Weekly Reflection: Diane Nash – Unwavering Courage and Commitment

Mar 14, 2023

The Weekly Reflections this month honor women leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. Diane Nash was a native of Chicago who experienced the Jim Crow system of racial segregation when she attended Fisk University in Nashville, TN. She became a regular participant in workshops on non-violence by the Rev. James Lawson. Her commitment to non-violent direct action to challenge racial segregation led her to become a leader in both the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins and the 1961 Freedom Rides.

After the lunch counter sit-ins started in North Carolina with the Greensboro Four on February 1, 1960, Nashville soon became a focal point of the ongoing sit-ins that spread across the South. Diane Nash emerged as a leader among the college students in Nashville. In addition to facing verbal and physical abuse at the sit-ins, she famously confronted the mayor of Nashville about the immoral nature of legal segregation. The mayor publicly admitted that the Jim Crow system was not right or moral even though it was legal. By that summer, lunch counters throughout the South were beginning to desegregate. The first video posted below summarizes the contributions of Diane Nash including her famous encounter with the mayor of Nashville.

Beginning in May 1961, the campaign known as the Freedom Rides tested the enforcement of federal law that called for the desegregation of interstate transportation. That law was being ignored throughout the South in favor of ongoing segregation practices. The original two buses of Freedom Riders organized by the Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) were forced to abandon their rides due to attacks on the riders and buses in Alabama, Diane Nash continued her commitment to non-violent direct action by organizing a group of Nashville students to continue the Freedom Rides. Initially the Kennedy administration wanted a “cooling off” period and tried to dissuade the Nashville students from continuing the Freedom Rides. The second video posted below features a former Kennedy administration official reflecting on his encounter with Diane Nash. It highlights the courage and commitment to continue the rides despite violent opposition in the South and the urging of Washington officials.

For her courage, commitment to non-violence, and leadership during the Civil Rights Movement; Diane Nash received our nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The third video posted below shows her receiving that well deserved award. Diane Nash will turn 85 on May 15. Her legacy of courage and commitment needs to be familiar to us today so that we can learn from and follow her example in the ongoing struggle for racial justice.