By CASSANDRA SPRATLING
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

To those born into civil rights privilege, the struggle for equality that ignited 50 years ago this year may seem like old news. But Hardy and others recall the hostility and hopefulness of those days as if they were just moments past.

It was 50 years ago — the summer of 1961.

At that time, nearly 2,500 blacks in Walthall County, Miss., were of voting age, but none were registered. The majority of the 4,530 eligible white residents in the county were registered.

The Freedom Riders were black and white students, mostly from the North, who rode interstate buses to the Deep South to help end racial segregation in the nation’s transit system.

Actor and retired Detroit teacher, John Hardy, Retired Wayne County Circuit Judge Claudia House Morcom, and Associate Dean for Admissions, Diversity and Inclusion at Wayne State University’s College of Medicine, Dr. Silas Norman recall their time in Mississippi.

Their goal was to give people the encouragement, support and knowledge they needed to register to vote. Many of the black people who lived there were afraid to even try.

To hear more about these Freedom Fighters CLICK HERE to go the complete Freep article