Breach of Peace by Eric Etheridge (2008)

Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders by Eric Etheridge was published by Atlas & Co. in 2008. It has a preface by Roger Wilkins and a foreword by Diane McWhorter.

First a few words about the contributors:

** Eric Etheridge, who was born in 1957, grew up in Carthage and Jackson, Mississippi. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he has worked as an editor at a number of magazines, including Rolling Stone, 7 Days, the New York Observer, and Harper’s Magazine.

** Roger Wilkins is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and distinguished professor of history at George Mason University.

** Diane McWhorter is the author of the book Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama – the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution (2001, 2013)

Now a few words about the book:

Breach of Peace is a hardcover book published in a large format. According to Amazon, the dimensions of the book are as follows: 2.3 x 0.3 x 3.1 cm. This is nonsense. The real dimensions of the book are as follows: 23 x 2.5 x 31 cm. As for the first and the last figures, it seems Amazon simply placed the dots in the wrong place. As for the middle figure, it seems something else went wrong. I do not know what. The book is not 3 cm thick, only 2.5 cm. I mentioned this flaw to Amazon some time ago, but so far the false figures have not been corrected.

PART ONE

The Freedom Riders are civil rights activists who travelled on interstate buses from the North to the South in 1961 in order to test and challenge the rules of segregation in the South. The Freedom Rides lasted for four months, from May to September 1961.

In his introduction, Eric explains that he was only four years old in 1961, so he has no personal recollection of what happened during the Freedom Rides. In 2004, when he saw the mugshots of the arrested Freedom Riders for the first time, he was inspired to study this case in great detail. This book is the result of his investigation.

In 2005 he began to locate former Freedom Riders. He continued until 2007. Whenever he was able to locate a former Freedom Rider, he would ask him or her for an interview. Most of them agreed. When he showed up at their place, he would do an interview and at the end of the interview he would take a photo (in black-and-white).

Breach of Peace is a giant photo album of the Freedom Riders. It has all the mugshots and, for the Freedom Riders Eric found, it also has information about what happened to them since 1961 and a new photo.

PART TWO

In his introduction, Eric offers some statistics. The number of Freedom Riders is 310. To this number must be added 18 others who were arrested for similar offenses at the same time. This gives a total of 328 mugshots.

How old were they? Most were young: 40 per cent were between 18 and 21; and 75 per cent were between 18 and 30. Where did they come from? From 39 US states and from 10 other countries, counting by their place of birth. What about colour? 50 per cent were black, while 50 per cent were white. What about gender? 75 per cent were male, while 25 per cent were female.

About 80 had passed away when Eric began looking for them. So far he has found and contacted more than one hundred. Most of them have been interviewed. A few did not want him to take their picture. This means there are about 140 who have not yet been found. He hopes the publication of this book will mean that some of them will try to get in touch with him, now when they know he is working on this case.

The mugshots and facts about later events are presented in chronological order, based on the time of arrest, going from May to September 1961. At the end of the book there is an index. There is no bibliography.

What about the title of the book? Why is it called Breach of Peace? The answer is that the activists were arrested for breaching the peace. The police were very careful when they chose this reason. They did not arrest them for violating the laws of segregation, because if they had done this, the Freedom Riders would be able to challenge their arrests on constitutional grounds. It seems the authorities knew they were skating on very thin ice when they made these arrests.

PART THREE

Segregation on interstate buses had been outlawed by a Supreme Court ruling of 1946, but many southern states simply ignored this ruling. Later, another ruling declared that this ruling covered all facilities connected with interstate travelling, i.e. the bus station including restaurant, cafeteria, waiting room, and bathroom.

The Freedom Riders wanted to test these rulings. When they arrived at a bus station, they would enter the white waiting room. The police would ask the black riders to leave. When they refused, they were all arrested for breaching the peace.

Southern states responded to the Freedom Rides with a high level of violence. The policemen were often extremely aggressive. It was more than that. Some white vigilantes wanted to give the Freedom Riders a “personal” and “warm” welcome and the police often allowed them to do this for about 15 minutes before they stepped in, not (of course) to save the Freedom Riders from the thugs that were beating them up, but to arrest the Freedom Riders for breaching the peace.

The Southern authorities had hoped a harsh response to the first riders would stop the operation, but they were wrong. The Freedom Riders did not want to stop, because this would send the wrong message to the world. When one group was arrested, another group would soon be on its way. They kept coming.

In Mississippi, the authorities decided to send some of the Freedom Riders to Parchman Prison, which was known as one of the worst prisons in the US. It was a scary experience for the riders, but the operation was still not broken. In the end the Southern states had to give in when the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) issued a ruling that banned segregation in all facilities serving interstate passengers.

CONCLUSION

This book is a tribute to the people, who actually carried out this operation, who risked their lives in order to do the right thing, who suffered, who were beaten up, and who were imprisoned under miserable conditions. These people are, as Roger Wilkins says in his preface, “true American heroes.”

The 1961 Freedom Rides is an important chapter in the history of the US civil rights movement. In this book you can meet them, one by one, and you can find out what happened to some of them since the dramatic days of 1961 when they became part of this significant chapter of US history.

This beautiful book with fascinating photos and interesting text about the courageous Freedom Riders is highly recommended.

PS. For more information, see the following documentary films:

** Freedom Riders (2011). This film is an episode in the long-running program American Experience

** An Ordinary Hero (2013). This film is a portrait of Joan Mulholland, one of the Freedom Riders whose portrait and story appear in Eric’s book.

*****

Breach of Peace: 
Portraits of the1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders,
By Eric Etheridge,
Hardcover, large format, 240 pages,
Atlas & Co., New York, 2008

*****