To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original Freedom Rides, Wang will join 39 other college students tracing the path of the Freedom Rides.
Zilong Wang, 19, a second-year at Hampshire College will travel from Washington D.C to New Orleans as a Student Freedom Rider. He will be posting, blogging and tweeting on his trip thanks to a WiFi enabled bus.AMHERST – To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original Freedom Rides, Hampshire College student Zilong Wang will join 39 other college students on a 10-day trip from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, tracing the path of the Freedom Rides.
The Student Freedom Ride coincides with the release of Freedom Riders, a film by director Stanley Nelson, premiering on PBS’ American Experience on May 16.
“To understand where you come from, you need to go to the most opposite place to feel the shock,” said Wang, a second-year student.
On May 4, 1961, seven black and six white civil rights activists tested segregation laws by boarding interstate buses headed for the South. This form of protest grew in popularity and often resulted in arrests and violence towards the riders.
Wang, 19, an incoming student trustee, was selected out of 1,000 applicants from throughout the world.
“It’s a wonderful way for an international student to go into the deepest, and continuing, struggle of this country,” Wang said.
One of the trip’s themes focuses on the role of social media, like Facebook and Twitter, as a catalyst for social change. The application process asked students to explore their own thoughts on the topic. In Wang’s essay he discusses how critical a role technology has played in social and cultural struggles, citing examples in Iran and Egypt. But he also notes it is equally, if not more, important how users wield the technology itself.
“Eventually, it is not the technology that matters – it is the people. If people remain the same, our society will not go forward. Technologies are here. Now, it’s our role to make technology and social media work for the greater good of the society,” Wang wrote.
Wang studies history and philosophy with a concentration in the Future of Energy. He was born in Inner Mongolia, China, and completed his high school education as an exchange student in Germany.
“In China my first exposure to the civil rights movement was 'Forrest Gump.' A lot of people wouldn’t say it’s the most accurate, but it introduced me to the energy of the ‘'60s,” he said.
Wang says he has a more thorough education in social media than he does in the civil rights movement, but he says he has been “doing my homework and learning Freedom Riders songs and reading the book the movie was based on.”
Along the way the Student Freedom Riders will stop at Morehouse College in Atlanta with original Rider Bernard Lafayette, visit Montgomery’s First Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. and 1,500 others were rescued from a mob by the Kennedy administration, and attend a presentation at Vanderbilt University’s First Amendment Center. The trip will culminate in New Orleans with a public rally to welcome the Student Freedom Riders and the originals from 50 years ago.
As the bus makes stops on the historic route to visit memorials and meet with original Freedom Riders, student participants are encouraged to use social media to blog and post about their experiences through the WiFi available onboard the bus.
The Student Freedom Ride is not just a chance for personal education and discovery for Wang. He hopes he can make waves internationally.
“My intention is to start a dialogue between Chinese and American youth. There is so much misunderstanding, unnecessary misunderstanding,” he said.
Wang not only hopes to gain greater insight into the civil rights movement, he also seeks to develop a better understanding of the South as a whole.
“The South is invisible from international news coverage. There is no accurate image of the South,” he said.
For Wang, following the historic route of the Freedom Riders will provide a fresh perspective, much like coming to Western Massachusetts and Hampshire College as an international student. He is eager for the semester to conclude so he can board the bus, like countless others did in the 1960s, and “feel the shock.”