Joan Trumpauer Mulholland  (1941 - )

At the age of 10, while visiting her grandmother, a friend “dared” her to walk over to the side of town where Black residents lived.

There, she saw an entirely different world than the one she knew, according to writer Kaleena Fraga. “I could see with my own eyes the difference between the Black school and the white school,” she said. “That really struck me.”

After seeing the inequalities, she vowed then to make a difference.

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You may have seen her images floating around on social media.

One of the images is a mugshot, showing a young, white woman. She was 19 at the time. She didn’t look like she belonged in prison, but there she was, on Death Row, subjected to physical and psychological abuse at a high-security prison.

Another iconic image shows the segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter, where a group of men is pouring sugar, ketchup, and mustard over the heads of demonstrators. The protesters were doused in food, cut with broken glass, hit with brass knuckles, and burned with cigarettes, while the police stood by.

She recalled, “They called me ‘race traitor.’”

Like John Lewis, she always seemed to be getting in “good trouble.”

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland is a Civil Rights Icon who participated in over 50 sit-ins and demonstrations by the time she was 23 years old,” according to the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation.

“She was a Freedom Rider, a participant in the Jackson Woolworth’s Sit-in, the March on Washington, the Meredith March and the Selma to Montgomery March. For her actions she was disowned by her family, attacked, shot at, cursed at, put on death row and hunted down by the Klan for execution. Her path has crossed with some of the biggest names in the Civil Rights Movement: Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis, Diane Nash and Julian Bond.”

It was as a Freedom Rider that she was imprisoned for refusing to leave a bus waiting area. She and others were taken to Parchman Penitentiary in Mississippi, a jail in the Delta, not far from where Emmett Till had been murdered.

“Since there was no women’s wing of the prison then, she was housed on death row for two months and kept in a cramped, segregated cell with 17 other women,” according to the Arlington Public Library.

In May 1963, Mulholland, John Salter, and Anne Moody participated at the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in in downtown Jackson. For three hours, they were subjected to what is often considered the most violent of the sit-ins.

She and four other activists were also stopped by the KKK as they left Canton, Mississippi. The Klansmen surrounded the car and beat the driver. “That night on the road out of Canton,” Mulholland said, “we were all convinced that it was the end.”

“Luckily Mulholland and her friends were able to escape, but not without some consequence,” according to the National Museum of American History. “An informant within the KKK later confirmed that their assailants had been ordered to kill them and because they weren’t successful, the Klansmen killed three other civil rights workers: Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman.”

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Joan Trumpauer was born on Sept. 14, 1941, and spent her childhood in the segregated city of Arlington, Virginia.

“Her mother, a segregationist from Georgia, descended from enslavers,” according to writer Jasmine Daniel. “Despite this, Mulholland developed a keen awareness of the systemic racism that surrounded her daily life and a desire to stop it. She secretly attended integrated Bible studies that expanded her worldview and solidified for her the belief that all people are “God’s children.”

She would become a Freedom Rider, knowing full well her actions could lead to being assaulted, arrested or, at worst, killed.

She was featured in the PBS documentary, “Freedom Riders”, as well as an award-winning documentary produced by her son, Loki Mulholland, entitled “An Ordinary Hero: The True Story of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland (2013).

She is a recipient of the 2015 National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award.

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Today, at the age of 80, she’s still fighting for equal rights, wrote Fraga.

In an interview Aug 24, 2021, she said, “Part of the reason why we still speak today is because many can’t, they were killed and some were permanently damaged from the movement.”

In 2014, she founded the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation, dedicated to involving new generations in activism and social justice.

The goal for the foundation is to provide learning materials for schools to educate the students on the part of American history that is often "misunderstood or skipped over".

“Racism is a learned behavior. Adults and children alike can benefit from a change in perspective and an increased awareness of the past,” according to the Foundation.

“I want to show the younger folks that you can do something that will have an effect,” she said in 2015. “It’s just a matter of starting.”

“Even if it’s no more than speaking up a little bit when someone says something you know is wrong. If you see a problem in your own place, do something."

"If it’s, say, a Muslim woman being hassled for wearing a hijab, walk with her, befriend her,” she said. "When you see racism or discrimination of any sort, speak up.”

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“Anyone can make a difference,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how old or young you are. Find a problem, get some friends together, and go fix it. Remember, you don’t have to change the world … just change your world.”

 

 

AWARDS

• 2015 National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award

• 2018 “I Am a Man” Award, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated

  • Annual Award of Honor
• 2019 International Civil Rights Museum Trailblazer Award
• The Anti-Defamation League Annual Heroes Against Hate Award.

 

 

 

JON S. RANDAL PEACE PAGE

https://www.jonsrandalpeacepage.com/about/

“I am a writer, who enjoys sharing what I have learned. I hope to encourage understanding, share awareness, and promote love, peace, and hope for all. ” Jon S. Randal 

 

For more information about The Joan Trumpauer Mullholland Foundation, see the listing in our Resource  Library   womensvoicesmedia.org