Carolyn Moss Woodard

Carolyn describes coming home from high school one day and noticing a table full of wrapped sandwiches and apples.  Querying why the family was preparing so much food for a family outing, she was told that the Freedom Rider kids were in town. Some Tuskegee families were housing them, and others provided food and clothing for the young freedom fighters.

As a teen, Carolyn remembers attending mass meetings at churches in both Tuskegee and Montgomery. She was a friend of Sammy Young, a Black freedom fighter Tuskegee Institute student killed by a White gas station attendant.

Like many of her peers at the time, Carolyn was a product of the upward mobility and high expectations that Tuskegee offered.  Her father became one of the first Black occupational therapists in the country, and her mother was one of the first Black Girl Scout Troup leaders in the South.

Carolyn obtained a master of Social Work degree and worked in the social service field until retirement.