Freedom Rider Rep. John Lewis gives commencement address at UMW

The Richmond Times Dispatch:

FREDERICKSBURG —

U.S. Rep. John Lewis invoked the spirit of the Freedom Riders in an address Saturday to the class of 2011 at the University of Mary Washington.

Speaking to about 5,000 people, including nearly 1,300 graduates, the Georgia Democrat urged students Saturday to create a better world.

The 1961 Freedom Rider praised the university for its tribute to the civil-rights leaders who endured violence in their quest to end segregation.

I am an alumnus of Mary Washington College.  I came along a little later than 1961 and things were not that ‘advanced’ when I was there.  As I recall, we had 2 African American students.  Those young women were well received but I don’t recall a huge civil rights movement at all.  We were aware and we were politically correct.  I suppose that was a big step in those days.  I was surprised when I opened the college quarterly. 

The quarterly featured a large section on the college involvement in the Freedom Rides back in 1961.  I never knew that.   The main article is entitled All Aboard.  It has not yet been put online.

Tonight as I watch John Lewis on American Experience, Soundtrack for a Revolution,  I realized how much I didn’t know about the integration of the South.   I was a kid.  My earliest memory of such matters was being a little girl riding the city bus with my mother and asking her why I couldn’t go ride in the back of the bus.  I remember the look of horror on my mother’s face and being told to shut up.  After we got off the bus I got told I wasn’t to ask questions like that–having to do with race.  I remember being confused.  I wanted to go ride in the back. 

American Experience has the entire Freedom Rider series that you can view on one of the three local PBS stations.

Sadly, Rep. John Lewis is one of the black congressmen who witnesses say   was heckled and had racial epithets hurled at him  the day the health care bill was signed.  I have no reason not to believe him.  (Washington Post link)

 We were very civilized here in Virginia, it appears.

LINKS:

American Experience: The Freedom Riders,

Journalist, photographer reunite with activists

50 years later, students retrace 1961 Freedom Ride

University of Mary Washington to celebrate 50th Anniversary of Freedom Rides, Civil Rights Leader