Arlington's Joan Mulholland Honored For Iconic Role In Civil Rights Movement

ARLINGTON, VA — The Virginia General Assembly adopted a resolution honoring Joan Trumpauer Mulholland for her efforts to integrate businesses in Arlington and her work with the Freedom Riders who traveled to Mississippi and other states during the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

The resolution, sponsored by state Sen. Barbara Favola of Arlington, passed the Senate and House of Delegates on Feb. 13.

“Joan Trumpauer Mulholland of Arlington played an iconic role in the civil rights movement as a prominent white member of numerous sit-ins, protests, and other historic events, enduring great personal hardship to stand up for equality and justice,” the resolution reads.

The clerk of the state Senate will prepare a copy of the resolution for presentation to Mulholland later this year.

Born in Washington, D.C., in 1941, Mulholland started participating in sit-ins as a teenager in Arlington. Inspired by the protests in Greensboro, North Carolina, several Howard University students and local allies, including Mulholland, organized demonstrations over various days at lunch counters across Arlington, hoping to force their integration.

On June 9, Mulholland and the other demonstrators peacefully protested at drug store lunch counters across Arlington. A famous photo was taken of her with fellow demonstrators Dion Diamond and Ethelene Crockett at the Cherrydale Drug Fair on Lee Highway in June 1960 as they faced harassment from white residents.

During the sit-ins in Arlington, neo-Nazis led by George Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, which was headquartered in Arlington, harassed and sought to provoke the civil rights activists.

Less than two weeks later, on June 23, 1960, 21 lunch counters in Arlington opened to Black customers. Hecht’s, McCrory’s five and dime stores, G.C. Murphy’s, and Waffle Shops made statements about opening their lunch counters, while Hot Shoppes begin to serve Black patrons without comment.

In 1961, Mulholland joined a group of Freedom Riders from D.C. who traveled to Jackson, Mississippi, where she was arrested and sent to the notorious Parchman Farm Penitentiary. She served a two-month sentence at the prison. After release from prison, Mulholland enrolled at Tougaloo College, a historically Black institution in Mississippi, in an effort to promote racial integration in higher education.

After participating in more than 50 demonstrations and sit-ins, Mulholland returned to Arlington. In the subsequent decades, she worked at the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Justice and as an elementary school teacher's assistant.

About 10 years ago, Mulholland's son, Loki Mulholland, made a documentary about his mother, "An Ordinary Hero," that told the story of her work as a civil rights activist.

In 2014, Loki Mulholland founded the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation, with a goal to share and continue the legacy of his mother and educate people about the civil rights movement and how they can make a difference in their communities.

In the resolution adopted by the Virginia General Assembly, lawmakers commended Mulholland "for her inimitable role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and her ongoing commitment to educating others about equality and advocating for social justice."

Mulholland still lives in Arlington and remains active in the community.