WASHINGTON — When filmmaker Loki Mulholland decided to make a documentary听about his mother’s role in the civil rights movement, he tricked her into the听project.
Originally, he planned to tell the stories of four civil rights activists in the听鈥�60s — including Joan Trumpauer Mulholland. He soon realized, however,听that his mother’s experiences were far too rich to be limited to part of a听documentary. So he got right to work on his new idea.
“At that point, I never told her there [wasn’t anyone] else in the film 鈥� I didn’t听want听her to back out of it. I [thought I’d] just ask for forgiveness later,” Mulholland听says.
It wasn’t until the cameras started rolling that Mulholland heard the full story听of his mother’s participation in the movement, including dangerous run-ins with听the Ku Klux Klan, multiple arrests and a famous photograph that’s used to teach听school听children about one of the most controversial times in our nation’s history.
“My mother never told me the stories. All I ever knew were the pictures,”听Mulholland says.
A White Southern Woman Takes on Civil Rights
Loki Mulholland’s documentary, “,”听chronicles his mother’s active involvement in the civil rights movement.
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland was born in 1941 and was raised in Arlington, Va.,听during听the years of segregation. She says she was always aware of segregation, but didn’t听realize the extent of its disparities until she was about 10 years old.
Trumpauer Mulholland was visiting relatives in rural Georgia when she dared her听friend Mary to walk through the town’s black community — a highly audacious act听for a young, white Southern girl.
“So we left our bikes and went for a stroll and it was just so blatant, the听difference. I mean, the white section was poor enough — we’re talking dirt roads听and water from the [well] — but it was just so much worse in the black community,听and the school is what really hit me,” says Trumpauer Mulholland, who still lives听in Arlington.
“The black school was just an unpainted shack, for lack of a better word. A听one-room schoolhouse up on stone piles 鈥� outdoor plumbing and what looked like a听potbelly stove for heat 鈥� It just really hit me, right then, just how unequal听things were.”
Back in Northern Virginia, the conditions appeared to be better than rural听Georgia, but segregation was still obvious. A wall by an Arlington hospital听separated the neighborhoods and drivers often “locked the car doors” when听traveling through certain neighborhoods off Lee Highway, Trumpauer Mulholland听says.
When it was time for college, Trumpauer Mulholland went to Duke University.听Contrary to her parents’听wishes, she invested her time in more than just schoolwork; she began听participating in the segregated school’s sit-ins.
“I think my thinking was propelled in this direction by being sort of a听literalist. We memorized Bible verses about how to treat each other and we had to听memorize the Declaration of Independence back then, and we didn’t practice what we听preached,” she says.
At Duke, Trumpauer Mulholland was one of two white women involved in the听nonviolent protests — the other being her roommate. Other white women supported听the effort, but because they were from the South, they felt they couldn’t fully听participate.
“They couldn’t endanger their family that way, but they could slip us some money听on the side,” Trumpauer Mulholland says.
In her first year of college, Trumpauer Mulholland was arrested twice. She听remembers the first time clearly.
“[My roommate] and I got back after dark from jail and 鈥� there was a note that we听were to report to the Dean of Women,” she says. “She opened the door for us to her听office and then she took out her keys and locked the door and sort of jiggled the听keys and put them back in her pocket. I just remember that so vividly. And she听tried to get us to agree that we wouldn’t do this anymore 鈥� Oh, and [she asked],听鈥楬ave you called your parents?'”
Trumpauer Mulholland’s mother, being from the Deep South, did not react well to听the situation. Her father, a government bureaucrat, thought change should start听at the top, not with sit-ins.
But change did start to take place on the ground. One year after her protests, she听says, the all-white听male Duke听football team joined the picket line.
Getting Involved in the Movement
After her first year at Duke, Trumpauer Mulholland retuned to the D.C. area and听became active in NAG (Non-Violent Action Group) and Howard University’s sympathy听picket group.
