American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Mary Jean Smith, 2 of 3

z's and if you're mind as tell that desperate and basically as the main point is the way he got to give them lessons in managing why every year and the morning that i decided to go opec supplies it's big and the ceremony that i went i was on the western us he headed back home after visiting with my mother and behind me in front of me were to make it so media analyst thomas ricks i'm jeff

brady on my way home on the city bus one saturday morning of the twenty seven hours sitting behind to white people there about my age and a listen to a transistor radio announcer say it the freedom riders hours fasting and one of them say the hope of those neighbors back and when she say that something in me too cold and i say that's where i'm supposed to be so i got off jensen straight off a bus near my house and went to the party's as leo can i steal go he say yes he said be back here at five and i went home pack my suitcase cohen my mother she said if you have to go along and that's what fda

we ready were you nervous i didn't know i was a nervous about it was just like hey i'm going you know there was no i can't recall of eleven era was a scarier and i wasn't nervous and it was just like you a piece you know in this one i was opposed dose of this one idea so then you get over and so this says it's okay so about later on that evening i believe it was about that that we caught the greyhound bus bound by way of memphis on into jackson mississippi

there were eight oh for women i mean it was none of us and we just sip when we wanted to know that i see anything to us about a bubble or this cement effect they knew a way we get two methodists we didn't stop at the young at lunch you know the bus station and we when ian i know that if there was not a mob they're waiting for us there was a mild there but they didn't bother us for an embassy in one main he said something i don't know but i know no one bothers because the tv cameras were there and a friend of my girlfriend of the family calm my mother and tell about it's ok she solace on tv so they didn't they did no bottoms of hour after hour of the things that happened before

they were kind of you know still may unseal its it about asked us coming but there was no no fat on this so you do hear our last game is going to want in the city we thought about mississippi you thought about no says whips cotton fields just ended they made you could think of if you want to go you know to see some major mississippi and that was i mean i've never been and if i had never been where half south in my life so were you well as the meeting feeling the mood in the bus and i hear that i'm going to miss the death

at a moment the mood on the bus with a mouse it together here sunday the assignment now on this track to act like it was a moment trip you know of course we know what we were in for we can idea because of people that we knew were there so we knew we knew going to jail just you know how you know if they were gonna beat us up on the way or what but we did and didn't think about i don't know about other people but i didn't think about it because i guess it was i made him a man i was at peace with that era's think he even thinking these days and then you know that we are going

ms lynn yeah when i've been in jail wants so that part didn't bother me the only thing that bothered me was how low were lobbying here in i see my mama you know when she think it's more what i was thinking about what i was thinking i don't think about anything except this kid is done whatever so really truly i'd add momentum problem blank i don't know why you crazy maria year so that's it they do i remember get not because i'm celeste wanted that is again up in the head away from amtrak get mad but it's known say a way home do

not leave me out we did have a number of whack turning in case we get in case we can't fear and are not arrested maybe we've dispersed found mom because we didn't know how i was gonna come off so i hate that phone number with me and them but i get with the rest of the group and kevin pate awaken and went to the city jail now you go through the stage and don't remember i remember getting off i can see is stepping up into the panda where some people say we went through with the well with the pictures and say we had to have gone through something because that was the next step so would get arrested they had but it was

just bam bam bam you know no wait no stoppin his goal here fear into the panda where they still in ulysses and that footage was the point lead to do you feel that you were a soldier for reinforcements and was that wages have waves of people where you feel you know at that point and then slowly and that's what happened they didn't get it once at jefferson and scotty to go to trial would have you can send out some cases is on the net you know and at the next thing you know did you think ok in

jail now tomorrow warm know because we hit the fan was two hundred dollars or sixty days in jail and we chose to sixty days in jail seven a longtime producer as being a breach of the peace process are egyptians we're i mean happy you preach peace when you just peaceful but i guess we'd be if we breached a piece that's what they didn't win as they are so that was the charge regional peace and you know it was illegal because i'm not going to get into the court things that have been previously but interstate travel had been to go matters but it was not being enforced and now certain parts of the south please do you couldn't

