Youngest Living Freedom Rider Receives Formal Apology

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On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, town of Jackson, Mississippi, issued a proper apology to Hezekiah Watkins, the youngest residing Freedom Rider.

In accordance with WAPT, Jackson Mayor John Horhn issued the apology throughout a prayer breakfast at Higher Bethlehem Temple Church on Monday morning. “As we speak, town of Jackson publicly acknowledges that what occurred to Mr. Hezekiah Watkins was unsuitable,” Horhn stated.

“He ought to by no means have been handled as a felony for strolling right into a bus station in his personal metropolis, and he ought to by no means have carried the concern and humiliation that got here with being despatched to Parchman at 13 years previous. But as an alternative of permitting that trauma to harden his coronary heart, Mr. Watkins turned his ache into function. Jackson is a greater metropolis as a result of he selected to inform the reality, to show our younger folks, and to maintain believing in the potential for a extra simply Mississippi.”

Through the summer season of 1961, the Freedom Riders rode a Greyhound bus all through the South to protest segregation legal guidelines. Made up of roughly 400 volunteers throughout 40 states, the Freedom Riders typically confronted arrest and assaults from each the enraged white public and law enforcement officials. Earlier than the journey, the Freedom Riders have been skilled in nonviolent protest ways. Among the many Freedom Riders was late Georgia Rep. John Lewis.

“We have been decided to not let any act of violence preserve us from our aim,” Lewis stated, in accordance with the Smithsonian Journal. “We knew our lives could possibly be threatened, however we had decided to not flip again.”

As photographs of the buses being burned and the Freedom Riders being assaulted unfold by way of the nation, increasingly more folks volunteered. Hezekiah Watkins was a type of folks when the Freedom Riders arrived in Jackson. After arriving on the Greyhound station to see the Freedom Riders, Watkins was arrested and charged with “breach of peace.” The then 13-year-old Watkins was held in a cell for 5 days on Mississippi’s loss of life row.

“I can’t neglect what occurred to me as a younger boy, however I’ve by no means let it cease me from loving this metropolis or from telling my story,” Watkins stated. “To obtain this apology in my lifetime means an important deal, not only for me, however for each youngster who has ever felt that the system was stacked in opposition to them. My prayer is that Jackson will preserve transferring towards reality, towards justice, and towards a future the place no younger particular person has to undergo what I went by way of.”

The occasions of that day spurred Watkins to repeatedly battle for civil rights and to be a pacesetter in his local people. He has made such an impression on Jackson that final 12 months, Mayor Horhn established “Hezekiah Watkins Day.”

I want I may say it’s insane {that a} 13-year-old was held on loss of life row for merely being at a protest, nevertheless it’s not like our authorized system has improved considerably in relation to incarcerating Black youth or vilifying protesters. As we have now a president who’s decrying how dangerous the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was for white folks and is utilizing the federal authorities to stroll again a long time of progress, it’s extra necessary now than ever that we acknowledge each the sacrifices made to realize these positive factors and the way dangerous issues have been earlier than we acquired them.