FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 – On Sunday, February 21, 2021 Mississippi Freedom Rider, U.S Army Veteran and San Antonio, Texas resident Patricia Baskerville Dilworth passed away.
Funeral services are to be held March 3, 2021 at Macedonia Baptist Church and burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery on March 23, 2021. Resolutions from the City of San Antonio, State Representative Barbara Gervin Hawkins, District 2 Councilwoman Jada Andrews, and The Mississippi Freedom Riders are to be given during the services.
ABOUT PATRICIA BASKERVILLE DILWORTH
Originally from Tucson Arizona, Dilworth joined the Freedom Riders at age 17 in 1961 after watching the Mississippi Civil Rights activities on the television. She became involved with CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) led by James Farmer Ph.D whose philosophy was nonviolent protest. She saw on television Blacks being beaten, buses set on fire and signs over water fountains saying whites only and Colored only. She was arrested July 9, 1961 for Breach of Peace, a misdemeanor. “Normally misdemeanors are handled by attorneys, but Mississippi required that we all had to physically come back and that was a financial burden to travel back and forth. Donations provided for our transportation and a Black College provided housing.” Said Ms. Dilworth during a 2019 lecture series at Trinity University. After returning to Houston, Texas she was arrested for staging a sit-in at Kress Drug Store. She continued to support CORE for many years after the Freedom Rides. Patricia Dilworth and several other Mississippi Freedom Riders gathered in San Antonio, Texas every year to lecture, inspire and educate San Antonio High School and College during the month of January.
Patricia Dilworth was a U.S Veteran. She joined the United States Army March 4, 1974 and retired June 1, 1998 as a Sergeant Major with 24 years of service. Mrs. Patricia Dilworth was a Mother and the wife of Curtis Dilworth.
ABOUT THE MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM RIDERS
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 ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states had ignored the rulings. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961.
The Freedom Riders challenged this status quo by riding interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation in seating. The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement. They called national attention to the disregard for the federal law and the local violence used to enforce segregation in the southern United States. Police arrested riders for trespassing, unlawful assembly, violating state and local Jim Crow laws, and other alleged offenses, but often they first let white mobs attack them without intervention.
Funeral and viewing services to be held at Macedonia Baptist Church located at 963 SW 40th St, San Antonio, TX 78237. Viewing services begin at 10am CST and funeral services are to begin at 11am CST.
For more information about Patricia B. Dilworth or the Mississippi Freedom Riders, please contact
Lisa Jackson
Public Relations Manager
Ljpmedia@gmail.com or Lisa@ljpmediauni.com
210.364.2261
