Freedom Rides Come to Life for Xavier Students

Last week, for the second year in a row, Xavier history students participated in the Gilder Lehrman history institute at the Notre Dame School of Manhattan. Notre Dame’s history department extended an open invitation for Xavier students to visit the traveling Freedom Rides exhibit displayed at their campus.

Mr. Michael LiVigni, Mrs. Eileen Carty, and Mr. John McGoldrick brought students to view the exhibit, which explored the series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. Mrs. Carty and Mr. Patrick Mahon also brought three sections of AP US History students to hear Dr. Clarence Taylor, a Baruch College professor and author of Civil Rights Since 1787: A Reader in the Black Struggle, as he spoke about the integral role of the Freedom Rides in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Dr. Taylor was very impressed by the attentiveness and the quality of their questions,” Mrs. Carty said.

Xavier High School thanks the Notre Dame School of Manhattan for the invitation and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History for an excellent program.