Freedom Riders, 50 years on, see today’s youths as disconnected from racism fight
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 8th, 2011 4:35 am by HL
Freedom Riders, 50 years on, see today’s youths as disconnected from racism fight
JACKSON, MISS. — A half-dozen blacks and whites sat with boxed sandwiches and sweet tea in a community center on a recent afternoon, wrestling with what’s changed — and what hasn’t — since the Freedom Riders came to town 50 years ago.
“We’re still trying to see each other as human,” said Albert Sykes, a 28-year-old black man. “We’re still struggling with this.”
On Mother’s Day, 1961, a bus full of young people was firebombed in Anniston, Ala. The passengers were black and white, one of several groups that rode from Washington, D.C., to force the integration of interstate transportation on a reluctant South.
Bin Laden raid fits into Obama’s ‘big things’ message
Advisers to President Obama are tiptoeing carefully around the political bounce he received after the successful raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, wary of appearing unseemly, convinced the boost will be temporary and confident that the event will ultimately speak for itself.
But Obama is already stitching the victory into the broader tapestry of his 2012 reelection campaign. It fits neatly into one of his core messages, that Americans are capable of tackling intractable, long-term problems. “Doing big things,” as he put it in his State of the Union address.
