-Lizette Avalos
***The writer is enrolled in Comm 240 News Reporting.***
In the 1960s, Diane Nash began inspiring the people around her. Fifty years later, and she’s still at it. On March 27 Nash visited Fort Hays State University to talk about the civil rights movement in America and her role in it.
Nash was only 22 years old when she quit school at Fisk University to become a civil rights advocate full time.
“We are the age she was when she started making an impact—we can learn a lot from her,” said Alexis Mesmer, senior, after the event.
Nash said she was hired by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to plan the Freedom Rides. Freedom Rides consisted of civil rights activists riding buses into the segregated southern states to challenge laws requiring segregated public buses. After the arrests of some riders and the burning of a Freedom Ride bus, news of the movement reached U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
“Who the hell is Diane Nash?” Kennedy is reported to have asked his assistant, John Seigenthaler, after the news of the bus burning spread.
Nash said Seigenthaler then called her to persuade her to stop the Freedom Rides. Nash quoted him as saying, “Do you understand you are going to get someone killed?”
Nash said she simply responded by saying she knew someone would be killed, but violence wouldn’t stop the movement and that every rider had signed his or last will and testament before boarding the buses.
Nash said she was arrested many times, but that never discouraged her. During the Question & Answer segment following her presentation, Nash was asked if she ever just wanted to quit.
“That was not an option. It meant having to tolerate segregation,” Nash said, Something she wasn’t willing to do.
She added that the “choice is to tolerate behavior or change the relationship” when referring to her decision to advocate for change.
“She was so inspirational. We all need to take action and start making the changes we keep talking about,” Mesmer said.