A ceremony in downtown Rock Hill Thursday honored and retraced the steps of the Freedom Riders, activists who rode buses into the Jim Crow-era South in 1961 to push for desegregation.
Dozens gathered at Fountain Park to honor the Freedom Riders and their descendants. Among those recognized was Robbie Thomas Pemberton, the daughter of original Freedom Rider Hank Thomas, who was arrested for protesting at whites-only lunch counters.
“I celebrate my father being a convict because he made a difference, and he changed the trajectory of the future here,” Pemberton said.
The original group of 13 traveled by bus from Washington, D.C., toward New Orleans to challenge segregation in interstate travel. Their journey was met with violence in places including Rock Hill, where a white mob attacked riders at a bus terminal.
More than 400 Freedom Riders ultimately joined the movement. Among them was Kredelle Petway-Phillips, 85, who flew from Montgomery, Alabama, to Jackson, Mississippi, that year.
“Because we had been refused service in Montgomery and refused entrance into the air terminal in Jackson, Mississippi. They had locked the terminals when we arrived and had a paddy wagon waiting for us there to immediately arrest us,” Petway-Phillips said. “And we were arrested for breach of peace, which was drinking from the water fountain on the outside of the terminal.”
Petway-Phillips said she understood the risks before taking part in the movement.
“I was not fearful because I was prepared for what was to come, so I somewhat knew what to expect, but you still don't really grasp it until it actually happens,” she said.
The Freedom Riders' efforts spurred federal action, leading to the end of segregation in interstate bus travel and terminals later that year. On Thursday, Petway-Phillips and other Freedom Riders were escorted by the O-Six Ryderz, a motorcycle club. Roderick Bell is the club's founder.
"The mindset that I'm gonna travel, you know, across the country basically for the freedom of voting for the freedom of Blacks, for the freedom of these Freedom Riders, just the freedom of people as a whole and how they ran across the challenges of the hostility,” Bell said. "Today, of course, times have changed from 1961 to 2026, and we haven't experienced that, and we don't expect it, but just in case, we want them to feel free that, 'Hey, we're here to protect you, and we're gonna escort you all the way.'”
Event organizer Traci Blackmon said the lessons of the movement resonate today, and part of the goal was to increase voter turnout.
“We must vote in this election. We must vote in this midterm because this midterm will tell this nation what kind of world we want to live in,” Blackmon said.