“The fact that I had experience in sit-ins, was arrested twice and was from听Arlington, where they were planning to go the next day, that made me particularly听welcome,” she says.
Trumpauer Mulholland participated in sit-ins throughout the area, including one at听the People’s Drug Store whites-only counter on Lee Highway and at the Woolworth’s听in听Shirlington. Within a couple of weeks, the drug stores desegregated and protesters听took听to their next cause. One was at Glen Echo Park, where Trumpauer Mulholland would听show up听after work to picket.
Being white, she bought a handful of听tickets for the park’s carousel ride and handed them out to black protesters who听were not allowed to purchase tickets.
As Loki Mulholland states in his documentary, there is a back of a line, and a听back of a bus, but there
is听not a back of a carousel.
“Folks, ticket in hand, got arrested on the merry-go-round,” Trumpauer Mulholland听says.
Also present at those protests were American Nazi groups. At the time, Trumpauer听Mulholland didn’t digest the lurking danger, although it most likely wouldn’t have听stalled her actions.
“I just wasn’t worried about that one way or the other. I suspect at some level, I听knew it could be dangerous because most of my relatives were in the Deep South and听I’d heard them talk plenty. But no, I wasn’t worried about dying,” she says. “Fear听paralyzes you and keeps you from doing what you need to do, from thinking what you听need to think, to be as safe as you can do to deal with the situation.”
Because her involvement with the movement was not approved by听her parents, she moved out of their home and lived in an apartment on V Street NW,听near听Howard University. That summer, she also decided she didn’t want to go back to听Duke, which in 1961 began to integrate a few black students into its graduate and听professional听schools.
“This is not integration: Students, just a few at a time going through this. Real听integration has to be a two-way street,” she says.
So she applied to the historically black college Tougaloo, a “movement college,”听in听Jackson, Miss. The school’s charter was older than the segregation laws, so听Trumpauer Mulholland was allowed to attend. She was the first white student to听enroll at the college.
Getting down to Tougaloo, however, was a little more challenging than she could听have predicted.
Arrests and More Protests
Trumpauer Mulholland decided to catch a free ride down to Jackson. She flew from听D.C. to New Orleans with CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) to help keep the going. But before she could offer much on-ground support, she听was arrested 听after getting off 听a train in Jackson.
Or, as she says, “The state of Mississippi put me up for the听summer.”
Even though she is able to talk about the experience with a chuckle now, her听summer was anything but听lighthearted. After some time at the Hinds County Jail, Trumpauer Mulholland was听transported to the听Mississippi State Penitentiary Parchman.
“We wanted to believe we were coming out of this alive and in one piece, but it听was one of the legends听of brutality,” she says about Parchman in “An Ordinary Hero.”
She essentially slept on death row with other civil rights activists, where she听shared a tiny, bare cell with a few other women.
“I think once or twice a week we got showers,” she says.
Instead of posting bail, Trumpauer Mulholland worked her time off at Parchman.
“The idea was to make it as expensive and as inconvenient for the federal听government,” she says.
Her days were organized into a routine of quiet time, singing, exercise, a lesson听of some sort听and meeting to pray once a week with a rabbi. After roughly two months, she was听released听shortly before the start of school.
A Day That Goes Down in History
As expected, Trumpauer Mulholland remained active in the community and in civil听rights during her first few years at Tougaloo. And a sit-in in 1963 turned her听into听a more prominent figure in the movement.
Michael J. O’Brien, author of 听听explains that听Jackson’s Capitol听Street was an area home to segregated businesses and shops; it was also home to听boycotts.
“It was demeaning for blacks to go to Capitol Street, but they wanted to have听access to the wonderful things that were there,” says O’Brien, whose book details听the historical Woolworth’s sit-in in Jackson.
On May 28, Trumpauer Mulholland was “spotting” some protestors on the picket line听on Capitol Street. However, the protestors were quickly arrested, and the protest听fizzled out. So she went down to the Woolworth’s where a sit-in听was taking place.
