When Youth Protest

From an oral history interview with Lucille Green.

G: I think the Youth Movement was very effective in those days. During those times the Youth Movement was very effective because I think it took the young people because they were brave and they were unafraid. I don't believe we could have used anyone else that would have been that brave and courageous other than young people because these were students that came from Tougaloo College and truly from all over; because there were high school students too; because at that particular time my brother was in high school at Brinkley. They were part of the sit-ins with the Freedom Riders. Sure they were arrested. Most times they were. My mom went and got them out of jail.

H: Did she have to pay to get them out or she just went and signed them out?

G: She went and signed them out. And then as soon as she did that those kids went right back. That's when they were hauled off in the paddy wagon down to the Fairgrounds. So these were the experiences that they had. They went through the fire hoses and all of this stuff. I didn't have any of those experiences but my sister and brother did. And I really think that those young people really made a very, very strong impact because they were brave and courageous and they weren't afraid and they weren't easy to turn away.

This oral history is part of a collection from the Jackson Civil Rights Sites Project, Margaret Walker Alexander Research Center, Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi. The interviewer was Dr. Alferdtine Harrison. The date was 1998. To read the full interview, go to When Youth Protest