Dear Friends I would like to share this story with you.

Just weeks before I met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for the first time, I said goodbye to New York City and thumbed my way to All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington D.C., where they were recruiting for the Freedom Rides -- buses headed into the segregated South to test racial segregation policies. The first wave of freedom rides made national news when a bus in Alabama was firebombed by a mob that held its doors shut as it burned and later viciously beat the riders when they were able to escape. The next wave of Riders, they told us, had to send a message that the bombing would not deter the protests. So, I hopped on board.

In Jackson, our group used the whites-only facilities at the train station. It wasn't a pretty scene – hatred surrounded us. I had no idea how respond. Stokely Carmichael, a fellow rider, had been down South before and was well-versed. He asked me if I had ever heard of non-violence, offering a brief description. "Hell no," I said, one of the few uneducated young people in a group full of mostly college students. "Whoever heard of such a thing?"

Following others' lead, I held my ground that day without responding to the aggression, and I gave a straight razor I always kept on me to another Rider to dispose of. Eventually officers herded us all onto paddy wagons with billy clubs, spitting on us along the way. I would later spend 40 days in Parchman Penitentiary for my act of civil disobedience, but for the next few days, the other Riders and I were confined in Hinds County jail, where we met Dr. King.

I remember first seeing him in person, larger than life. Dr. King had a group of students gathered around him, and he was teaching the art of non-violent action. He told us, "it's the most powerful weapon we have, because if we try to fight or use weapons to overcome our situation, the repercussions would be much worse than if we project love. "

As I watched, it appeared to me like he was a modern-day Jesus mentoring to his disciples. This was a particularly funny feeling for me, since growing up, I was used to worshipping a blue-eyed, blond-haired, six-foot-tall Jesus.

Indeed, Dr. King wasn't just an ordinary man; he was an extraordinary leader. And the principles of non-violence he espoused helped save my life.

This year, communities across this country will remember the work of Dr. King on January 16th, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. *Dr. King was all about love. In our effort to continue the work that he started, can you join me in honoring the spirit of this holiday by bringing this fantastic campaign of love into your community's commemoration of MLK, Jr. Day?

Many months later, the words of Dr. King followed me as I traveled with SNCC to embark on a voter registration project in Liberty, Mississippi, where my efforts, with Mr. Bob Moses, to escort four local blacks to the courthouse to register to vote were met by a racist, violent mob. A crowd of a dozen whites shouted hostile questions to us about why "niggers from New York" were stirring up trouble. A thin old man named Bryant Jones was in a shaking, uncontrollable rage, talking about how black men were raping white women up North. He began to pummel me. Mr. Moses pulled me around the waist, trying to maneuver me out of the beating and the crowd of 15 or so people surrounding us. The old man kept swinging, possessed of a hatred so intense that it seemed to consume what strength he had. He was holding me so tight around the collar, I put my hands on my collar to ease the choking. He just kept hitting and shouting, "Why don't you hit me, nigger?"

Bryant Jones, was trying to get me to abandon the non-violent code that Martin Luther King, Jr. had taught us. But I heeded Dr. King's teachings. After a while, tired, Bryant yelled to his crowd, 'Why don't we lynch this nigger?' The crowd had various reactions, but made no efforts to get involved further. When Bryant mentioned lynching and the crowd did not respond, it was the first time I realized that all white people were not evil. Fifty plus years ago.

I told Mr. Bryant, 'If you're through beating me, I'd like to go now.' One of the men who had been attempting to register then drove me away from the scene after Bryant released me.

Had I fought back, I might not be here today to share this story with you.

"Thank you, Dr. King, for teaching me that non-violence and love is always the answer. For that, and so much more, I honor you."

As a man in my 70s looking back on my life, including my time as a Freedom Rider in the 1960s, and thinking about what difference I can still make, I am inspired by the very notion of a "Story of Us, and a Story of Now".

Travis O. Britt, Sr.

Many UU's have also enjoyed and recommend this story and this book to you

 "The Parting of the Waters" from A Bucketful of Dreams by Chris Buice, published by the UUA's Skinner House