Civil rights hero Joan Trumpauer-Mulholland speaks at Hiawatha High School. 

(KNZA)--A civil rights hero of the 1960’s visited Hiawatha Thursday as her story was showcased.

A screening of the award winning documentary “ An Ordinary Hero” was shown at the Hiawatha High School auditorium Thursday evening on the life of Joan Trumpaue Mulholland.   Following the film, Mulholland took questions from the audience.

By the time she was 19, Mulholland had participated in dozens of sit-ins, Freedom Rides and protests.  She was arrested in 1961 and housed on death row in Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Penitentiary for two months.

Mulholland was involved in one of the most famous and violent sit-ins of the civil rights movement at the Jackson Woolworth lunch counter and helped plan and organize the March on Washington.

As a white southern woman, Mulholland was not supposed to join the fight for racial equality.  She endured jail time, violence and hatred because she believed what she was taught as a young girl in Sunday school

“When I went to Sunday school, we had to memorize bible verses about how to live, love thy neighbor as thyself and do onto others as you would have them do unto you and you got a gold star on your bible if you got it right,” she said. “And I thought, we aren't practicing what we preach. We're being a pack of hypocrites, and that's wrong. So, I wanted to do what I could to make the south the best it could be for all of us.”

Mulholland said while her father was not a segregationist and was supportive of her efforts, her mother was a different story.

“My mother was from the rural south, and where the law and customs and church all supported segregation, and that's the way she grew up,” she said. “That's what she believed. She never really changed her attitude on that literally to her dying day.”

Mulholland was asked what advice she would give to a young person on how to respond to racism in a positive way.

“Be friends,” she said. “With whoever you want to be friends with. And, if somebody is being picked on because of who they are, support them. If need be, a group of you walk them through the halls of school. But, mainly, be friends. And let other folks know you are.”

Earlier in the day Thursday, Mulholland spoke to Hiawatha students.  It was her first trip to Kansas for the 75-year-old Virginia resident.