Please note: The exact date of the events being discussed is unknown. This interview was recorded in June 2021.
Description
In this moving interview with Robert Martin-Schreiber of the BRCSJ, 97-year-old retired schoolteacher Louise Jones recounts a pivotal and harrowing afternoon in April 1947. Then a student at the famously progressive Black Mountain College, Jones describes the moment the campus was called together to provide sanctuary for Bayard Rustin and his fellow activists. Her description is visceral; she recalls seeing the men arrive after being brutally beaten by police for sitting in the "wrong" sections of a bus, noting that the blood running from their noses reminded her of the violence she saw on her father’s farm. This first-hand account provides a human face to the 1947 Newspaper Report detailing the arrests and legal persecution Rustin faced during this period.
Jones emphasizes that Black Mountain College served as the "only safe haven" in the Carolinas where this interracial group could rest, eat, and sleep together without the threat of further violence. She describes the atmosphere on campus as one of profound sadness and tears, but also of deep admiration for the courage displayed by Rustin. This encounter served as the catalyst for Jones’s own lifelong commitment to justice, transitioning from a witness of violence to an active participant in the "professional" side of the movement, including decades of voter registration and community service in Memphis.
The testimony highlights the human cost of the "Journey of Reconciliation," a detail often sanitized in history books. Jones reflects on the "meanness" of the era but balances it with the inspiration she drew from Rustin’s refusal to yield. Her story bridges the gap between the spontaneous courage of the 1940s and the structured social work and educational activism she pursued for the following 70 years, embodying the spirit of "angelic troublemaking."
Historical Context
The 1947 Journey of Reconciliation was a direct-action campaign organized by CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation to test the Supreme Court’s ruling against segregated interstate travel. While the riders faced frequent assaults, the specific violence Louise Jones witnessed occurred after the group was attacked in Chapel Hill. The physical state of the riders upon their arrival at Black Mountain College explains the urgency behind A. Philip Randolph’s Statement in Defense of Bayard Rustin, as leadership fought to protect activists who were risking their lives in the field.
Black Mountain College occupies a unique place in this history. As an experimental, liberal arts college in North Carolina, it was one of the few institutions in the South that operated as an interracial space before desegregation was mandated. By providing a "safe haven" for the riders, the college risked state-sanctioned retaliation, yet it provided the necessary logistical support for the activists to recover and continue their mission. Jones’s account clarifies that the "First Freedom Ride" was not just a political experiment but a physical ordeal that required a network of hidden sanctuaries to succeed.
In the decades following this event, Jones relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, where she became a social studies teacher and a member of the NAACP. Her trajectory reflects the broader shift in the movement that Rustin often championed: the movement from protest to politics. Her work in the Democratic Party and in teaching her students to "get out and vote" illustrates how the shock of witnessing Rustin’s 1947 beating was transformed into the steady, disciplined work of community building and electoral mobilization during the height of the Jim Crow era.
Jones, Louise. "Interview with Robert Martin-Schreiber." Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice Digital Archive, June 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKcQA6mRcp4.
