Old Greyhound Bus Station (Jackson, Mississippi)
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Jackson Greyhound Bus Station
| nrhp_type = cp
| partof = Farish Street Neighborhood Historic District
| partof_refnum = 80002245
| image = File:Greyhound Bus Station, Jackson Mississippi 1939-12-22.jpg
| caption = Greyhound Bus Station, Jackson Mississippi, December 1939 ([https://www.flickr.com/photos/mississippi-dept-of-archives-and-history/8758711973/ MDAH photo])
| location= 219 N. Lamar St., Jackson, Mississippi
| coordinates = {{coord|32|18|06.6|N|90|11|08.2|W|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin = Mississippi#USA
| map_label = Jackson Greyhound Bus Station
| map_caption = Location in Mississippi##Location in United States
| built = 1938
| architect = W.S. Arrasmith or Mahan & Van Powell
| architecture = Streamline moderne
| restored = 1989
| restored_by = Robert Parker Adams
| area =
| governing_body =
| designated_nrhp_type = March 13, 1980
}}
The Greyhound Bus Station at 219 N. Lamar St., Jackson, Mississippi, was the site of many arrests during the May 1961 Freedom Rides of the Civil Rights Movement. The Art Deco building has been preserved and currently functions as an architect's office.
Construction
In 1937, Greyhound Lines contracted for a new bus station in Jackson, Mississippi. Incorporating a streamlined style and vertical, illuminated "Greyhound" marquee, it is unique for its structural glass exterior. When operating as a bus station, the building included a coffeeshop and bathing facilities.{{cite web|title=Greyhound Bus Station Historical Marker|url=https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=82000|accessdate=4 April 2018|quote=The Jackson station was built from 1937-1938. This is the only station that William Strudwick Arrasmith designed with a structural glass faced exterior. Originally, the interior had a coffee shop with a horseshoe-shaped counter. The men's room had a shower, while the women's room had a bath tub.}} Sources differ on whether the station is the work of W.S. Arrasmith or George Mahan Jr. and Nowland Van Powell of Memphis, Tennessee.{{cite web|title=Greyhound Bus Station, December 22, 1939.|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/mississippi-dept-of-archives-and-history/8758710403/in/photolist-ekYFVp-ekYFyp-ekYFsk/|website=Flickr|accessdate=5 April 2018|language=en-us|quote=George Mahan Jr. - Nowland Van Powell Architects, Memphis Tenn.}}
Freedom Ride to Jackson, Mississippi
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States, in 1961 and subsequent years, to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions which had ruled segregated public buses to be unconstitutional.
Jackson, Mississippi was planned as a stop on the Freedom Rides of May 1961. On May 28 that year, nine Freedom Riders arrived at the Greyhound Bus Station. Other groups had arrived four days earlier. Upon arrival, riders would seek access to facilities denied to non-whites, such as waiting areas designated "Whites Only." During the next four months, 329 people were arrested in the town, half of them black and half of them white, with a quarter being women. Part of the Freedom Riders' strategy was to overwhelm Jackson city jails by refusing bail. When Jackson's jails were full of riders arrested at Trailways and Greyhound facilities, Freedom Riders were transferred to Parchman penitentiary.{{cite book|last1=Arsenault|first1=Raymond|title=Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice|date=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199755813|pages=[https://archive.org/details/freedomriders1960000arse/page/325 325]|url=https://archive.org/details/freedomriders1960000arse|url-access=registration|quote=Parchman prison restaurant.|language=en}}
Preservation
File:Jackson December 2018 20 (Old Greyhound Bus Station).jpg
Located within the southeast boundary of the Farish Street Neighborhood Historic District, the building was acquired by architect Robert Parker Adams in 1988; his firm restored the station's exterior and interior.{{cite web|title=Tour "The Dog"|url=http://www.robertparkeradams.com/tour.html|website=www.robertparkeradams.com|accessdate=4 April 2018}} The state of Mississippi has placed an explanatory marker at the site.{{cite web|title=Civil Rights: The Mississippi Freedom Trail|url=http://visitmississippi.org/things-to-do/history-culture/civil-rights/|website=Visit Mississippi|accessdate=4 April 2018|date=14 September 2017}}
See also
- Farish Street Neighborhood Historic District, Jackson, Mississippi
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- [https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=82000 Greyhound Bus Station - Mississippi Freedom Trail] in the Historical Marker Database
- [http://www.robertparkeradams.com/tour.html Tour of restored building], by Robert Parker Adams, Architect
- [http://visitmississippi.org/things-to-do/history-culture/civil-rights/ Mississippi Freedom Trail]
- [https://www.mississippimarkers.com/civil-rights.html Mississippi Historic Markers]
- [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Farish+Street+Historic+District,+Jackson,+MS/@32.3066432,-90.1919463,16z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x862833ab2531ddbd:0x8b0d12f3b7839231!8m2!3d32.3063602!4d-90.1881358 Google Map of Farish Street Neighborhood Historic District]
- [https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/close-up-view-of-a-plaque-designating-the-historic-news-photo/907883900#closeup-view-of-a-plaque-designating-the-historic-greyhound-bus-as-a-picture-id907883900 Photo of historic plaque]
{{Civil rights movement}}
Category:Civil rights protests in the United States
Category:Bus stations in Mississippi
Category:African-American history of Mississippi
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Jackson, Mississippi
Category:Civil rights movement
Category:Bus stations on the National Register of Historic Places