rom time to time I talk about strange, unpleasant, and unfortunate happenings in human history, or some news story about it comes online, and I have to quote from and comment on it. This page collects that sort of thing, in one convenient location.

More recent additions are on top.

January 9, 2003

Typically great post on PLA about the freedom riders.  Groups of whites and blacks who banned together to try and break the illegally segregated bus travel across the US in 1960.  They were beaten and nearly murdered several times by angry white mobs, had a bus firebombed and escaped with their lives only due to a cop firing warning shots into the air, sent to the hospital nearly dead, in addition to suffering constant verbal abuse and harassment from various Trent Lott fans.

Some of the Freedom Riders were taken to the hospital for their wounds. Jim Peck suffered broken teeth and at least six head wounds that required fifty-two stitches to repair. A photograph of Peck at the hospital appears here.

Jim Peck was a middle aged white man. He was the heir to the Peck & Peck clothing fortune. He had attended Harvard University. He had nothing to gain, personally, from the integration of Southern bus terminals. He chose to be a Freedom Rider out of pure principle.

While at the hospital, a reporter asked Jim Peck about his future plans and whether the Freedom Rides had been worth the cost. In an act of almost unfathomable courage, Jim Peck replied:

The going is getting rougher, but I’ll be on that bus tomorrow headed for Montgomery.

That statement exemplifies the courage and valor of the Freedom Riders.

All site content copyright "Flux" (Eric Bruce), 2002-2007.