go into the white waiting period was sit anywhere you wanted to without being hassled so that part i do and you know it was i really think what they didn't see it that way so that we're in jail here yeah well how though so i was and i think it was the first sale and they were analyst and i wrote down the names of the people in that sale the later round more people may have come into that say oh i don't know about to get out to write it i wrote down the names of the people in the first sales that happened here when they would come and i would know who within them couldn't see them a week of hama back in full so in

the senate who was in and our sales what do you say i mean you just say hey i'm here from silence on solid sullivan we would just talk to the people in my sail the work we would play cards was saying oui pray we do anything we could keep pace to turn a day mr dooley with blue and direct letters we get there were tense when i'm i remember at least one state they were people coming around you are most likely when zoo is you know look in and looked at the overlook the us and we look to its own son but i cannot and the dead may and i always

make about the law and evidently on sundays we have we made any more than on sundays but in one of the letters from my mother she said andrea you steal going to scientists go so evidently we weren't trend to continue as anomalies sibyl and we would someone was gay books in iraq as we did have a moment on wednesday it even have like a couple were certain year we can come here and i'm not only a really a toothbrush toothpaste now i'm not but there were there was the organization that protests too intrusive things i'm not sure how long thick kong was a lamb own animal affected the porch to parchment but some of us aid can i share komen is kind of weird looking birddog

there so we came to be the best move away in greece ate only son every day and i mean he owns we shall overcome daily just about on sheer mood saying until agility you dare will show up in their band the unmatched out that we didn't stop and they pay their low ways of love and threaten intimidate us how will it take on mattresses along in the day ten they want i'm saying and turned back there are you'll be cold at night and hot in the day and we would just wear you know because there was no air and then at night with no mattress if those that have caught when they announce brains those are wonderful laying on the floor and you just froze you know but this what they would

do unknown how much around minute hands the idea that a kid is on defense and then he couldn't couldn't care about really long conversations but at least we could know they were ok and i once went to a fenced in a van and told the girls not to the i can only enhanced can watch one so we don't have that was a great moment it is to me you're trying to keep upbeat and transitioning the case on each letter songs you know could you see anything that you remember you know i can say and i kept saying well and he hated and witness might say

plants holding oh no oh no caveats on the man's holding as one our room key witness it slop out of the race they're now we landed in the agency remember at a light we saw a lot of gospel songs i can't think of too many of them right off that i would want a butcher on to you know

like we i have the father's children home just regular he owns s grant ended up that phone how new york a comedy year is now only for now i mostly step on the floor on a mattress that was first come first serve out and i was i don't remember sleeping on a map they had a copy one night because i was sick i am an emotional need but they lead to sleep under a mattress that night and sweat accommodations media we hung blankets on the sales we've done to get out so that these the jailers couldn't see us when they want to pay as well who tried to wash up what have we couldn't leave them up

but we would put em up among them up to trenton korean sailors the united nations the us the same year is a year we agree is allocated yet here there's the sake of camo in the big star and around wall we did put up sheet oh what am i going to meet to try to yield some tech privacy while we watch if i'm not mistaken a couple of girls might hold one behind you you know so you could at least the covert washed up with to say something to you that way do that well now that the demo after but week could hear them enough we were the first sales of that claim and as they came around the

back some that we hear and we were trying to cope you know i don't think they peaked helps them out say they didn't but as far as i know they did and how we did this you know washed this we could in this way we could because with the st been writing about them bars and the analyst coke plus with the commode making about abolishing the list to go so we turned on the bad at each other in massey on now and i'm sure the rest of the site needs help so i think it is this is passing in the room at the land area one points that's the funny part of the movie that's the fun and heart and nobody remembers but larry

