On October 11, 2023, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland and Loki Mulholland presented “Get Back to the Counter: Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement” as part of the History Is Lunch series.
In 1961, nineteen-year-old Joan Trumpauer Mulholland was arrested in Jackson as a Freedom Rider and spent two months in Parchman Penitentiary. After she was released Mulholland enrolled at historically Black Tougaloo College, becoming the first white woman to do so. She would go on to become the local secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was a central figure of the Jackson Woolworth’s Sit-in. By the time she was 23 years old, Mulholland had participated in more than fifty sit-ins and demonstrations, including the March on Washington, the Meredith March Against Fear, and the Selma to Montgomery March.
“My mother’s face is in one of the most famous photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, and her mugshot has been called one of the most iconic in U.S. history,” said Loki Mulholland. “Her story offers perspective not only on civil rights and equality, but on how we live our whole lives.”
After retiring from teaching Mulholland established the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation to educate youth about the Civil Rights Movement and how to become activists in their communities.
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland was born in Washington, DC, and raised in Arlington, Virginia. She worked at the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Department of Commerce, and the Justice Department, and taught English as a second language. In 2023 Mulholland was awarded an honorary doctorate from Tougaloo College. She is the recipient of the 2020 Simeon Booker Award for Courage, the 2019 International Civil Rights Museum Trailblazer Award, and the 2015 National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award. Mulholland has appeared in the documentary An Ordinary Hero, PBS’s Freedom Riders, and Eyes on the Prize.
Loki Mulholland is an Emmy-winning filmmaker, author, activist, and son of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland. He earned his BA in film studies from Ithaca College and a diversity and inclusion certificate from Cornell University, and earlier this year received an honorary doctorate from Ithaca College. Mulholland is the author of She Stood for Freedom and Get Back to the Counter, and his films include An Ordinary Hero: The True Story of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland; Black, White & US; The Uncomfortable Truth; and The Evers.
History Is Lunch is sponsored by the John and Lucy Shackelford Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi. The weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History explores different aspects of the state's past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building at 222 North Street in Jackson and livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.
