Riders on the Rides

Jesse Davis: “I Was Feeling Free.”

In Paperback, Riders on the Rides on 12 September 2018 with Comments Off on Jesse Davis: “I Was Feeling Free.”

The new edition features 16 additional Riders I found (or who found me) after the first edition came out in 2008. I was especially happy to add Jesse Davis, from Jackson, Mississippi. A number of the Riders arrested in Jackson were locals — from somewhere in the state — but as a group they proved […]

Why I Rode: Henry Schwarzschild

In Oral History, Riders on the Rides on 4 April 2015 with Comments Off on Why I Rode: Henry Schwarzschild

Henry Schwarzschild was arrested with eight other Riders at the Trailways station in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 21, 1961. He was 35 years old. He died in 1996, at 70, several years before I started my project, so I never got to meet him, or even learn much about him. But preparing for the 50th […]

Southern Chivalry Is Not Dead

In Riders on the Rides, Violence on 20 February 2012 with Comments Off on Southern Chivalry Is Not Dead

If Virginia does mandate vaginal ultrasounds be performed on women who want abortions, it will join the ranks of seven other states that currently impose the procedure. Surprise, surprise, five of them are southern — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas — and the other two are southern wannabes — Arizona and Kansas. But then […]