APOLLO BEACH, Fla. — Kredelle Petway and I sat down in her Apollo Beach living room as she told me about her father, Reverend Matthew Petway.
“He was really the incentive and impetus for me getting into the civil rights movement,” said Kredelle.
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She grew up moving around the South because her father was a preacher and a civil rights activist.
“I learned that he even was brave enough to go to a Klan meeting,” said Kredelle.
While her father was front and center of the civil rights movement, her mother, Ernestine Petway, was not.
“She was more fearful in some things she didn’t even want my dad to do,” said Kredelle.
She told Tampa Bay 28 that her mother tried to protect her and her siblings from the humiliation of segregation, but Kredelle still felt it.
“When you have signs, ‘Colored’ and ‘White’ or ‘White Only’, you can’t miss that,” she said.
She went to a segregated school and grew up during a time when Black people weren’t allowed in certain spaces.
“One of the things that kind of bothered me is that we walked past White schools that were closer to our neighborhoods to go to the segregated Black schools,” said Kredelle.
As the years passed, Kredelle slowly began committing small acts of defiance, like talking back to a White person or walking through the ‘White’ entrance of a building.
“When I told my mother, she said they’re going to find you dead somewhere if you’re not careful,” said Kredelle.
Those small acts of defiance turned into big moments challenging Jim Crow Laws.
Kredelle worked to help Black people vote as part of the Civil Rights Movement, but her role as a Freedom Rider started with encouragement from her father.
“He said, 'Well, if other people do this, then why don’t you think that you should not participate, and just have somebody else do all the work and you reap all the benefits?” Said Kredelle.
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode public transportation in the segregated South— holding non-violent protests by sitting in ‘Whites Only’ sections or using ‘Whites Only’ facilities like terminals and restrooms.
When people think of Freedom Riders, they mostly think of activists who rode buses.
But why also rode trains, and there were a few who flew.
Kredelle Petway was one of the few who flew.
“A lot of times, people didn’t even know that people participated in the freedom rides by plane,” said Kredelle.
In 1961, she boarded a plane from Montgomery, Alabama, to Jackson, Mississippi, with a small group of Freedom Riders, including her father and brother.
“I’m sure there had been communication with the different air terminals. So when we got to Jackson, Mississippi, they had locked the terminal there and didn't even let us go inside to get luggage. They escorted us from the plane,” said Kredelle.
She was arrested for trying to integrate a ‘Whites Only’ area, charged with “breach of peace,” and spent 3 days in jail.
Her activism was part of a specific effort to integrate travel facilities.
Her role in the civil rights movement helped desegregate airports and air travel.
Kredelle has dedicated her life to fighting against injustice and hopes people continue that fight even today.
“Just to think about how one is treated because of the color of their skin or their ethnic background, and although we made great strides, there are still many, many hints of segregation in how we are treated today,” said Kredelle.
She encourages younger generations to learn about our history so we don’t repeat it.
Kredelle also wants to remind everyone that it’s on all of us to do the right thing.
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