George Houser, Freedom Rides Pioneer, Dies at 99
By MARGALIT FOX
AUG. 20, 2015
The Rev. George M. Houser, a founder of the Congress of Racial Equality who was believed to be the last living member of the inaugural Freedom Ride — the volatile, sometimes violent bus trip through the South by a racially mixed group in 1947 — died on Wednesday in Santa Rosa, Calif. He was 99 ...
With two African-American colleagues, James Farmer and Bayard Rustin, and others, Mr. Houser founded CORE in 1942.
Five years later, he and Mr. Rustin organized the first test of a United States Supreme Court ruling that barred segregation on interstate transit. Their campaign, called the Journey of Reconciliation, sent black and white riders through the South on interstate buses — an act of great personal risk that met with acceptance in some cities and arrests and bloodshed in others ...
Mr. Houser, who had been imprisoned shortly before the United States entered World War II for declaring himself a conscientious objector, was in later years deeply involved in efforts to end apartheid in South Africa ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/us/george-houser-freedom-rides-pioneer-dies-at-99.html?_r=0
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