Freedom Rider Joan Browning

Between May and December 1961, 436 Freedom Riders participated in 60 different Freedom Rides across the South and succeeded in taking down the “white” and “colored” signs in transportation waiting rooms and on trains and buses. At the age of 19, Joan Browning was one of four white southern females who participated in the Freedom Rides. Browning became involved in the Freedom Movement in 1961, working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee after being forced to leave Georgia State College for Women (GSCW) for “dangerous activities” such as attending an African American Episcopal Church across the street from GSCW in Milledgeville and attending an interracial Christian conference in Augusta. She volunteered for the December 1961 Freedom Ride from Atlanta to Albany, Georgia, where she and her fellow riders were arrested and jailed, a precursor to the Albany Movement. She continues her work for freedom and justice, writing and speaking nationally and serving on the West Virginia Human Rights Commission.