[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7872-7873]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                             FREEDOM RIDERS

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, after the Senate finishes its 
business for the week, many of us will be returning to our home states. 
I will be flying to my home state of Illinois. And I can anticipate 
that the trip, for the most part, will be without incident.
  However, this wasn't the case for African Americans 40 years ago. 
Forty years ago, desegregation laws in bus and train stations, as well 
as their waiting rooms and restaurants, prohibited African Americans 
from enjoying the same facilities as their white counterparts. The 
Supreme Court issued a ruling calling for the desegregation of 
interstate travel. However, this had to be tested.
  The Congress of Racial Equality selected a group of students to make 
a two week trip through the South in nonviolent protest of racial 
desegregation laws. Congressman John Lewis was one of those students 
who was later joined by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. These civil rights 
activists became known as the Freedom Riders. But unlike the travel we 
are all used to, their ride was filled with fear and brutality. Prior 
to embarking on this historic journey, the students were told to make 
out their last will and testament, just in case. But like most youths, 
they thought themselves invincible. They had no idea how truly 
dangerous and bloody their mission would become.
  One white rider, Jim Zwerg, who joined the riders because he could no 
longer stand the injustice, had three of his vertebrae cracked, all of 
his teeth fractured, his nose broken, and suffered from a concussion. 
The Klan thought that he and other white Riders were betraying them.
  On Mother's Day in Alabama, the young Freedom Riders were greeted by 
a mob of 200 with stones, baseball bats, lead pipes and chains. One 
Freedom Rider bus had its tires slashed and was stopped by an angry 
mob. An incendiary device was thrown inside the bus causing it to fill 
with smoke. And the angry mob held the door closed so that the Riders 
would burn inside.
  The Riders were saved when the fuel tank exploded causing the mob to 
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[[Page 7873]]

away from the bus and allowing the Riders to escape before the bus was 
completely engulfed.
  The Freedom Riders never made it to their destination of New Orleans. 
But they achieved their objective. Attorney General Robert Kennedy 
ordered that the Supreme Court ruling finding segregation in interstate 
bus and rail travel unconstitutional be enforced.
  The Freedom Riders became an inspiration to thousands of Americans to 
join the cause of tearing down racial inequality. It was a critical 
moment in the civil rights movement. About 300 protesters had joined 
the crusade, including our colleague Senator Lieberman. This weekend 
marks that historic day 40 years ago.
  I want to recognize and pay tribute to my colleagues and original 
Freedom Rider Representative John Lewis, as well as Senator Joe 
Lieberman, who also took an active role in the South in the early 1960s 
volunteering to register African Americans to vote.
  But even after 40 years, our nation still confronts racial problems 
everyday. In cities all across America, we can plainly see evidence of 
inequality, and injustice.
  I am concerned that African Americans represent 12 percent of the 
U.S. population (some sources reflect 13 percent) and 13 percent of its 
drug users. Yet African Americans comprise 35 percent of all those 
arrested for drug possession and 55 percent of those convicted of drug 
possession. Five times as many whites use drugs as African Americans, 
but African Americans comprise the greatest majority of drug offenders 
sent to prison. Race appears to be a clear factor.
  Yet, I also believe, there is still hope. I believe that justice can, 
and will prevail, if we are all diligent in pursuing the goals of peace 
and respect for each other that the brave men and women of the Freedom 
Riders set forth for the nation to follow back in 1961.
  I am hopeful because we know that our system of criminal justice 
works. It may not be perfect, but it always strives to do right.
  On September 15, 1963, a violent bomb went off in the Sixteenth 
Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, blasting the silent 
tranquility of that Sunday morning. That devastation also claimed the 
lives of four young African American girls, Addie Mae Collins, Denise 
McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, who were preparing for a 
church youth service that day.
  Almost 40 years after this brutal hate crime was committed, justice 
finally prevailed last week when a Birmingham jury convicted Thomas 
Blanton of plotting the church bombing. During the closing argument, 
United States Attorney Doug Jones said, ``It's never too late for the 
truth to be told. It's never too late for wounds to heal. It's never 
too late for a man to be held accountable for his crimes.''
  That's right. It is never too late to pursue justice in the face of 
injustice. And it is never too late to thank the Freedom Riders and all 
the other civil rights activists of the 1960s for their courage in 
standing up for justice.

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