Margaret Burr Leonard

Margaret Burr Leonard (January 5, 1942 – November 14, 2022) was an American civil rights activist and journalist. She participated in Freedom Rides from Alabama to Mississippi, being noted as the first Southern white student to participate. She later worked as a reporter and editor for Florida newspapers.

Early life and education

Leonard was born on January 5, 1942. Both her parents were newspaper reporters, with her mother being a proponent of racial integration. Leonard's mother was the first white woman to join the NAACP in Macon, Georgia. As a teenager, Leonard met both Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis. Through CORE, she began participating in protests and sit-ins, which included receiving training on "what to do when they try to kill you". Leonard was a Freedom Rider and rode bus routes between Southern cities to protest segregation laws. She was the first Southern white student to participate, causing authorities to worry "other white Southern dissidents would follow her lead". She was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi and spent time in Parchman Prison. She went on to report for the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times in the 1970s and the Tallahassee Democrat in the 1980s. She worked as the editor for the Florida State Times, retiring in 2003.