Race lines can be personal
Even at age 72, bigots, victims can find redemption from past
By: Paul Bowers - Pleading the First
Second-year print journalism student
Posted: 4/6/09
In talking about race relations, the success stories often center around the once-oppressed minorities who finally make it in a more equitable world. But what about the other side of the story? What of the repentant oppressors?
No doubt the minorities have had the toughest journey, faced with political, economic and cultural obstacles along the way. The only stumbling blocks for the reformed racists are themselves.
Still, there's something remarkable about people like Elwin Hope Wilson, a 72-year-old Rock Hill resident who once spat in the face of the civil rights movement and now seeks forgiveness for his past. The State featured Wilson in an AP-syndicated article Saturday, and his story is the other half of the Rev. King's dream.
A former Klansman who beat and ridiculed African-Americans for most of his life, Wilson has made a stir in recent months with his public confessions. In February, he traveled to Washington, D.C., to apologize to a black Freedom Rider whom he assaulted at a Rock Hill bus stop in 1961. That man, Rep. John Lewis, is now a U.S. Congressman from the state of Georgia.
Wilson's story is not a feel-good one. In the black-and-white photos of civil rights protests, he is one of the jeering white men in the crowd behind the police barrier. He is the angry youth throwing eggs at black boys in a segregated diner.
And his change of heart is not going to sell any movie rights, either. He's not entirely sure how it came about, citing a mix of religious conviction, lingering guilt and observation of current events.
What can America do with people like Elwin Wilson? He doesn't fit the cast of hero or villain, and he's several decades too late to be a revolutionary.
Rep. Lewis had every right to have Wilson booted from his Washington office. He has succeeded despite the past efforts of people like Wilson, and time does little to heal the type of wounds he's sustained.
But he forgave him. The two men appeared on CNN to discuss their meeting, and while they were anything but buddy-buddy, the one thing that was evident was grace. Neither man was remarkably eloquent, and neither seemed to hail this as a great stride in race relations. Two men had simply sat down together, looked each other in the eyes and reached an understanding.
The civil rights movement has achieved many of its goals in the legal arena, but there are still decades of progress to make on the level of personal change. And when relationships like Lewis and Wilson's are repaired, there is a possibility for cultural change.
The neighborhoods of Chicago are still divided along race lines. Native American groups are still isolated in cycles of poverty. Here in Columbia, there are white parts of town and black parts of town - with an uneasy air of distrust lingering between.
If change is going to come, it will come after people humble themselves like Elwin Wilson and show grace like John Lewis.