'Shepherd' of Civil Rights Movement to have sentence overturned after 75 years

                  WORLD NEWS

CIVIL rights leader Bayard Rustin and three other men who were sentenced to work on a chain gang in North Caroline after they launched the first of the "freedom rides" to challenge Jim Crow laws will have their sentences posthumously vacated on Friday 24th June 2022, more than seven decades later.

"While this judicial action is taking place 75 years after the injustice occurred, never should we falter in examining past wrongs, seeking reparation, and lifting those heavy burdens from our hearts and minds so that future generations may know justice," Renee Price, chairman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, said in a statement.

     Bayard Rustin demonstrating in the           late 1940s Washington, D.C, to Free           Imprisoned War Objectors." Credit:               Photo courtesy of the Estate of                                 Bayard Rustin. 

On April 9th 1947, a group of eight white men and eight black men began the first "freedom ride" to challenge laws that mandated segregation on buses in defiance of the 1946 US Supreme Court Morgan v Virginia ruling declaring segregation on interstate travel unconstitutional. The men boarded buses in Washington DC, setting out on a two-week route that included stops in Durham, Chapel Hill and Greensboro, North Carolina. 

    Bayard Rustin Poster Photo: Ricardo                       Levins Morales (see                             http://www.rlmartstudio.com)

As the riders attempted to board the bus in Chapel Hill, several of them were removed by force and attacked by a group of angry cab drivers. Four of the so-called Freedom Riders: Andrew Johnson, James Felmet, Bayard Rustin's, and lgal Roodenko, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for refusing to move from the front of the bus. After a trial in Orange County, the four men were convicted and sentenced to serve on a chain gang. 

    Bayard Rustin's Presidential Medal of         Freedom. Credit: Photo courtesy of                             Eric Marcus. 

Rustin later published writings about being imprisoned and subjected to hard labour for taking part in the first freedom ride, which was also known as the Journey of Reconciliation. 

Described as "a shepherd" of the civil rights movement, Mr Rustin was an advisor to the late Reverend Martin Luther King jnr and was instrumental in organising the March on Washington DC in 1963.

Mr Rustin died in 1987, aged 75-year-old. 

With many thanks to the: Irish News   and Tom Foreman Jnr for the original publication.

Follow these links to find out more on this story: Martin Luther King jnr Research and Education Institute

Bayard Rustin Biography