To Be Ordinary is a Mental State, Anyone Can be EXTRAordinary!

I read the American Legacy article on the Freedom Rides of 1961. The goal of the rides were to challenge segregation on interstate buses and terminals thourghout the South, which would accomplish a desgregating of bus depots, train stations and airports from Virginia to Texas.There were several bus bombings that took place to discourage the Freedom Riders from their tactics. One in particular was in Anniston, AL and these distracting acts simply encouraged the Freedom Riders to continue on their plight of transportaion freedom.Many riders were arrested in Jackson, MS when the Freedom Rides would go through that section of Mississippi. Rather than posting bail, the riders elected to stay in jail. The activists were relocated ot Parchman, a notorious maximum security prison. Half of the prisoners were Black and other half was White, 40% were between the ages of 18 & 21, and there were a 1/4 women. Despite the deplorable conditions, activists "organized study hours, fashioned chess sets out of paper and bread and sang freedom somgs to boost morale," (American Legacy,38).

__________________Eric Etherige, one of the original Mississippi Freedom Riders decided to photograph 100 people from the Freedom Rides in a book, titled Breach of Peace: Potraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders. Etherige took current photos of the irders and set them against their mug shots when they were booked in Parchman Jail of Mississippi. He also asked them why they participated in the rides when the reprucussions were known.One of my favorite to read was that on Frank Halloway. He stated:

"Nonviolence wasn't necessarily a way of life, but it was a tactic. We felt like it was a tactic that worked...I didn't feel like anybody needed to reward me or congratulate me or pat me on my back. I did what I felt like I had to do."--- Frank Holloway

__________________This excerpt proves how being ordinary IS a mental state. As corny as it sounds, you are what you YEARN to be. No one can make you do anything. No once can force you to advocate something you don't care for. But trust, when you feel an urgency to push for something that is against the current status quo, it will hit you so hard like a bag of solid bricks to your abdomen. You will push so hard to see the bearing of the fruit of your beliefs.