04/04/2026
A young woman sits perfectly still. Her eyes are down, her hands folded. Behind her, two people are pulling her hair and blowing smoke directly into her face. She is learning how not to flinch.
This photograph was taken by photojournalist Eve Arnold at a 1960 nonviolence training session in Petersburg, Virginia, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), one of the major civil rights organizations of the era. Founded in 1942, CORE had dozens of chapters around the country by the early 1960s, many of them on college campuses. Because CORE frequently used civil disobedience to challenge segregation, they held trainings like this one to prepare activists -- many of them high school and college students -- for what they would face.
The students in Petersburg called the sessions "social drama." They subjected each other to a full repertory of what awaited them: smoke blown in their faces, hair pulled, chairs jostled, coffee spilled on them, hit with wadded newspaper, and a stream of racial slurs. Anyone who got mad flunked.
They would need every bit of that training. One of CORE's most famous initiatives, organized with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), were the Freedom Rides of 1961 during which mixed race groups of civil rights activists would ride buses into the segregated South.
During the first ride, the Freedom Riders were met with savage violence in Alabama -- a mob firebombed one of the buses outside Anniston and riders were severely beaten in Birmingham. When the original group was forced to abandon the ride, SNCC leader Diane Nash organized new volunteers to take their place.
Her response was unequivocal: "We can't let them stop us with violence. If we do, the movement is dead." Throughout the summer of 1961, more than 60 Freedom Rides crisscrossed the South with an estimated 436 riders participating -- about 75% under the age of 30.
During their rides, the activists also challenged other forms of discrimination they encountered, sitting together at segregated lunch counters, restaurants, and hotels. This proved especially effective when they targeted large chains -- fearing boycotts in the North, the businesses began to desegregate. But the harassment the activists endured was relentless: food and drinks poured on them, cigarette smoke blown in their faces, beatings, and mass arrests. More than 300 riders were jailed in Jackson, Mississippi, alone.
The violence went far beyond humiliation. Riders were beaten nearly to death at bus stations while police deliberately looked the other way. Others were dragged from lunch counters and kicked in the street. In some cases, local police not only refused to intervene -- they joined in, or handed activists over to waiting mobs.
That is what this photograph is really about. Not the provocation -- but the quiet, extraordinary discipline of refusing to meet hatred with hatred. That young woman, eyes down, absorbing abuse she did not deserve so that she could be ready when it mattered -- she was not alone. Hundreds of young people just like her chose to sit still while the world tried to break them, and in doing so, they broke segregation instead.
To view more photos from the period, a collection of sit-in photos can be found at http://bit.ly/1tOXwEY and a collection of Freedom Ride photos can be viewed at http://bit.ly/1pUh9Vu
To introduce children and teens to many heroic girls and women who fought for equal rights, check out our blog post on "50 Inspiring Books on Girls & Women of the Civil Rights Movement" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=11177
For Civil Rights Movement-themed books for readers 4 to 8, we recommend "I Am Rosa Parks" (https://www.amightygirl.com/i-am-rosa-parks-1), "Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins" (https://www.amightygirl.com/freedom-on-the-menu), "White Socks Only" (https://www.amightygirl.com/white-socks-only), and "The Story of Ruby Bridges" (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-story-of-ruby-bridges).
For older readers, we recommend "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" for 10 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/claudette-colvin-twice-toward-justice), "Remember: The Journey to School Integration" for 9 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/remember), "Fire From The Rock" for 12 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/fire-from-the-rock), and "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" for 12 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/warriors-don-t-cry).
For adults who would like a deeper understanding of the Civil Rights Movement, we recommend the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Parting the Waters" at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780671687427 and http://amzn.to/2qBN30Z
For more Mighty Girl stories that explore racial discrimination and prejudice, visit http://amgrl.co/2wE6Jbl
