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Lessons from Freedom Riders

By Apoorva Pasricha '14
May 27, 2011

Amy Click '11 recently had the "opportunity of a lifetime" when the Freedom Riders Committee invited her to a conference held in conjunction with the Oprah Winfrey Show's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first Freedom Ride.

Click, who has completed an independent research project on human rights, was among 1,000 students who applied to participate in the Student Freedom Riders Program. As a result of her interest in the program, she was invited to spend a weekend in Chicago meeting the people who were on the front lines of the civil rights movement.

"They have so many lessons to teach our generation about how to take action and how to stand up for things you believe in," Click says of the Civil Rights pioneers. "Hearing a 60-year-old man say 'I haven't been arrested since 2000. It's time to get out there again' was refreshing, especially since he could be sitting comfortably at home reading the New York Times," she says. "The weekend enabled me to understand 'history before history' — talking to people who had no idea that their actions at the time would inspire change and make people look up to them."

With a grandfather and mother who have both worked for social justice, Click's interest in the civil rights movement began at a young age. "It's something I've always been passionate about," she says. "I've seen what some people have had to put up with and it instilled a value in me to stand up for them in a big way." Click hopes to pursue a career in the field of civil justice.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.