
{"id":5023,"date":"2009-03-05T11:16:08","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T19:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5023"},"modified":"2009-03-05T12:01:47","modified_gmt":"2009-03-05T20:01:47","slug":"flashback-to-the-freedom-rides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/03\/05\/flashback-to-the-freedom-rides\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback to the Freedom Rides"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_5088\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5088\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/reconcile030509.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/reconcile030509-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"(Photo by Jasmina Nogo)\" title=\"reconcile030509\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5088\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/reconcile030509-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/reconcile030509.jpg 650w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5088\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Civil-rights historian Yonni Chapman, Rev. J.R. Manley, Freedom Rider George Houser and NAACP chapter president Eugene Farrar were among those who celebrated the unveiling of the new historical marker.<\/figcaption><\/figure><em>By Jasmina Nogo<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em\nChapel Hill   \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Northside Community members, students and other residents gathered last Saturday in the gymnasium of the Hargraves Center and were from there taken back to a sunny Sunday afternoon, April 13, 1947, as a group of UNC students reenacted the violence, threats and discrimination experienced by a group of Freedom Riders as they passed through Chapel Hill. \n\nThe 1947 Journey of Reconciliation was organized by an interracial group from the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Congress of Racial Equality to challenge Jim Crow seating on interstate buses and trains throughout the upper South. In Chapel Hill, local police arrested four of the Riders and state courts sentenced the men to a month on a chain gang. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If my grandfather were here today, he would have tears in his eyes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Karen Abbotts, the granddaughter of Rev. Charles Jones, as she welcomed members of the community to the Freedom Rider State Highway Marker Program and Unveiling Ceremony. <\/p>\n<p>Jones was a white Presbyterian minister who gave the Freedom Riders refuge in his home and was threatened by a mob of white cabdrivers for doing so. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There would be tears of pride and tears of happiness,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Abbotts said. <\/p>\n<p>Saturday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s program opened with several speakers, including the president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the NAACP, Eugene Farrar, and 92-year-old George Houser, who was one of the organizers of the 1947 Freedom Ride. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Of the 16 that participated in our journey, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m the only one left,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Houser said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look the beast in the eye, we will be held hostage to that history,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Abbotts said, as the audience erupted in applause. <\/p>\n<p>Following Abbotts\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 speech, Doval Watson, a Chapel Hill High School student, provided historical context to Jim Crow laws and Supreme Court cases that were key to the civil rights movement. A group of UNC students and other members of the community then provided an interactive dramatization of the Freedom Riders experience in Chapel Hill, receiving a standing ovation. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The dramatization was historically very correct,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Houser. He recounted for the audience the Freedom Riders experience here and talked about the historical impact of the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s peaceful protests and what the events meant to him as a white man from New York. <\/p>\n<p>Houser said a Chapel Hill bus driver demanded that four of the Freedom Riders re-seat themselves according to race; when they refused, he called the police and they were arrested. The men were then violently threatened by a mob of white cabdrivers. Jones arrived at the bus station to rescue them and drove them to his home. The cabdrivers followed the car and physically and verbally threatened Jones. He subsequently drove the men to Durham and sent his family away to safety. UNC students gathered to guard the Jones\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 home.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We never thought that here in the liberal arms of UNC we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d encounter this,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Houser said.<\/p>\n<p>Houser\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech was followed by a reading of Langston Hughes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 poem \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Negro Mother\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Doretha Mason and the awarding of the winners of a Freedom Rider essay contest. <\/p>\n<p>Then, despite the rain and cold, a group of students, residents and activists enthusiastically marched from the Hargraves Center to the corner of Rosemary and Columbia streets carrying banners and singing and chanting for justice, peace and equality. At the dedication site, Farrar unveiled the placard. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The power of one lies in the power of all of us to be one,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Houser said. <\/p>\n<p>Following the unveiling ceremony, the group marched to the Town Hall for a reception.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Journey of Reconciliation later served as the model and inspiration for the larger, more dramatic and successful Freedom Rides of 1961,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Yonni Chapman, chair of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP History Committee, which initiated the highway marker campaign. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153More importantly, the 1947 Journey served to publicize the methods of nonviolent direct action, which eventually became the guiding principle of Dr. Martin Luther King and much of the civil rights movement.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>The historical marker was made possible by the Chapel Hill\/Carrboro chapter of the NAACP and the Community Church of Chapel Hill Unitarian Universalist, with support from the town of Chapel Hill and the Justice in Action Committee.<\/p>\n<p>Although we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come a long way as a community since the days of Jim Crow and segregation, said Houser, we have a long way yet to go. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The struggle continues,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for a better person, a better world, a better community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jasmina Nogo Staff Writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5023"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5093,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions\/5093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}