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Charles Person, Youngest of the Original Freedom Riders, Dies at 82
Charles Person, Youngest of the Original Freedom Riders, Dies at 82
In 1961, he and 12 other civil rights activists were nearly killed for trying to integrate interstate bus terminals across the South.
Charles Person at his home in Atlanta in 2011. He was an 18-year-old college freshman when he first became involved in the civil rights movement. David Goldman/Associated Press
By Clay Risen
Jan. 11, 2025
Charles Person, the youngest of the 13 original Freedom Riders who traveled from Washington to Birmingham, Ala., in 1961 in an effort to integrate interstate bus terminals across the South — and who were nearly beaten to death for doing so — died on Wednesday at his home in Fayetteville, Ga. He was 82. … His daughter Keisha Person said the cause was leukemia.
Mr. Person was an 18-year-old freshman at Morehouse College, in Atlanta, when he first became involved in the civil rights movement, joining the thousands of students across the South who were marching against Jim Crow laws and sitting in at segregated lunch counters.
His first arrest, during a sit-in at an Atlanta restaurant, was in February 1961. When he returned to campus, he saw an ad from the Congress of Racial Equality looking for volunteers for a trip by commercial bus from Washington to New Orleans. Along the way, the ad said, they would test a recent Supreme Court decision banning segregation in bus terminals that served interstate travelers.
Because of his age, Mr. Person had to obtain his father’s permission to apply. (His mother flatly refused.) He was accepted, and after training in nonviolent techniques, he and the others — six other Black riders, including the future congressman John Lewis, and six white ones — left from Washington’s Greyhound station aboard two buses.
{snip}
Mr. Person, standing left, with other Freedom Riders and the civil rights leader the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, kneeling second from left, at the Greyhound bus terminal in Birmingham, Ala., after drivers refused to carry them further in May 1961. The Birmingham News, via Associated Press
{snip}
A correction was made on Jan. 11, 2025: An earlier version of this article misidentified the location of the city of Anniston. It is in eastern Alabama, not western Alabama. It also omitted a previous marriage of Mr. Person’s. He was married twice, not once. (His first marriage, to Carolyn Edith Henderson, ended in divorce.)
When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn more
Clay Risen is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk. More about Clay Risen
In 1961, he and 12 other civil rights activists were nearly killed for trying to integrate interstate bus terminals across the South.
Charles Person at his home in Atlanta in 2011. He was an 18-year-old college freshman when he first became involved in the civil rights movement. David Goldman/Associated Press
By Clay Risen
Jan. 11, 2025
Charles Person, the youngest of the 13 original Freedom Riders who traveled from Washington to Birmingham, Ala., in 1961 in an effort to integrate interstate bus terminals across the South — and who were nearly beaten to death for doing so — died on Wednesday at his home in Fayetteville, Ga. He was 82. … His daughter Keisha Person said the cause was leukemia.
Mr. Person was an 18-year-old freshman at Morehouse College, in Atlanta, when he first became involved in the civil rights movement, joining the thousands of students across the South who were marching against Jim Crow laws and sitting in at segregated lunch counters.
His first arrest, during a sit-in at an Atlanta restaurant, was in February 1961. When he returned to campus, he saw an ad from the Congress of Racial Equality looking for volunteers for a trip by commercial bus from Washington to New Orleans. Along the way, the ad said, they would test a recent Supreme Court decision banning segregation in bus terminals that served interstate travelers.
Because of his age, Mr. Person had to obtain his father’s permission to apply. (His mother flatly refused.) He was accepted, and after training in nonviolent techniques, he and the others — six other Black riders, including the future congressman John Lewis, and six white ones — left from Washington’s Greyhound station aboard two buses.
{snip}
Mr. Person, standing left, with other Freedom Riders and the civil rights leader the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, kneeling second from left, at the Greyhound bus terminal in Birmingham, Ala., after drivers refused to carry them further in May 1961. The Birmingham News, via Associated Press
{snip}
A correction was made on Jan. 11, 2025: An earlier version of this article misidentified the location of the city of Anniston. It is in eastern Alabama, not western Alabama. It also omitted a previous marriage of Mr. Person’s. He was married twice, not once. (His first marriage, to Carolyn Edith Henderson, ended in divorce.)
When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn more
Clay Risen is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk. More about Clay Risen