Hosted by the History and Government club, Browning first spoke with a small group of club members, answering their questions
and getting to know them over coffee and pastries.
There, Browning discussed her experiences as a woman working for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), saying “I was really lucky in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. We didn’t have the sense that women were unable to do anything they wanted to, when that was not the case in society at large.”
At 19 years old, Joan C. Browning joined a group of students who would ride interstate buses into the south in order to protest laws segregating public transportation.
Nearly 60 years later, Browning continues to travel the country–this time landing at ABAC, where she gave students her firsthand
account of the civil rights movement.
Browning spoke to each student at the table, quoting her mentor, civil rights icon Ella Baker: “One of the things that Miss Baker taught us is
that nobody can ever speak a second time, until everybody’s spoken once. Let’s give that out a try!” From there, she answered a variety of questions ranging from immigration to student debt.
Before visiting, she read about ABAC and was impressed that 50 percent of students here graduate debt free. “I was thinking, ‘boy, they must have some well paid student jobs on campus,’” she said. “I grew up on a farm picking cotton and hoeing peanuts, so I thought ‘maybe
y’all are doing that too, and avoiding student debt that way!’”
After meeting with club members, Browning moved to Bowen 100 where she presented to students about her work as a member of the freedom riders, a group of multi-racial students who challenged the segregation laws on public transportation in the south.
It was during their 1961 protest that she was arrested and jailed in Albany, Georgia, one week before Dr. Martin Luther King was.
Browning was jailed for five days, and during that period, sent several letters to colleagues. These letters have all been preserved and
recorded by Emory University.
One letter recounted the shock local police felt after seeing a White woman protesting for civil rights: “I just heard that I caused a hell of a disturbance. It seems that never in their experiences has a white girl – especially such a quiet, soft- spoken, all-American type been involved.” Another recalled how one African-American resident encouraged her to keep protesting, saying “Just keep fighting – don’t let
them get you down.”
Maybe that one statement was worth it all,” said Browning. She took his advice and didn’t let her experience in jail deter her, writing “My ideals are now being tested. Any ideal that can survive filthy–horribly dirty–cells, uncertainty, etc., is worth sticking with.”
Dr. John Cable, who set up the event, had previously heard Browning speak when he was an undergrad student at Georgia College, and
wanted ABAC students to have the same opportunity.
“I met Joan Browning when I was an undergrad at Georgia College a dozen or more years ago, and she spoke to us. It was a great experience for everybody. I saw that she was kind of making the rounds again and was going to be in Georgia.”
Browning actually reached out to Cable first–about a source on civil rights activist Dorothy Day.
” That just kind of got us talking back and forth again, and I asked her if she’d be interested in coming to ABAC to speak to our club, and she let me know that she had this big, long history with ABAC and that she would be thrilled to do it.”
Wyatt Williams, a history and government major, was impressed by Browning and her work. “It’s astonishing to have someone from the ‘old breed’ of civil rights activism spend time with us and share her experiences firsthand,” he said.
“I thought Miss Browning was cool, considerate, and charming, and what inspired me most was how ordinary she described herself to be, yet how deeply she contributed to one of the United States’s greatest moral achievements of the 20th century.”
While the Civil Rights Act that Browning and her colleagues fought for was passed in 1964, segregation continued far after. Until as recently as 2016, schools across the South maintained de-facto segregation by ignoring court orders on busing and integration. For Russell Fenn, meeting Browning helped put that entire chapter of history into context.
“It’s hard to really visualize that [timespan], but being able to see a living, breathing person who lived through it and hearing their story made it all feel a lot more real. I’m glad I got the experience and she’s awesome. I got to shake hands with a part of history and that was awesome, “ said Fenn.
Browning was also accompanied by her biographer, E.J. McGaughy-Staib. McGaughy-Staib initially met Browning while developing a curriculum to teach about racism. “I had never heard of her before, but since she’s still living, I got in touch with her to interview her. We’re coming to the end of that project, and it’s going to be out in the world in 2026.
McGaughy-Staib continued, saying “she was like, ‘Have you ever thought about writing a biography?’ And I had never in my life planned on that. I never considered that part of my path. But, do you think you could say no to Joan C. Browning if she asked you to write about her?”
One of the other attendees, Emily Dobbins, was particularly affected by Browning’s participation in the Albany arm of the Civil Rights Movement.
“I found it interesting listening to her speak about how the citizens of Albany supported her, as I grew up near Albany but was never actually taught about Albany’s importance to the Civil Rights cause. Joan’s bond with her friends was also heartwarming as she
refused to leave with bail until all of her colleagues could leave.”
Out of all the lessons Browning has taught, keeping that bond with others remains among most important. “Community is where change begins, be committed to each other. Freedom riders ate together, spent time together and became friends,” according to Browning. “There’s a price to be paid for changing the way things are, so you need that bonding to get it done.”
In the current polarized political climate, Browning believes her work is even more important, saying “There’s a pressure to erase all our
history. Teach it every day that you can, and go everywhere that you can, and take students. It’s life changing.” While reflecting on the event, Cable said “I hope students can take away from this that there is such a thing as, to quote John Lewis, ‘good trouble.’ It’s very important for future generations to know that rules that don’t need to be rules can be broken peacefully and with love.”
Cable ended on the same message that Browning, Lewis, King, and other civil rights leaders preached: “For your fellow humans, get into some good trouble.”
The History and Government club meets every Tuesday at 4 p.m. in Bowen 208. For more information, reach out to club advisors John Cable
or Hans Schmeisser at john.cable@ abac.edu and hschmeisser@abac.edu respectively.