Veterans of the Civil Rights MovementOconner

At age 19 Claire O'Connor would have considered herself to be an average run of the mill white University of Minnesota college student. A closer look at O'Connor's life however, reveals nothing but the contrary.

O'Connor is a freedom rider. A civil rights activist. A promoter of human equality. When asked what motivated her to participate in the freedom rides O'Connor nonchalantly replied "I was never not socially conscious, and I was never not socially active."

O'Connor was raised in a family where it was natural and normal to be active in fighting social inequality of any kind. "For me it was just a continuation of what I always did." She offered. Someone that she knew in CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) recruited O'Connor to participate in the freedom rides. She explained that in order to be chosen to be a freedom rider, you had to agree to uphold a nonviolent philosophy at all times. "As a person, you didn't have to be committed to nonviolence as a personal philosophy, but you had to be committed to it as a tactic."

Using nonviolence was a crucial strategy in overcoming segregation. In order to get the publicity they needed to bring about public awareness concerning segregation CORE trained the freedom riders in nonviolent tactics. O'Connor participated in such training in Nashville. The first organized freedom ride was on Mother's day in 1961. It was conducted by a group of integrated students whose aim was to test the Supreme Courts ruling of integration of interstate travel. They traveled throughout several southern states facing much resistance "they were stopped several times, the buses were burned, they were beat up and then they would get back on the bus and keep going west." They reached as far as Jackson, Mississippi, where they were imprisoned at Heinz County Jail. CORE decided to support them by bringing about public awareness of this injustice by filling the jail with nonviolent freedom riders. Many wondered why, if the Supreme Court was behind the freedom riders, the FBI didn't stop the police in Jackson. O'Connor believes that it was because of a bargain that Kennedy struck with the governor of Mississippi. "The bargain was, 'we won't enforce integration, if you won't allow violence.'" Because of this "bargain" O'Connor believed that "as long as we were in public view we were relatively safe". Once they reached Jackson, O'Connor was inevitably arrested as she entered the colored person's waiting room. First she was taken to the Jackson City Jail were she was finger printed and held over night. The guards "were rude to us, certainly not friendly" making comments like "boy, I know what I could do to you." Next, O'Connor was transported to Heinz County Jail where she was put in a jail with about forty other white women freedom riders. "The next cell were, oh, another sixty African American women who were freedom riders as well." The jail was crowded, with little room to even sit down, let alone sleep. "We pretty much just talked all day, there was nothing else to do." O'Connor explains "It's a surprise to me now, no tension ever, I never remember hearing a raised voice, it's phenomenal to me now." Upon achieving their objective of filling the Heinz County Jail, O'Connor was moved to the State Penitentiary, two weeks after arriving at Heinz County. The penitentiary was, "like every jail movie you have ever seen." With the huge clanging doors, two to a cell, being allowed out only once a week for a shower, and garbed in denim black and white stripped prison suits. O'Connor recalls that although they were not allowed to see the other freedom riders, they kept their spirits up by singing, even when the guards took away their mats for doing so.

After being imprisoned for 30 days O'Connor was bailed out by CORE and went back to Minnesota to attend to her summer job. Being taken to the airport was, to O'Connor, "the scariest [part] of all". Two FBI agents took O'Connor, along with another black male, whom they transported in a completely different van, "just to segregate us". She describes the agents as "absolutely brutal", they, "shoved me around and manhandled me." When they got to the airport they just dumped O'Connor off, alone, to fend for herself. Being alone, O'Connor was a bit more conscious of where she was and tried to make herself as "inconspicuous as absolutely possible" because "not everyone had a deal with the president (as the guards and FBI agents did)" and isolated, civilian violence was common in the South. O'Connor arrived safely in Minnesota, enjoying her first plane ride and the publicity upon arriving back home.

Today O'Connor still lives in Minnesota and is active and knowledgeable of social movements around the country. She is an amazing woman who is not only brave and admirable, she is also an important reminder that one person can make a difference. For if it weren't for O'Connor and several others like her, standing up for what they believed in, where would we be today in our fight against racial inequality? As Margaret Mead said when asked how one person can make a difference "how else is it done."