JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – They were beaten, arrested, and called traitors, but they refused to back down from the fight for civil rights.

Rims Barber and Joan Trumpauer Mulholland didn’t just watch history unfold in the 1960s — they risked everything to change it. The two white allies stood alongside African Americans fighting segregation in Mississippi when schools, restaurants, and stores were divided by race.

African Americans and whites couldn’t eat, shop, or even interact with one another in the segregated South. They weren’t allowed to.

Seeing these injustices, Barber and Mulholland left their homes and came to Mississippi. The two could have stayed silent; instead, they became targets. Mobs attacked them, and police arrested them. But they say it was all worth it.

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland’s fight for equality

“I knew when I had the chance to do something to make the South the best it could be for everybody, I would seize the moment,” Mulholland said.

For Mulholland, that moment came when she enrolled at Tougaloo College in Jackson in 1961. She saw integration happening at other schools and wanted to integrate a historically Black college and university. Coming from Virginia, she rode Freedom Rides down to Mississippi.

Mulholland saw the brutal reality of segregation in the South firsthand.

“I knew this was not right. This was not doing what we learned in school about treating people the way you want to be treated,” she said.

One thing crossed her mind: “This has got to change. Somebody’s got to get out there and do something, might as well be me.”

Mulholland wasted no time getting involved. One of the most notable demonstrations she took part in was the Woolworth’s sit-in in 1963. Hungry for change, she and three African American classmates sat at an all-white lunch counter. The goal was to expose and put an end to racial discrimination. But it came with a price.

“We got pulled off the stool, drug to the door of the store, we got loose, and then we got back to the counter, then one of our professors joined us,” Mulholland said.

A large and angry mob of white people gathered around them. Then things quickly turned violent.

“What were they dumping on us? Everything they could get their hands on. Ketchup, mustard, all the condiments,” she recalled. “Memphis Norman, the only guy, got kicked to where he was bleeding out of every whole on his head.”

Mulholland knew participating in sit-ins and fighting segregation in the South was dangerous. But she didn’t let fear stop her.

“I say fear will get you killed. Sooner or later you’re going to die, it may as well be for a cause you believe in,” she said.

Rims Barber’s work with the Freedom Summer Project

Rims Barber also refused to let fear stop him.

“I knew that I was followed sometimes by people, but I didn’t know who they were, and it was their problem if they wanted to kill me,” he said.

He traveled more than 12 hours from Iowa to work with the Freedom Summer project in 1964. Barber was assigned to Canton and helped African Americans register to vote. His work played a role in President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.

“The white power structure was overcome by the number of Black votes and it made a difference in who was the police chief, and who was the superintendent of schools,” Barber said.

He also worked alongside Representative Robert Clark, who was the first African American elected to the state legislature since Reconstruction.

They helped create a statewide head start program, ensuring poor African American kids were ready for school, had healthy meals, and basic medical services.

While fighting for change, Barber faced resistance, especially from people who looked like him.

“White people just didn’t want to stop and talk to us at all,” he said.

No regrets, continuing the fight

Despite arrests and attacks, Barber and Mulholland both say they have no regrets. They take pride in being allies. If they had to do it all over again, they would.

“It wasn’t all me by a longshot, but I’m glad I was able to help,” Barber said.

“I was here to do a job and be with people to ensure their trials and their victories, so I had to keep on going,” Mulholland said.

More than six decades later, Barber and Mulholland are still fighting, just in a different way.

Seeing history starting to repeat itself, they now spend their time educating the younger generation. They teach the importance of standing up for what’s right, and not staying quiet in the face of injustice.

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