VA Senate Honors Joan Mullholland, 81, A '60s Freedom Rider, for Her Civil Rights Work

ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — Age 81 now, Joan Mulholland of Arlington, at 19, was a student at Duke University in North Carolina, when she attended a clandestine meeting between Black and White students for Civil Rights and soon found herself a Freedom Rider in Mississippi. She sat in at lunch counters with Black and White students protesting segregation and was attacked by an angry White mob, images in a news photo shown round the world.

She was thrown into jail and months in Mississippi’s Parchman Prison, where she says they housed her and other White female protesters on death row “trying to frighten us.”

Civil Rights journey, Mulholland says she made many friends from John Lewis to Stokley Carmichael. She decided to integrate all-Black Tougaloo College in Mississippi by transferring from Duke. She joined Delta Sigma Theta sorority, “some of my best friends are AKA but you know it’s all good.” These days with the number of Civil Rights activists dwindling, she’s one of the relatively few early ones still alive. “The friendships we made were wonderful. If we run into each other now it’s like old home week,” she said.

She’s getting more and more accolades. The Virginia Senate honored her for her Civil Rights work. DC’s School Without Walls at Francis Stevens is honoring her with a program Tuesday night. Her son Loki Mulholland has produced a documentary on her life and helped establish the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation on Civil Rights in her name. Does she believe she made a difference? “I helped make a difference but I didn’t do it alone, we’ve come a mighty long way but we’ve still got a mighty long way to go” she said. --- https://wjla.com/news/local/civil-rights-virginia-senate-honors-joan-mulholland-81-1960s-freedom-rider-john-lewis-arlington-mississippi-parchman-prison-duke-university-tougaloo-college-dc-school-without-walls-francis-stevens-joan-trumpauer-mulholland-foundation-stokley-carmichael