Catherine Burks-Brooks

Catherine Burks-Brooks
Born (1939-10-08) October 8, 1939
Near Selma, Alabama
Occupation Civil rights activist, teacher, social worker, jewelry retailer, and newspaper editor
Known for Freedom Rides

Catherine Burks-Brooks (born October 8, 1939 near Selma, Alabama) is an American civil rights movement activist, teacher, social worker, jewelry retailer, and newspaper editor.[1]

Personal life

Burks was born on October 8, 1939 near Selma, Alabama, she was however raised in Birmingham, Alabama.

Burks was a student at Tennessee State University. Burks was active in the Mississippi movement and was the co-editor of Mississippi Free Press from 1962–1963. Burks taught as an elementary school teacher in 1964. In 1965–1966 she worked as a social worker in Detroit, she later became a jeweler specializing in African jewelry and clothing.[1]

Burks lived in the Bahamas in the 1970s before relocating back to Birmingham, Alabama in 1979.[1]

Burks became a district sales manager for Avon cosmetics in 1982, until 1998. Burks now works as a substitute teacher in Birmingham.[1]

Involvement in the Civil Rights Movement

Burks participated in multiple Freedom Rides including a Freedom Ride from Nashville, Tennessee to Montgomery, Alabama from May 17–21, 1961.[2]

On the second day of the freedom ride, May 18, Burks recalls bantering with a segregationist and Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner, Bull Connor as he drove Nashville freedom riders back to the Tennessee state line from jail. She also recalls telling Connor that "We'll see you back in Birmingham by high noon." [3]

Two days later Burks was caught in the middle of a riot at the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station. In the film Freedom Riders, Burks clearly recalled an assault on fellow Freedom Rider, Jim Zwerg stating "Some men held him while white women clawed his face with their nails. And they held up their little children --children who couldn't have been more than a couple years old – to claw his face. I had to turn my head back because I just couldn't watch it." [3]

She later witnessed a siege of the First Baptist Church by angry segregationists on the following day. Burks recalls "I heard a rock hit the window. Some of us got up to look out the window and we got hit by more rocks. That's when a little fear came."[3]

Later in August 1961, she married Freedom Rider Paul Brooks. They later participated in the Mississippi voter registration movement, and co-edited the Mississippi Free Press in 1962–1963.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Arsenault, Raymond (2 November 2011). Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, PDF eBook Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. Oxford University Press. p. 537. ISBN 9780199792429.
  2. ↑ Cass, Michael (August 28, 2013). "Civil rights advocate Catherine Burks-Brooks would not be moved". The Tennessean. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  3. 1 2 3 "Meet the Players: Freedom Riders". PBS. PBS. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.