okay the people in the main street on a one person remembers this as meat packing up top two and one night they own holland and said they were going to send us you know i'm not you know just something to keep the morale up and would be ok and so yeah so they may go broke out of a piece of sheet i guess and we could see it come and then return to figure out how can we get in so we read that a room with a piece of whack piece of coat hanger and reef i've been hooked into we fished again and we took the notes were inside of a stock and so we left a broom in the corner

of the sale right there bans sake and went to jail or came down that might make use rams and saudi and it that the raids were reprimanded he ran down the hall a scream and they do and go to america and he did not come back the rest of the night we didn't know will go i have peace that night but he didn't come back it's geared so on what it will spill was at work at it an embedded we'd ever that is no demand on the rim a one man notes in afghanistan that it was a year or so animal waste they probably just hat costs up to keep you know certain night that here ok the gas sales have a deadly were directly above our it's

as though couldn't have been more than one or otherwise it would have been if you do that we would need to hear from i don't know the whole lay out of jail and how many in us sales that were up here but these particular dance were not to make this so than gasoline per se when i am certain notes in a song needed me and i say that that's how you're ok began sales work evidently directly above our seo and one night they decided to send us some notes down on a sheet wrapped in a suburb with stepped in us up

and we read a contraption to put lillian with culhane and a broom and we took the notes at a soccer game to the ticket person who appeared a note and read them left the room in the corner of the jailer saw it and ran down the policy and they would do and voodoo so he didn't bother similar big mac you can't see a limit we were what okay if they get it for their outlets do that you know we were we were able to get letters on from the family in france who have wanted to and there was a group of students the ones at that and receive cars form of most of swat more and they would send us postcards and they will act entails i don't know how

many i get but i think everybody received mail from swat well what do you feel like we're all this is this is a nation of one point about that no one thing about thibodeau as medicare passed you don't think of is it was just something that happened on that i won't get into that because i'm going to tell your whole bunch of stuff ok so it wasn't and if i say something here can't be directly off the rack a lot people came because of fear they feel their place up to secede was gone now that was not the right thing to do but they hear that and you might read some of these books some of the comments they made to

make no can assess where did you come you know to see what was going on get to name the paper mcallister this was not the purpose what do you do and the state came indeed what we want it done no matter what the results of off the record that very much do you want after a while was seen as another story was endemic undiscovered and to put at school no actually obey it i was maybe that's what i guess made it will settle back in jail in new revenue it a very healing for it yeah we're accomplishing something some matters that they're doing something we still hear you know we when we were there for the reasons and we're hoping that the

reason would be just may have been uprooted them not say that right we were hoping that things were gonna work out the way we want them to get a lot of big case things would be you know equal we would be free and that was the main reason for the moment it is victorious and in areas that are well known to steal we still there we still have a lot more sense to do we get the sixty days they can't say i'm going to it's parchment which was canada that was candace scary because parton was a work in prison and an alabama cotton and i was and conoco and inmates suddenly say big chopping cotton they were injured but the mold on austerity and they say that they would not put us in the population because we would

contaminate the other prisoners so we didn't have to work it was that was a scary part i don't want to be working in farm goods and he hadn't been to know that our farm for nowinski or were gone for like it here parton was the worst penitentiary you could go to that we've ever heard of any bad a video watching human eye makeup about parchment as cause that was a big place to go pam and so i think that that the movie crypt hodgman was a big place to go in they would show us the prisoners there will come times a war stripes also with their stripes when a different way and they head comes and they repair

anything tragic skate you know you get you know they would shoot just the fact that they were they were all prisoners to and also ones with the department wasn't convinced that general here it sits in the same numbers he asked the apartment us this and when he sent the parchment for we will go on as they can't threaten the city's to parchment and family one day one night they'd be it became interested in noticeable a truck in the middle of the night and took us to parchment and i'm there would say it and that's where i stayed for the next two weeks