When a person dies, the family is left to pick up the pieces and share the fond memories of that loved one who has transitioned. Services and memorials are held where friends and family speak loving and appreciative sentiments about the person who has passed away.

Former colleagues and neighbors gather with the family to help bring closure to that person’s life. Programs are circulated during the funeral service that speak of the life and loves of the deceased loved one, and prayers are said to comfort the grieving family.

But when a loved one has died after living an amazing life of service, it reverberates throughout the earth and touches the souls of many. I recently had that experience with a relative that I was named after, Betty Jean Daniels Rosemond. I was born and raised in Cincinnati, and “Aunt Betty” was an integral staple in the Griffith household.

Betty Jean Daniels Rosemond was born on May 14, 1939, in Mongolia, Mississippi. Betty’s father relocated the family to New Orleans, promising better work and a more lucrative paycheck. Betty was smart and resourceful, and she yearned to make a difference in this country.

Once Betty came of age, she joined the student activist organization CORE in the early 1950s. CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) was founded on the principles inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s protest strategies of nonviolence and civil disobedience. In 1942, a group of Black and white students in Chicago founded CORE, which helped launch one of America’s most important civil rights movements of our time.

CORE’s national director, James Farmer, organized the Freedom Rides in the spring of 1961 to test two Supreme Court rulings regarding desegregated bathrooms, waiting room and lunch counters, as well as desegregated buses and trains.

The Freedom Rides took place early in the Civil Rights movement, which was gaining momentum. Black Americans were being constantly harassed. The Jim Crow South did not make it any better for Blacks during that time.

Betty was excited to help advance racial equality, so, against her parents’ wishes, she became a Freedom Rider, risking her life to advocate and agitate for it.

Betty was inspired to act by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whom she met at age 16 years old. She walked the picket lines and participated in sit-ins. In the 1960’s, Betty Rosemond became a Freedom Rider and shared that she almost lost her life to a mob during a stop in Mississippi.

Aunt Betty once told us, “We knew every time we took a ride, that we could die,” she said. “And if we die, we die.” Betty had a strong heart and even stronger faith in God. She shared with us that she never quite understood why people were so violent against their cause.

My Aunt Betty sat with my older siblings when my mother gave birth to me. She was married to my Uncle Garnell, and they were expecting their first child. I was given the middle name “Jean” as a thank you to Aunt Betty for helping our family.

Aunt Betty and Uncle Garnell settled in Cincinnati and raised their three children alongside our family. Betty Rosemond dedicated her life to education, advocacy, and remembrance. She shared with her family and the world that the cost of freedom was great.

Betty would share the physical and emotional abuses that she endured during those Freedom Rides. She said, “One of the girls slapped me and almost knocked me down,” she recalled. “That was part of your training—to see if you would retaliate. And you couldn’t.” Betty always said the hand of God was upon her during that turbulent period of American history. She often shared that she had seen lynchings and would have been lynched herself several times had it not been for God’s grace and mercy.

One of Betty’s greatest honors was the invitation to be the keynote speaker at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s 2020 King Legacy Awards breakfast. Our family stood proud as Betty spoke about her Freedom Rider experiences and how her faith in God kept her strong.

Aunt Betty was a Freedom Rider, and a bona fide “Black History Moment” in our family. She will be forever remembered in history books as a hero and advocate for equal rights. Take your rest, Aunt Betty.