![]() Many of those interviewed felt that they simply did what “needed to be done,” while others seemed to be conscious at the time that they were participating in extraordinary events. I remember my dad saying the day will come, and when the day comes, you should be ready.” Here too is Alexander Weiss, whose family escaped from Europe in 1940, and who was determined not to be one of those ”good Germans who just looked the other way ” or William Leons, who felt that in confronting the evils of Jim Crow he was living up to the example of his parents, both of whom were sent to concentration camps for their role in the Dutch Resistance during World War II. ![]() In the pages of this book the reader will encounter Jean Thompson, born and raised in Louisiana, whose parents always taught her that the injustice of segregation couldn’t last forever: ”They raised us to be ready. ![]() But this is mainly the story of the quiet courage and principled strength of the ordinary Americans - black and white, male and female, Christian and Jew, Northerner and Southerner, experienced activist and previously uninvolved citizen - who chose this moment in history to stand up against injustice, and put their lives on the line for the ideal of equality. Here the reader can witness the senselessness of segregation, and the brutality of its defenders. Paired whenever possible with a current portrait, taken by photographer Eric Etheridge, as well as basic biographical information and brief personal statements, these mug-shots have been used to create a unique oral history of a great (and terrible) moment in our nation’s history. Taken by the anti-integration Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and preserved in the state’s Vital Records Center, these photographs only saw the light of day again after a protracted legal struggle on the part of the Mississippi ACLU. But what makes them choose to get involved? What makes them decide that this is the moment to take a stand? Breach of Peace seeks to address that question, reproducing the mug shots taken of the Freedom Riders - the Civil Rights activists who descended upon Mississippi in 1961, determined to integrate bus and train stations - who were arrested and convicted of the charge of "breach of peace," and who spent time in Mississippi’s notorious Parchman state prison. What is it that impels people to become involved in movements for social change? That they feel strongly, it goes without saying. The name, mug shot, and other personal details of each Freedom Rider arrested were duly recorded and saved by agents of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a Stasi-like investigative agency whose purpose was to "perform any and all acts deemed necessary and proper to protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi." How the Commission thought these details would actually protect the state is not clear, but what is clear, forty-six years later, is that by carefully recording names and preserving the mug shots, the Commission inadvertently created a testament to these heroes of the civil rights movement.Ĭollected here in a richly illustrated, large-format book featuring over seventy contemporary photographs, alongside the original mug shots, and exclusive interviews with former Freedom Riders, is that testament: a moving archive of a chapter in U.S. ![]() Over 300 people were arrested and convicted of the charge "breach of the peace." The Freedom Riders, as they came to be known, were determined to open up the South to civil rights: it was illegal for bus and train stations to discriminate, but most did and were not interested in change. In the spring and summer of 1961, several hundred Americans-blacks and whites, men and women-converged on Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge state segregation laws.
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