Activist shares story of Freedom Riders at Black History Month event in Markham

MARKHAM, Ill. (WLS) -- Before moving to Chicago in 1963, he traveled across the Deep South, playing a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement of the early 1960s.

Miller Green was a Freedom Rider, a group that challenged segregation on interstate transit in the face of violence and arrest.

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Green shared his story as a Freedom Rider at a Black History Month celebration Saturday in Markham.

"I would say it was the greatest moment of my life, because I saw changes," Green said.

Green proudly recounted the time he spent as a young man, boldly protesting Jim Crow travel laws enforced in the South, despite a Supreme Court ruling in 1960 that said segregated public buses were unconstitutional.

The Freedom Riders consisted of groups of mostly young Black and white students who rode buses through Southern states, challenging segregation in public spaces.

"Really it's not Black history, it's American history," Green said. "You want to know where you came from, in order to know where you're going."

Green came from Jackson, Mississippi, joining the Freedom Riders in an attempt to buy bus tickets in his hometown. He was arrested July 7, 1961. He was just a senior in high school at the time.

"It's an honor. If I had to do it again, I would," Green said. "Somebody has to do it."

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Just two years later, he moved to Chicago, where he remained active in his advocacy for civil rights, and continues to share his story. He did so with a group in Markham, joined together in celebration of Black history.

"He talked about being in a cold dark jail cell and being beaten and being in a bus full of smoke that you could not get out of that was set on fire by a Molotov cocktail, and a lot of people were coming at you to try and kill you," Markham Mayor Roger Agpawa said.

Markham Agpawa said as Green spoke, he envisioned himself experiencing the same circumstances, wondering how he would've responded to the violence.

"I think by him coming here to speak, what it's really done for me as a leader of this city is we have a certain amount of stewardship about what he did, and that we should share that with people in general," Agpawa said.

The Freedom Riders changed the way people traveled and help set the stage for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Most famous among the Freedom Riders was Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who served in the House of Representatives from 1987 until his death in 2020.