Nashville Freedom Rider remembered for paving the way for many
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The community is mourning the loss of Nashville native King Hollands, a local Freedom Rider who helped pave the way for civil rights.
Hollands’ oldest daughter, Kisha Turner, spoke with News 2 one week after he passed peacefully at their family home at the age of 82.
“Daddy was a lover of all. He was there for so many people in his neighborhood and his community,” Turner explained.
Hollands helped lead the way for desegregation in Nashville, as one of the first 14 African American students to attend Father Ryan High School in the 1950s.
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“He was proud to be a part of the integrating the school and to enable others to follow behind his footsteps with integration. He formed many friendships and bonds there at Father Ryan that are still good family friends to this day,” Turner said.
In 1960, while attending Fisk University, Hollands helped lead the Woolworth lunch counter sit-in in downtown Nashville.
“They were nonviolent students and everything, so they had to learn how to deal with people trying to antagonize them, possibly spitting in their face, trying to put cigarettes out on them,” Turner said.
Alongside Hollands was his dear friend, Frankie Henry, who still has one of those cigarette burn scars. She recalls herself, Hollands, and several with them getting arrested that day and spending two weeks in jail. Hollands kept the cup he was fed potato soup out of, which his family still holds onto.
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“We slept on cold, steel beds with air holes in them so the mattresses could breathe. However, they didn’t supply us with any mattresses or sheets or pillowcases or pillows or anything,” Henry told News 2 by phone.
Hollands’ family wants the community to know he transitioned peacefully in his death. In addition to three children, he also leaves behind several grand and great grandchildren.
Turner shared what she and the rest of Holland’s relatives hope others will take away from his life: “To continue for fairness and equity with things. Don’t forget the Nashville, the original Nashville. As we grow, let’s grow together as a community and everything. He would just say, ‘Let’s work together.'”
A memorial for Hollands is currently being planned, and loved ones hope to hold it sometime in February.
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