Freedom Riders will speak to graduates

BY JEFF BRANSCOME

The University of Mary Washington will have a fitting end to its semester-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides.

Two Freedom Riders-turned-congressmen will be graduation speakers.

"It all just came together," UMW President Rick Hurley said.

Rep. Bob Filner, a California Democrat, will deliver the commencement address for graduate students at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in Dodd Auditorium.

Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia, will address undergraduates at Saturday's outdoor commence-ment at the Fredericksburg campus. It runs from 9 a.m. until noon.

The anniversary of the Freedom Rides is especially significant to UMW because James Farmer led the movement to desegregate interstate buses and bus terminals. Farmer, who died at age 79 in 1999, was a distinguished professor at Mary Washington.

Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders who rode buses from Washington into the Deep South. More than 400 people, including Filner, participated in subsequent Freedom Rides.

UMW attracted the civil rights leaders through persistence and a little luck.

Richard Cooper, who graduated from Mary Washington in 1990, approached Hurley last year about a campaign to honor Farmer with a commemorative U.S. postage stamp. In 1942, Farmer co-founded what became the Congress of Racial Equality, which organized the first civil rights sit-ins and marches.

Cooper, who was a student aide for Farmer, told Hurley he was visiting Lewis' office to discuss the stamp. So UMW's president asked him to see if Lewis would be interested in speaking at graduation.

"I can't think of a better or bigger way to go out after everything the campus has done this year," said Cooper, who has served on UMW's board of visitors. Lewis, he said, is probably the best-known living Freedom Rider.

The university's celebration of the Freedom Riders has included exhibits, speakers and even T-shirts and buttons. That helped attract the two congressmen, Cooper said.

"I'm not aware of any other university in America that has put the time and energy and resources into acknowledging the Freedom Rides than what UMW has done," Cooper said. "They have really put themselves at the top of the heap."