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| The Petway Family and Cecil Thomas mug shots from July 24, 1961 |
July 24, 1961 – Jackson, Mississippi,
The summer of 1961 is the summer of the “Freedom Riders” when hundreds of
protesters, both Black and White, descended on the Southern states to try and break
the hold of Jim Cros and segregation on the states most determined to keep segregation
as the way of life. The Supreme Court had ruled in the case of Boynton V.
Virginia that laws dictating segregation on interstate travel were unconstitutional
and the Freedom Riders were determined to ensure that the law was enforced. Everyone
who took part had an individual story of those protests, from the tragic events
like the mob beatings of Freedom Riders in the cities of Anniston and
Montgomery Alabama to the mundane of arrests and hearings.
On this day one family attempted to desegregate the municipal airport in Jackson, Mississippi. The
Reverend Matthew Petway and his two children, daughter Kredelle, 20, and son Alphonso,
16. They had flown in from the segregated airport in Montgomery, but the
intention was to test the law in Mississippi. Once at the airport they got off
the plane and headed for the White-only restaurant, only to find it closed.
Then they noticed the heavy law enforcement presence. So, the city knew they
were coming and decided to try to preempt the protest. The family of three
headed for the Whites only water fountain which was when police stepped in and
arrested them for breaking the peace. Cecil Thomas, a YMCA
secretary in Berkeley, California was also arrested. Thomas’ son Steven and friend Tom Schooley
were also on the flight but did not enter the airport and were not arrested.
Reverend Petway had been an
activist since he was discharged from the army after World War Two. He then
settled in Pensacola Florida and married. In 1958 He took on the role of pastor
at the AME Zion Church in Montgomery. In the spring of 1961, he was approached
by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend Ralph Abernathy about doing a “Freedom
Flight” with his two children.
Reverend Petway’s daughter
Kredelle was 20 and a student at Florida A&M University in
Tallahassee, Florida. Kredelle had been very active with the student union
there and was involved in protests for equal rights. She had been exposed to
many of the tactics of law enforcement used in Alabama, fire hoses, and attack
dogs. She had also been arrested. In Montgomery, she worked with her father and
brother as part of the Montgomery Improvement Association’s voter registration
campaign.
Alphonso Petway was 16 at the
time and had not been to a protest actively yet but attended meetings with his
father and had experienced racism as a student in Florida where he had to walk
past a White school to get to his and had often been verbally attacked and
had objects thrown at him. He also was protecting his family, while his father
was out of town, from the Klan.
After being arrested Reverend Petway,
Alphonso, and Thomas Cecil were taken to the Hinds County Jail and Kredelle to
the women’s jail. The family was separated for two days before a bond hearing
and then another day before being released. The Pettways felt fortunate they
said because they did not experience the violence so many others did. The experience
did reinforce their will to see things change, particularly for Alphonso. He
has said in interviews that the “stupid illogic of segregation,” bothers him
still.
A year after the arrests all
charges were dropped. The Petway family didn’t end what they were determined to
do though. Reverend Petway worked on different civil rights campaigns until his
death in 1972. Kredelle went back to college to finish the semester and at that
time got tear-gassed. She married and had three children. In 1967 she went to
work at the IRS and started the subtle work of recruiting more African
Americans to work in the service and push them upward in the administration.
Alphonso followed his father’s footsteps and became a pastor. He also continued
to work with the NAACP and the Poor People’s Campaign. He’s still actively
involved in voting rights.
While men like Mississippi
Governor Ross Barnett tried to keep segregation alive the Commerce Department and the Justice Department
used the Interstate Commerce Act and associated court rulings to end segregated
bus services and segregated airports in 1962 and in 1962 after two civil suits.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-rides
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/desegregation-airports-american-south
https://breachofpeace.com/blog/?p=9