The sit-in started around 11 a.m. and was relatively quiet in the first hour,听O’Brien says. But around noon, things started to pick up when the lunch crowd came听in and when the local high school was released early after exams.
Two black women and one black man sat at the counter; all three were violently听pulled off听their stools. When Trumpauer Mulholland spotted a knife in the听crowd, she yelled to her friend, “Annie, he’s got a knife!”
“That sort of really identified me, so it was safer [for me] to sit at the听counter, which was sort of the idea anyway, because you don’t want to get stuck in听the crowd and pulled out of the store to who knows where,” Trumpauer Mulholland听says.
She eventually took a seat at the counter and was soon dragged out. The man who听grabbed her was arrested and Trumpauer Mulholland made her way back into the store听and sat back down at the counter.
“When Joan sat down, she was the first white person to join the demonstration and听for whites who had always been taught that was totally off limits, when they saw听that, it sparked something in them that they just couldn’t live with,” O’Brien听says.
Civil rights activist John Salter, who was not black, came into Woolworth’s and听took a seat at the听counter as well. He was hit with brass knuckles; condiments were poured on his听head and cigarette butts were put out on his neck.
All the time, the manager of the Woolworth’s refused to close the store, and听police remained on the outside the store for the three-hour event, due to a听Supreme Court decision听a few weeks before which ruled police had to be invited to stop a protest by the听store manager.
The media were also present at the sit-in to capture the rowdy crowd. One of the听photos taken on that day by Fred Blackwell is one of the most recognized photos听from听the civil rights movement era.
“When I first met Joan and her kids, the kids would always say, 鈥楳y mom’s in a听famous picture,'” says O’Brien, who met Trumpauer Mulholland several years ago in听Arlington.
“This photograph has now become an iconic photograph 鈥� It shows how angry and听difficult and complicated a mob can become when this is allowed to happen.”
Trumpauer Mulholland says the photo shows a lot of emotion without a whole lot of听violence, making it easier for school children to absorb and digest — one听explanation for why it’s in听school history books.
For son Loki Mulholland, the photo was just how he identified his mother growing听up.
“By the time I graduated from high school, I knew my mother had been involved in听the movement, and we were familiar enough with that, but not necessarily the听details with the story. That’s just what mom did 鈥� The sit-in photo became her听prom photo for us 鈥� It’s just mom,” he says.
Shortly after the Jackson Woolworth’s sit-in and the riots in Birmingham, Ala.,听President Kennedy called for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was eventually听signed into law by听President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964.
The Never-Ending Fight for Human Rights
For Trumpauer Mulholland, the battle for civil rights hasn’t stopped.
“It’s not over 鈥� We’re still working on it,” she says.
And while she’s not manning the barricades and standing on the picket line,听she still remains active in igniting change through education.
“Now, speaking to groups and trying to pass it forward 鈥� I think that’s my role听now,” she says. “Our ideas of issues has broadened and what we have done had been听adopted by people all over this country and all over the world 鈥� Now it’s become听downright fashionable to call out an issue.”
O’Brien says, “I think it needs to be said that clearly, thanks to what Joan and听others did back听in the 鈥�60s, things have changed dramatically for our society. Obviously, they’re听not perfect. But when you go back to Mississippi today, there are blacks in every听level of government and business, in ways that just couldn’t be imagined back听then.”
And while a 10-year-old’s daring walk through a black community opened her eyes to听racial inequality, Trumpauer Mulholland says her motivation to ignite听change stemmed from the fact that she’s a Southerner.
“I was a Southerner; no two ways about it. I think that’s what brought me to听it — that the South should be the best that it could be and maybe people would听quit听looking down on us,” she says.
Her son highlights her philosophy with a quote in the film.
“You have to pick your battles. Mine was the Southern way of life.”
Watch the trailer for “An Ordinary Hero” below:
