collection of portraits by Charlotta Janssen

1. The Freedom Riders Portraits by Charlotta Janssen www.charlottajanssen.com

3. Bernard Lafayette Jr. (20) Arrested May 24 1961, Jackson MS 22" x 28", acrylic, oil, iron oxide & collage

4. Rip Patton (21) Arrested May 24 1961 Jackson MS 22" x 28", acrylic, oil, iron oxide & collage “ I met him at Mountain Film, and then again at a brief pit-stop at an airport. He pressed a book in my hand of Eric Etheridge which got me. I studied the mug-shots from 1961 for hours. He said that Freedom Riders need to be mentioned with their names and faces, that they were very young and that in my show I really need to include the very young kids from Jackson, because it took a lot of courage for them to stand up. He said newspapers didn't want to show that white people were involved in this movement, but that I should. I'm grateful for his wise words.”

5. Genevieve Hughes Not Arrested, though she insisted, because her father was friends with Bull O Conner 22" x 28", acrylic, oil & iron oxide

6. Joan Trumphauer Mulholland (19) Arrested June 8, 1961 Jackson, MS 48" x 72", acrylic, oil, iron oxide

7. Frances Wilson (22) Arrested May 28 1961 Jackson, MS 22" x 28", acrylic, oil & iron oxide

8. Rev. James Lawson (32) Arrested May 24, 1961 Jackson, MS 48" x 72" Acrylic, iron oxide, oil, edding, collage “ He was the teacher of the core group of Riders. He had spent a long time in India with Gandhi.”

9. John Lewis (21) Arrested May 24 1961 Jackson, MS 22" x 28", acrylic, oil & iron oxide “ After reading his biography I feel like I know him. I hope to meet him. I love his happy smirk, but it was anything but a laughing matter, if you know what he had just been through.”

10. Fred Shuttlesworth Arrested May 25, 1961 Montgomery, AL 22" x 28" Acrylic, iron oxide, oil, edding, collage

11. Ralph D. Abernathy Arrested February 21, 1956 Montgomery, AL 48" x 72“ Acrylic, iron oxide, oil, edding, collage

12. Wyatt Tee Walker Arrested May 25, 1961 Montgomery, AL 22" x 28“ Acrylic, iron oxide, oil, edding, collage

13. William Sloane, Coffin Arrested May 25, 1961 Montgomery, AL 22" x 28“ Acrylic, iron oxide, oil, edding, collage “ A few months after I finished this portrait, I got an email: I loved the painting you did of my father.”

14. Carolyn Reed (21) Arrested June 2,1961, Jackson MS 48" x 72", acrylic oil, iron oxide & collage

15. David Fankhauser (19) Arrested May 28, 1961 Jackson MS 48" x 72", acrylic oil; iron oxide & collage “ Online I found a great candid description of his experience on his web page. Westbrook Pegler was the only journalist who could visit them. He tried to prove that the Freedom Riders were actually communists and had an easy way of figuring out someone was or wasn't a communist: he'd hold a few dollar bills into their face and ask them if they believed in money. If the answer was no, they were a communist. Fankhauser skirted the subject and eventually gave up and tried to test other Freedom Riders. In his account he wrote he had never seen an article by Westbrook Pegler after and that he was curious what he had written about. In my research I had found one and sent it.”

16. Judge George Bundy Smith Arrested May 25, 1961 Montgomery, AL 22" x 28“Acrylic, iron oxide, oil, edding, collage “ When I met him, he shared the article: Head their Rising Voices, an add that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference had taken out, asking the north for help and support. He said Rev. Bill Coffin had given it to him and that he had long wanted to go down and participate. He too came to my first serious opening on this subject matter and shared his experience.”

17. William Harbour (19) Arrested May 28, 1961 Jackson, MS 48”x72” acrylic oil, iron oxide & collage “ His brother told me he still keeps a tin of Parchman prison biscuits. After his incarceration he had to stay away from home for about two years. What a price to pay for a young man.”

18. Gainnel Hayes (15) Arrested July 9, 1961 Jackson, MS 48”x72” acrylic oil, iron oxide & collage

19. Charles Cox (18) Arrested July 13, 1961 Jackson MS 48" x 72", acrylic oil, iron oxide & collage

20. Catherine Burks-Brookes (21) Arrested May 28, 1961 Jackson MS 48" x 72", acrylic oil, iron oxide & collage “ I met her at mountain Film. She feels very determined, and confident in her mugshots. She now has very wise and kind eyes and is very outspoken about social injustices.”

21. Pauline Knight-Ofosu (20) Arrested May 28, 1961 Jackson MS 48" x 72", acrylic oil, iron oxide & collage

22. Jorgia Siegel (19), Arrested June 20, 1961 Jackson MS 48" x 72", acrylic oil, iron oxide & collage “ She has such an innocence about her. It completely defies how serious things were.”

23. Hank Thomas (19) Arrested May 24, 1961 Jackson, MS 48" x 72", acrylic, oil, iron oxide

24. Hilmar Pabel (50) Arrested July 29 Jackson, MS 48" x 72", acrylic, oil, iron oxide “ The only lonely German Freedom Rider. His daughter told me, this was really important for him to go down with a friend. He gave his film secretly to a friend when he was arrested and wrote his story down on toilet paper. He was bailed out as a journalist, but judging by the magazine he worked for, this wouldn't have fallen into his scope of reporting. Only 13 days later the wall in Germany went up, segregating us between east and west.”

25. Eddie Austin (18) Arrested June 8 Jackson, MS 48" x 72", acrylic, oil, iron oxide

26. James Bevell (24) Arrested May 24. Jackson, MS 48" x 72", acrylic, oil, iron oxide

27. Joseph Charles Jones Arrested May 25 196 Montgomery, AL 22" x 28“Acrylic, iron oxide, oil, edding, collage “ I contacted Charles Jones late in 2009 and we had a cry in when we first met, that wasn't the last cry in either. I visited him in Charlotte NC and he graciously helped me understand what that time felt like and what they fought for: the beloved community. He came to my first serious opening on this subject, shared his experience and has been near and dear to me ever since.”

28. Cordell Reagon (18) Arrested June 2, 1961 Jackson, MS 48" x 72", acrylic, oil, iron oxide “ This man (he really was a kid then) founded the Freedom Singers after his experience in Parchman prison”