TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Jul 10, 2023

Dr. Catherine Burks-Brooks, a member of the Freedom Riders with a Nashville connection, has died at age 83. WPLN reports that she was among the Nashville students who joined the original 13 Freedom Riders in May 1961, after violent attacks by white mobs in Alabama. Burks-Brooks’ participation in the Freedom Rides led to her expulsion just nine days before graduation from Tennessee A & I, now Tennessee State University. She worked as a social worker and an entrepreneur before moving to the Bahamas in the 1970s. In 1979, she returned to Birmingham, where she served for many years as a substitute teacher in Birmingham City Schools. In 2008, Tennessee State University awarded her and the other expelled Freedom Riders an honorary doctorate.