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Who was Joan Mullholland?
Who was Joan Mullholland?
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Joan Trumpauer Mulholland (September 14, 1941) was a civil rights activist in the United States during the 1960s. She was one of the
Freedom Riders arrested in Jackson, Mississippi in 1961, and spent two months in the Mississippi State Penitentiary's Maximum Security Unit (also known as 'Parchman Farm'). She was the first white student at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, the following year, and served as the regional secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
She went on to become a teacher and, after retiring, founded the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation. The foundation's mission is to
educate
young people about the Civil Rights Movement and how to become community activists.
Duke University had two campuses, one for men and one for women. Women flocked to join a sorority in the first and second weeks of
school. Mulholland and her roommate were indifferent and instead attended another International Club function. Because this was unusual behaviour for Duke, a therapist was despatched to the women to see whether they were distressed.
Mulholland took part in the first of numerous sit-ins in the spring of 1960. Being a white southern woman, her
civil rights involvement was misunderstood. After her initial arrest, she was labelled as
mentally unstable and sent in for examination. Mulholland wore a skirt with a deep, pleated hem to hide paper that she crushed until it was soft and then folded neatly out of fear of being robbed. Mulholland was able to create a diary about her adventures on paper, which she still has. She describes what they were fed and how they have sung
virtually all night in this diary. She has indicated that she had a lot of support from
Duke University's academics, but not from the administration. She dropped out of
college in the autumn after being pressured by the Dean of Women to stop her activities.