Center for Domestic Preparedness hosts Black History Month program

Feb. 22—The Center for Domestic Preparedness hosted a Black History Month celebration at its McClellan based facility Wednesday, and invited one of the last two living original Freedom Riders, Charles Person, as the guest speaker.

The CDP — which trains first responders on how to handle hazardous material mass casualty incidents — invited its first responder students, staff members and other area social and civil rights leaders to the center Wednesday in honor of Black History Month.

Jacksonville State University Director of Environmental Policy & Information Center Pete Conroy spoke at the event prior to Person taking the mic. During his presentation, Conroy announced an initiative that was an idea cultivated by Person two years ago at the height of the George Floyd protests.

"Charles is not just about history that he made. But he's about the present and the future. The Freedom Rides are living on at the benefit of the nation right now," Conroy said.

He said that Person called him as he watched chaos unfold surrounding the George Floyd protests across the nation, and was upset by what he saw.

"He said, 'Look at those people. They don't know what they're doing. They shouldn't be out at night. You have antagonists within the protest group that are stealing the message,'" Conroy said.

Conroy said it was then that Person came up with the idea to develop a training program for protesters.

Conroy and other area officials brought in the NYPD, LAPD, Black Lives Matter, the DA's office and the U.S. Attorney's Office. He said they brought in designers, architects and artists, and they held video conferences over the span of a year and a half. The fruits of their labor was the inception of specialized training, according to Conroy.

"We came up with something called the Freedom Riders Training Institute," Conroy said.

"The idea was to be proactive and reach protesters before they make mistakes, before they broke the law, to make sure their message was delivered properly," he continued.

Conroy said he expected to have a diversity of those seeking the courses, however it surprised him when court systems showed interest. He said that a court system in Alabama has since used the training as a second-chance option to have criminally charged protesters' sentences reduced and some records expunged even. That is the first time that's happened anywhere in the nation, according to Conroy.

Person was the youngest

As the youngest original Freedom Rider and one of only two left alive, Person, 80, garnered a standing ovation as he approached the podium. To his right a table stood with various historical images of Person's experience with that horrific day in 1961 when a Greyhound bus was burned in Anniston and a group of Black riders on a Trailways bus were brutally beaten.

Person was among those on the Trailways bus that day.

The man told his story to the group in great detail, beginning with his time as a child growing up in the Atlanta public school system and overcoming great difficulty throughout his youth.

He walked the group through the events the day of the bus bombing and the after events.

"The boycotts, the sit-ins, and the picketings brought us victory," Person said.

Person said after the beating he and the other riders took, hospitals refused to treat them — even the Birmingham-based black doctors.

"Before we came to Birmingham, we were labeled as outside agitators. I guess medical licensing is a state function and they didn't want to lose their license," Person said.

"At that time I was very upset, but over the years I understood, because I was there for a moment and they were in the community, so I forgave them a long time ago," Person said.

Audience questions

During the Q&A portion of the event, one audience member asked Person about how his mother reacted to the incident and how it ushered in to his military career.

"The FBI identified all these guys and brought me to Montgomery to their trial. Two weeks, we went through the shenanigans of having a trial and they were all acquired. So when I returned home, my mother says to me, 'Why don't you join the Army? It would be safer than staying in the Civil Rights Movement,'" Person said.

Person would go on to join the Marine Corps instead of the Army, but he said that things he learned as a Freedom Rider would later save his life.

"There are times when I should have been afraid. Either I was too young or too stupid, but I wasn't afraid," Person said.

One audience member asked him, "What is the purpose of nonviolent training and can you give a little more detail on what they train you to do?"

"We knew people before us had tried to integrate. They'd tried other various means and they were not successful," Person said. "We didn't know that we were going to be successful but we had to try something. And Dr. King had proven that non-violence worked, Gandhi had proved that it worked, and the main thing is that we found out that when you fight back that increases the violence towards you"

He said many of the people who attacked them were frustrated because the Freedom Riders were not fighting back or even defending themselves.

"You can't brag about beating someone who didn't fight back," Person said.

Hobson City Mayor Alberta McCrory told Person that each time she hears him speak, she hears some new information from the story that she'd never heard before.

"It is so inspiring. And when I think now 'Black lives matter' and people like me who grew up in the '60s who were very active in the movement and how we are divided in a sense with the younger generation.

"What advice would you have for us and how can we come together and share what we have experienced to strengthen what we have to do as we move forward because we know that there's still a lot of work to be done," McCrory said.

Person said the main thing is to be forward with what the message is in order to garner participation. There is strength in numbers.

"When you're marching in the street, people need to know why you're out there," Person said.

Ending his presentation, Person said that every person has the ability to change the world.

"You can change the world, and I will help you. Today we can all make a difference. Be a friend. Make a friend. Will you be my friend?" Person said.

Staff Writer Ashley Morrison: 256-236-1551. On Twitter: @AshMorrison1105.