reserved by RCA Records, a division of Sony Music E...

10/13/2022

"SNCC’s meetings would go on for hours, and sometimes for several days. Dissents were thoroughly aired and examined. The participants strived not for a majority view but for some kind of consensus about the way forward.

Movement leaders used the meetings to explore their differences in agonizing detail. They did this because it was a movement maxim that if you were asking people to put their lives on the line — and they were — then it was essential to hear out their concerns. 'When you’re really honest with yourself, and honest with other people,' Diane Nash later said, 'you give yourself and them the opportunity to solve problems, using reality, instead of lack of reality. That makes problem solving much more efficient.'

The point of departure for the movement’s meetings was a strong sense of strategy. The US military teaches at its war colleges that strategy is a matter of weighing ways, means, and ends. I think that formula fails to address the most basic question that should be the beginning of strategy: Who are we, and what are we trying to do? Once you define yourself, the path to strategy becomes clearer, and from that should flow tactics that enable you to achieve your goals.

Nash, a brilliant strategist, stated that she and her comrades defined themselves as people who would rather die than continue to tolerate segregation. 'What we did in the South,' she explained, 'was change ourselves from people who could be segregated into people who could no longer be segregated. The attitude became ‘Well, kill us if that’s what you’re going to do, but you cannot segregate us any longer.'"

Dissent in the 1960s was carefully planned in sessions where leaders could air genuine disagreement.

07/08/2022

Diane Nash played a major role in the coordination of the Freedom Rides and was a tremendous inspiration for the opera. Congratulations to her and civil rights attorney Fred Gray on receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom today.

Diane Nash and Fred Gray were two of 17 people awarded the nation's highest civilian honor at the White House Thursday, July 7, 2022.

10/08/2021

Thrilled to see so many friends and uch great New Orleans talent represented here, including composer Terence Blanchard, tenor Chauncey Packer, and linked to the article (just click on the underlined text "history of Black opera," Givonna Joseph and Aria Monette and everyone at OperaCréole.

Two critics discuss Terence Blanchard’s “Fire,” the Metropolitan Opera’s first work by a Black composer.

06/06/2021

"The police protection that he pledged for Freedom Riders in Montgomery in 1961 did not materialize, and he blamed the victims for beatings inflicted on them by a white mob. He threatened to arrest federal marshals who interfered with local law enforcement, and insisted that civil rights protesters and “outside agitators” caused riots."
. .

"On May 20, 2011, a group of 10 former Freedom Riders, Black and white, returned to Montgomery after 50 years to be hailed as civil rights heroes and to dedicate a museum at the old bus station where they had been beaten by a white mob.

Mr. Patterson was there to greet them. In 1961, he had called them agitators and fools. A half-century later, he joined in praising the stalwarts. “It took a lot of nerve and guts to do what they did,” he said."

He welcomed the Klan and refused to integrate schools, forging a path that would be followed by Gov. George C. Wallace.

06/02/2021

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/02/magazine/rfk-freedom-riders-struggle-racial-justice-1961/

Sixty years ago, the Freedom Riders risked their lives to defend their rights. The law was on their side, but as an excerpt from a new book shows, Robert Kennedy’s Justice Department learned the law didn’t always matter in Alabama and Mississippi.

05/05/2021

04/11/2021

Thank you to everyone at New Orleans Opera Association for the opportunity to talk about Freedom Ride!

12/23/2020

Julius Rosenwald's daughter was Edith Stern, and it was her and her husband's estate, Longue Vue House and Gardens, that originally commissioned the first few scenes of Freedom Ride.

The Jewish philanthropist established thousands of schools for African-Americans neglected by their public school systems.

12/20/2020

"After the Graetzes returned to Montgomery in 2005, she went back to school to complete her studies, attending Alabama State University, a historically Black college. She graduated in 2015."

I love the thought of this amazing woman finally receiving her degree in elementary education at the age of 85.

With her husband, Robert, Mrs. Graetz became a friend of Rosa Parks and supported the Montgomery bus boycott, despite threats to her life.

12/03/2020

A stunning and truly haunting collection of photographs.

Vestiges of racism and oppression, from bricked-over segregated entrances to the forgotten sites of racial violence, still permeate much of America’s built environment.

11/30/2020

Tomorrow evening at 7:00pm EST, Encore Opera Theatre will be presenting a recital that will feature soprano Sierra Kemunto Hammond singing an aria from Freedom Ride. The performance is free, but please consider donating a few dollars to Encore Opera Theatre if you can. Hope to see you there!

https://www.facebook.com/events/133008718315282
https://www.encoreopera.org/

Encore Opera Theatre is an opera performance group in the Northern, Alabama area. www.encoreopera.org