I had a moving experience this past Saturday. I attended the Freedom Riders Anniversary Event on Gurney Avenue in Anniston, coordinated by a friend and parishioner named Pete Conroy. There was a book signing and presentation by Charles Person, one of two living original Freedom Riders who came through town in 1961 to protest continued segregation in Alabama, after it was outlawed by the Supreme Court.
At the time their "mixed riding" was met with hostility from mobs of Ku Klux Klansmen, Person was 18 years old.
I had heard the basic story, of course, but I mentioned on Sunday that I didn't realize it happened on Mother's Day.
Afterwards, one of our church members told me that a parishioner of our church, Harry Sims, was on that bus. In his blessed memory, and in honor of all those who are part of the fiber of our great church, I decided to learn more about what Harry did.
At the time of the Freedom Riders, Harry was a plainclothes state trooper who was on the Greyhound bus. He was on duty, not only keeping an eye on things with his partner (who was recording the whole thing), but ended up protecting the Riders from violence.
You probably know some of the main story. Two buses left Atlanta, bound for Birmingham, and the Greyhound stopped for a rest stop in Anniston. As soon as they left Atlanta, "beefy" Klansmen on the bus started taunting Person and the other black and white Freedom Riders. Harry and his partner were sitting in the back. Once stopped on Gurney Avenue in Anniston, out of nowhere, the Freedom Riders were met by a Ku Klux Klan mob who blocked the bus, slashed the tires, broke the windows, and beat it with baseball bats.
Once the bus was able to pull out, just a few miles out of town the bus had to stop on the side of the road. Having been chased by cars driven by the same angry mob, the infamous scene was set.
Harry and his partner blocked the doors to keep the mob from attacking the Riders. One of the KKK threw a fire bomb through a broken window, and the Riders had to get out to escape further injury from smoke inhalation. Harry drew his weapon to protect them from the mob, which then began to disperse.
When the ambulance arrived, the driver refused to take the black Freedom Riders to the hospital, and the white Riders insisted that they would not leave their black friends behind.
After some stern words from Harry's partner, the driver relented and they ended up all going. Harry and his partner accompanied them to the Anniston Memorial Hospital, where there was continued agitation. After the hospital administrator told them to evacuate because of threats of burning down the building, Harry and his partner could not provide transportation or an escort. So Fred Shuttlesworth, Civil Rights leader, ended up sending cars for them from Birmingham.
I wish I had met Harry Sims and heard his version. Those were difficult times. But he was there for all that, and he protected them, and in his own way, he stood for what was right. I tip my hat to Harry Sims.
For more information on the Freedom Riders, the incident near Anniston, and Harry Sims, see the NPR news article on the subject.
