Freedom Riders Retrace Steps 40 Years Later

B I R M I N G H A M, Ala., May 12 -- Riding into Montgomery to a hero'swelcome Saturday, Ed Blankenheim said he can still remember thehatred on the faces of the men and women who surrounded and burnedhis bus in Alabama 40 years ago.

Blankenheim, 67, was one of the original Freedom Riders who rodeacross Alabama in a bus caravan Saturday recreating the event.Blankenheim broke down in tears at a Birmingham museum when he sawa replica of the bus that firebombed in Anniston.

"I just broke down. Everything came back to me - the ugliness,the hate," Blankenheim said. "There were women there with babiesin their arms screaming 'roast those niggers.' People were comingfrom church on Mother's Day to participate in an honest to Godlynching."

About 150 people, including eight original Freedom Riders, leftAtlanta Saturday morning to retrace part of the historic routewhere violent mobs of segregationists had awaited them in Anniston,Birmingham and Montgomery.

The reception was much different this time. About 200 peoplefilled a Montgomery church to honor the Freedom Riders with hymnsand speeches at the end of Saturday's journey. It was the samechurch that was surrounded by an angry white mob after the FreedomRiders sought refuge in 1961.

"I'm here in this church to welcome you and not out at the citylimits with an angry mob," Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright told theFreedom Riders.

In Birmingham 40 years ago, police looked the other way whileFreedom Riders were viciously beaten. On Saturday, the busesreceived a royal police escort.

"The times they are a changing," said Hank Thomas, who wasalso on the bus that was burned in Anniston. "I just hope thismeans blacks and whites in Alabama will hate each other no more."

Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid greeted the Freedom Riders whenthey arrived at the Greyhound bus. Kincaid, who is black, said heowes his political success to blood shed by the Freedom Riders.

"We know the hate you faced 40 years ago," Kincaid said. "Irealize full well that I stand squarely on your shoulders."