Freedom Riders to Discuss Equality, Justice

Robert and Helen Singleton, civil rights activists in the early 1960s, will speak about “The Freedom Riders” Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 3:30 p.m. at the Darling Foundation Lecture Hall in Westmont’s Winter Hall (Room 210) (map). The couple rode buses through parts of the southern U.S. to challenge racial segregation. Westmont’s Intercultural Programs, the Provost Office and the History Department sponsor the lecture, which is free and open to the public. Local students and teachers are encouraged to attend.

Elena Yee, director of intercultural programs, leads the Racial Equality and Justice (REJ) class every spring break to Mississippi and Alabama. Students visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute there, which displays a replica of one the buses that was bombed. “When I found out that there were freedom riders living in the Los Angeles area, I knew I had to invite them to campus,” Yee says.

As students in 1961, the Singletons recruited and joined the freedom riders to test unlawful discrimination in travel accommodations in the south. On July 30, they were arrested in Jackson, Miss. Along with more than 300 freedom riders, they were tried, fined and incarcerated at Parchman Penitentiary. Their actions challenged Mississippi and other southern states to comply with two U.S. Supreme Court decisions ruling racial segregation unconstitutional in interstate travel. This and other civil rights strategies led to enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which helped bring down the barriers to equal opportunity in America.

Robert Singleton, associate professor of economics at Loyola Marymount University, teaches courses about economic geography, labor economics, urban economics, regional economics and local economic development. He earned a doctorate in urban and labor economics at UCLA.

Helen Singleton, policy analyst at RSA, a public policy research and consulting firm, provides strategic planning, project management, fund raising and research services to non-profit organizations and government agencies. She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from UCLA and a master’s degree in public policy analysis and administration from Loyola Marymount University.

For more information, please contact Elena Yee at eyee@westmont.edu or (805) 565-6125.

Here is a recent column by the LA Times' Sandy Banks

Here is a recent story in the LA Times about the screening of the movie "Freedom Riders"