Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 140

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) Bayard Rustin training a room full of Freedom Riders. Wire photo, 8 x 10 inches, captioned in negative, with manuscript date and typed heading "Negroes" on verso; minimal wear. Oxford, OH, 25 June 1964

Additional Details

Bayard Rustin is seen addressing Freedom Summer volunteers who were gathered for a two-week training session at Western College for Women in Oxford, OH. While these students finished their training, the campaign had already launched in Mississippi. Just four days before this photo was taken, Freedom Summer activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner went missing near Philadelphia, MS; they had been murdered by the Klan.

The caption of this press photo reads "Bayard Rustin . . . who led the civil rights march on Washington last summer, addressed several hundred students here today as they prepare to go to Mississippi to assist negroes in vote registration and education. Rustin told the group 'if you think you need a gun to protect yourself, then go home.' Rustin said he will go to Oxford, Miss., Friday for one day to make his own observation of conditions in the state."