Resolution for a Freedom Riders Park (draft)

Phil Noble shared with me this draft resolution he wrote at the invitation of folks who want to turn the area around the Freedom Rider marker on Highway 202 into a Civil Rights park:

Whereas the incident known as the Anniston Bus Burning was recounted internationally as a symbol of hatred and violence that added to the incorrect stereotype that all white Southerners were intolerant and racist, and

Whereas the citizens of Anniston responded to the violence declaring that violence is not the answer to racial problems, and

Whereas many Southern cities were engulfed in racial violence, Anniston chose to approach its racial problems through fair and honest dialog by way of a biracial Human Relations Council, and

Whereas President John F. Kennedy commended Anniston for its wise and effective plan for developing just, fair and peaceful solutions to racial problems, and

Whereas President Kennedy, in a public address, held up Anniston’s way of dealing with racial problems as a model for other cities in America, and

Whereas the Freedom Riders played an important part in the Civil Rights revolution in the 1960s, and the Bus Burning was visible to the world, and

Whereas the Anniston Bus Burning infused new resolve in Civil Rights workers and thus contributed to the success of the Civil Rights movement, and

Whereas the names of such cities as Birmingham and Selma are well known for racial violence, and Anniston is not widely recognized as a town that chose a reasonable and peaceful approach to its racial problems, and

Whereas the generations after the 1960s need to know not only the stories of racial violence, but the stories of the reasonable, common sense and intelligent approaches that brought justice, fairness and goodwill to Anniston and other communities,

Therefore be it resolved, since Anniston played a unique roll in the Civil Rights Revolution, it is wise and proper to create a Freedom Riders Park on Highway 202 which will not only recognize the Bus Burning event, but also the resulting progress in justice and fairness that brings peace and goodwill to communities.

J. Phillips Noble
July 11, 2009