There was a documentary

on last night that was fascinating to me. It was called the "Freedom Riders."  It recounts the events in 1961 when racial tensions were very high, particularly in the South. 

In May of 1961 I was 7 years old, so I was pretty oblivious to events beyond my own little world. Living in Provo, Utah, I had probably never even met someone of the black race.  Nor was I aware that there was such a thing as racial discrimination.   Since that time, I've obviously learned and read a lot more about the violations of human rights and discrimination.  But, what amazed me in this story was that, even as late as the 60's, many of the State and Federal governments were still blatantly disregarding racial rights and laws. 

Here is a recount of the "Freedom Riders" from a commentary in the Washington Post last week. 

"In May of 1961, a group of black and white Americans departed Washington, D.C., and headed south. One group was on a Trailways bus; the other took a Greyhound bus. Their goal was to see if Southern bus terminals were desegregated, as they should have been if the Supreme Court's 1946 Morgan v. Virginia ruling were being enforced. The Morgan ruling outlawed segregation in interstate travel facilities, but almost all Southern states pretended the ruling didn't exist.  When the people who would become known as Freedom Riders started their journey, it wasn't a case of civil rights activists engaging in civil disobedience to make their point.  What the Freedom Riders did was perfectly legal. What some state and local officials did -- think Alabama and Mississippi Govs. John Patterson and Ross Barnett, and Birmingham, Ala., Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor -- was either illegal or malfeasance in office.  Things went peacefully for the Freedom Riders as their buses traveled through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.  Then the Greyhound bus stopped in Anniston, Ala., where a mob burned the bus and beat some of the Freedom Riders.  What happened when the Trailways bus arrived in Birmingham was even more despicable. Connor had cut a deal with Ku Klux Klan leaders: Their ruffians were given 15 minutes to attack the Freedom Riders before police intervened. Photographers from several newspapers caught the KKK thugs on camera savagely beating the activists.

I know I'm still somewhat oblivious to what has gone on and is still going on in the world.  But, after watching this program,  I now have a greater appreciation of how racial divides and discrimination have improved in the last 50 years.  I'm not naive enough to think it doesn't still happen.  But the fact that we are now being led by a president who is black, does show progress.