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This video was published on Nov. 5, 2015, and shared with Ink Free News by Joseph Defilippo, who wrote the words to the video. DeFilippo stated the video is a tribute to Person and the heroic Freedom Riders, and has shared the video with Person, who liked the song/video. “Freedom Ride” written by Joe DeFilippo and performed by the R.J. Phillips Band, a group of Baltimore studio musicians. Joe DeFilippo: vocals, bass guitar, acoustic guitar; Bill Phelan: lap steel, electric guitar; Patrick McAvinue: fiddle; Leslie Darr, background vocals; Bill Pratt: drums, wurlitzer piano, background vocals. Produced & recorded by: Bill Pratt @ the Bratt Studio, Baltimore,MD.

Charles Person, the youngest to take a seat on one of two buses with the Freedom Riders into the south on May 1, 1961, will be in Warsaw on Jan. 18 to celebrate the 28th Annual Martin Luther King Jr., Celebration. The event will be held at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center, on the campus of Grace College.

All ages are invited to the celebration which will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. with the doors opening at 11 a.m. A free lunch will be provided, however, donations will be accepted to cover costs.

Person of Atlanta, Ga., was a college freshman who had been active in the civil rights movement since high school. He was a gifted student with dreams of a career as a nuclear physicist. He was denied admission to the all-white Georgia Institute of Technology, but was accepted at MIT. But the tuition was out of reach for the financially strapped family of nine.

He enrolled in Atlanta’s Morehouse College the fall of 1960 and participated in numerous sit-ins. His activism led to a 16-day jail sentence, drawing the attention of Congress of Racial Equality recruiters looking for a Freedom Rider to represent Atlanta. The only hurdle was getting his parents to sign the permission slip, as he was under 21. He did get their permission, but only after he was not quite truthful about the trip.

Two buses left Washington D.C. on May 4. One of the buses was surrounded by whites in Anniston, Ala., and fire bombed. The mob pressed against the door of the bus, yelling racial epithets including “burn them alive.” ALl the riders, including the future Georgia congressman, John Lewis, escaped, but suffered smoke inhalation.

Person was on the second bus that arrived in Anniston. The riders refused the driver’s order to move to the back of the bus. Person was one of four beaten by Klansmen and dragged to the back. When the bus rolled into Birmingham, another mob waited. When Person and the others entered the bus station, they were attacked by the white mob. Some were armed with lead pipes. The local medical profession refused to treat the black riders, fearing repercussions. Person’s wounds were dressed by a nurse, who was a member of a local Baptist church where the riders stayed that evening.

Many Freedom Rides followed and made the front pages of newspapers. Five months after it began, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued an order ending segregation in public transportation.

The emotional and physical effects persisted beyond that event for Person. There was no counseling and the emotional wounds have not completely healed.

He went on to a 20-year career with the Marine Corps including nine months in Vietnam. He retired from the Marines as a first lieutenant and ran his own electronics company near Guantanamo, Cuba in the early 1980s. Now one of three people still alive today who participated in the event, he suffers from diabetes and the after effects of exposure to Agent Orange from his time in Vietnam. He volunteers as a tutor and mentor for high school students.

He will share his story at the local celebration, as well as speak to students at Warsaw Community Schools.

The Committee To Commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Inc., is organizing the visit and the MLK Celebration.