Veterans of the Civil Rights MovementJForman

"There’s always a choice. Racism was the cause. We all die, so it’s just a question of how and when. I decided to die for my people," said James Forman as he and his fellow picketers were about to be beaten by an angry mob of 3,000 in Monroe, North Carolina.

Forman had gone to Monroe, North Carolina to assist Robert Williams in support of the Freedom Rides. He was with a group of picketers in the square when a group of young black Monroe youth came to watch. A mob, including the Klu Klux Klan, gathered, grew tense and soon converged on the picketers and black youth. Four cabs arrived to pick up the picketers, but Forman realized the young Monroe youth were unprotected and in danger. He made the decision to put the youth in the cabs and the picketers, including him, would have to wait for other cabs, if they came at all. The angry crowd converged on them. Forman was beaten and imprisoned many times for supporting equal rights.

Forman born October 5^th, 1928 in Chicago spent his early childhood living on a farm in Marshal County, Mississippi. At the age of six he moved to Chicago with his parents. He served in the Air force during the Korean War after high school and then went to college to become a teacher.

February 1, 1960 had a profound affect on Forman. It was a turning point, which made him eager to go south and work on voting rights. September of 1961 to 1966 Forman was the Executive Secretary of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He was a substitute teacher at Paul Cornell Elementary School in Chicago when the Freedom Rides began. He and his students followed the Freedom Rides and sent letters of encouragement to imprisoned riders. James Farmer was the only freedom Rider to receive one of these letters and it was from Forman. Forman made preparation to go south and help organize and support the movement to end segregation and the lack of voting rights for Black and poor white people.

Many things influenced Forman’s career, as a Civil Rights Leader. He was influenced by his experience as a young boy in a drug store in Tennessee." I couldn’t do certain things because I was a Negro." He also related that he grew up as a socially concerned individual and lynching was a very serious problem. Forman wrote his first novel, The Thin White Line, which purpose was to summarize his experience and motivated people to end segregation. He was also influenced by his study of Mahatma Gandhi’s book about freeing India from British servitude.

Forman Believes the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s was effective because today we have tremendous changes taking place. There is an increasing number of black elected officials. In 1974 there were less than 400 black U.S. officials and now eight to nine thousand elected black officials. In 1971, a black person in Jackson Mississippi couldn’t even pass a leaflet out on a corner but today we have a black Mayor. You have other black officials though out Mississippi and the south as well. These are out-standing tributes to the work of many people, some who gave their lives in the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1961 there was segregation in interstate travel. Now any one that comes to the U.S. can travel here because it has broken down barriers even on television. Football, basketball and all kinds of sports teams are all participating in a non-segregated manor. Both things occurred primarily because of the Equal Rights Movement. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was a tremendous step forward for everybody throughout the world and especially here in the U.S.

A social issue that Forman is still working on is the right to vote for the District of Columbia. He related that even though people there can elect officials they cannot vote in the Senate or House of Representatives. While the people of D.C. pay taxes, they are taxed with out representation. The majority of the people are black and Democrat.

When asked about Total non-violence to bring about social change, Forman stated that there was no such thing as total non-violence because there could be no violence in people’s thoughts, actions, and the system they are trying to change could not react to them in violence, which is impossible. He quoted Mahatma Gandhi saying, "Before he would see the Indian people in servitude under British Colonialism, even though he advocated non-violence, he would prefer them to take up arms to help liberate themselves."

James Forman has written seven books and encourages the reading of The Making of a Black Revolutionary, which is a biographical account including the Freedom Rides of the 1960s. Forman recently attended the 40^th Reunion Celebration of the Freedom Rides on November 11, 2001 and expressed extreme gratitude to Freedom Riders for having participated in such an event that cause the people of Mississippi to live a much better life. Forman said, "Everybody in the world has a choice to do or to die, to help and the more people that try to help to change these things, the better off it is for everybody."