RALEIGH – The Feb. 28 dedication of a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker on Columbia Street at 2 p.m. will recall the journey of “Freedom Riders” passing through Chapel Hill. The “Journey of Reconciliation” taken by bus from Washington, D.C., in April 1947, led to disturbances in Chapel Hill and other Southern cities. The marker dedication will be preceded by a march at noon from the Hargraves Center past First Baptist Church and down Franklin Street to the dedication site and a program on Columbia Street between Franklin and Rosemary Streets.
Four members of a 16 person team from the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) were arrested in Chapel Hill as the black members refused to move to the back of the bus. The commotion drew a crowd, two blacks and two whites were taken to jail, and one of the white riders was struck in the head when he left the bus to pay their bonds. CORE was testing the enforcement of the 1946 U.S. Supreme Court decision finding that segregation on interstate buses and trains was unconstitutional.
CORE leaders Bayard Rustin and George Houser organized a Greyhound bus trip to Raleigh and a Trailways bus trip to Durham, departing Washington on April 9. After delays, both buses arrived in Chapel Hill on April 12, where violence occurred. Racial tensions in Chapel Hill remained high, even after the Freedom Riders’ departure. A white disabled veteran attending UNC-Chapel Hill was beaten for speaking to a black woman at a bus stop. Debate raged for nearly a week in the campus newspaper, Daily Tar Heel, and the Chapel Hill Weekly over the incident and race relations. In May 1947, the arrested Freedom Riders were sent to segregated chain gangs after trial. The related published articles of Bayard Rustin and the legacy of other riders eventually inspired the Rosa Parks 1955 nonviolent protest and the Freedom Rides of 1960-61.
“We read about the incident in a New York Times article about George Houser, and also Daily Tar Heel articles in 2007,” says Yonni Chapman, project coordinator and local NAACP historian. “We consulted with some people who had applied for highway markers before and put together a package.”
The observance of the 60-year anniversary of the rides in 2007 led to the marker application, which the Chapel Hill NAACP and the Community Church of Chapel Hill sponsored jointly. The Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously endorsed the application and co-sponsors the Feb. 28 program.
For more information about the dedication ceremony, contact Yonni Chapman at (919) 819-3843. For information about the N.C. Highway Historical Marker Program, call (919) 807-7290. The N.C. Highway Historical Marker program is administered by the Office of Archives and History and is part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. The Department of Cultural Resources is observing the 2009 theme “Treasure N.C. Culture.” Visit www.ncculture.com for more information.