July 17, 2011
Freedom Rider
Returns
Fifty Years Later
By JOHN C. RAINES
Colleagues and Friends:
One
June 30th I retired from Temple after 45 years of teaching...but life goes on
as you shall hear.
A week ago today was quite an extraordinary experience for me. Fifty years ago last Sunday I was arrested and put in jail as a "freedom rider" who "threatened the peace" in Little Rock. I was an "enemy of the people." Last Sunday, one of the Senators from Arkansas, one of the House members and the mayor of Little Rock welcomed me back as a "public hero." Strange... Doubly strange because out of the original five of us, only I was there. One, our leader, was dead. The two other black women could not be located fifty years later (makers of history who disappear from history). The other white, a woman artist from NYC (Jewish) was in Europe doing murals.
What you have here are two things that let you see/hear some of what happened last weekend. On this "forward" is a link to a Friday night (a week back) news broadcast from Little Rock with me and a Dr. Kirk who organized the freedom rider celebration. The attachment is the remarks I was asked to prepare in advance that were subsequently published in the Little Rock newspaper.
All of this let's you see what I am up to now that I am "retired."
John