Monday, May 16, 2011

Bypassed Rock Hill

I always figured the song "Promised Land" made more than passing reference to the civil rights struggle.  Here's a great article quoting Howard DeWitt and making the same case.  Remember that the Greyhound bypasses Rock Hill.  Here's a bit of history I didn't know (but that Chuck knew) about the first Freedom Ride.

In 1961 a group of seven black and six white people, including John Lewis, left Washington, D.C. for New Orleans on two buses, a Trailways bus and a Greyhound bus. The group made it through Virginia and North Carolina without incident.

At the Greyhound bus station in Rock Hill, South Carolina, the group encountered violence. A mob of twenty attacked the group, and John Lewis was the first to be hit as he approached the white waiting room. 
Read more about it HERE.

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