Freedom Rider Jerome Smith Dies at 87 After Challenging Robert Kennedy in 1961

Q: Beyond the famous Freedom Rides, what unique organization did Jerome Smith build to empower New Orleans youth?

Jerome Smith co-founded **Tambourine & Fan** in New Orleans, a youth-centered organization built to empower children through culture, history, music and social justice. Founded in 1968 with fellow activist Rudy Lombard, the program was rooted in Tremé and aimed to give young people places of belonging and pride while steering them away from crime. It taught Black history, New Orleans traditions, community responsibility and self-worth, reflecting Smith’s belief that civil rights work had to include nurturing the next generation. The organization became one of Smith’s most lasting local legacies. Friends and colleagues said he was known as “Big Duck” because children followed him like ducklings, a sign of how central mentoring was to his work. Through Tambourine & Fan, Smith extended his activism beyond protest and into community education, helping generations of New Orleans youth understand their identity and value.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 1

Jerome Smith died Aug. 21 at his home in New Orleans at 87, his daughter said; the cause was cancer.
Smith became a prominent Freedom Rider in 1961 after leaving Southern University to work with CORE, joining the campaign to force enforcement of a 15-year-old Supreme Court ban on segregated interstate bus seating.
Jailed and beaten during that struggle, he was also remembered for sharply confronting Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy over the federal government's failure to protect riders facing mob violence in the South.
His life was tied to a pivotal civil rights showdown in which activists resumed the rides even after one bus was firebombed in Alabama and riders were assaulted.