According to Great Blue Heron's post, 72 year old Elwin Wilson, a former segregationist from South Carolina, publicly apologized to Congressman John Lewis, a former freedom rider during the Civil Rights movement, for blocking his way and beating him up at a bus station in Rock Hill, SC during the 60s. Wilson has taken his message of racial reconciliation and his quest for forgiveness into black churches and prayed with former civil rights activists. He has openly embraced black men his own age at the very lunch counters where they sought the right to equal service and Wilson sought to prevent it.
Here's a description of Wilson's transformation and its effects among former civil rights activists from that era:
One civil rights worker called Wilson’s apology “a testament to how the world has changed and how hearts have changed.”He might not be sure of the exact time and date. But the important thing is that he gave up prejudice and hatred. It's one more inspiring example that America and the world are changing in positive ways. We have set backs and there are times when it is tempting to give up and throw in the towel. But our efforts do produce change every day in both large and small ways.
Wilson said he gave up drinking in 1976. He is not sure when he gave up hating blacks.
So, on a lovely spring Sunday go out and enjoy. But know that our efforts make a difference, sometimes years later and in ways that we never expect.
