Freedom Riders Retrace Steps 40 Years Later

B I R M I N G H A M, Ala., May 12, 2001 -- 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."

The Freedom Riders, mostly college students, set out in May 1961to ride from Washington to New Orleans to test a Supreme Courtruling banning racial segregation on interstate publictransportation. At segregated bus stations, black riders tried touse white waiting rooms and bathrooms, while whites tried to usefacilities set aside for blacks.

When the riders were beaten and arrested along the way, hundredsmore joined the campaign. Eventually more than 1,000 people tookpart.

The commemorative trip to Birmingham and Montgomery wasbittersweet for Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., one of the leaders of thebiracial group of Freedom Riders in 1961. Standing in the middle ofthe Birmingham bus station, Lewis described what happened when hisbus arrived in Montgomery 40 years ago.

"We started off the bus and stepped down the steps. It was soquiet it was eery. Then the mob came out of nowhere. First, theyturned on the press, then on us, and we were beaten," Lewis said.

Riding down Interstate 65 between Birmingham and Montgomery,Freedom Rider Charles Person looked out at the passing Alabamacountryside and remembered what he saw when he looked out the buswindow 40 years ago.

"There were people out there along the road and they wereshaking their fist at the bus," said Person, a retired Marine whowas an 18-year-old college student when he decided to participatein the Freedom Rides.

Person said he was surrounded by Klansmen and beaten when he gotoff the bus in Birmingham 40 years ago. He said he was so shaken hewalked from the bus station leaving his suitcase and his coat andjumped on a city bus.

"I said 'just take me somewhere,' Person said. He joked withGreyhound officials during Saturday's ride about seeing if hisbelongings were still in "lost and found."