From Klan to contrite: Former racist to be honored in D.C. tonight

Rock Hill's Elwin Wilson to get peace award for apology in 1961 attack

By Andrew Dys, Columnist - adys@heradonline.com

Tonight, there will be applause. Tonight, Elwin Wilson from Rock Hill and U.S. Rep. John Lewis from Georgia will stand on a stage together and accept awards that show they do not despise each other.

Elwin Wilson once attacked Lewis, he hated blacks so much.

John Lewis never hated Elwin Wilson, even as he wiped the blood from his bruised face.

This white former racist and black congressman and one-time Freedom Rider will be honored for moving past a nightmare that took just seconds at the long-gone Rock Hill bus station on May 9, 1961. They will be lauded for helping to bury a South of segregation, violence and hate.

That South is long gone.

Some of that racial hatred didn't die until just this year, though. And what a burial that hate had.

Wilson, the former Ku Klux Klansman, the man who beat Lewis to a bloody pulp, finally apologized. And Lewis, lion of peace that he is, accepted. The nation took notice.

That's why these two men who could not be more different will share a spotlight, a handshake and awards that honor handling crises through peace. At a ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., Wilson and Lewis will receive the prestigious Common Ground Award from the international conflict resolution group Search for Common Ground.

The group in the past has honored such people as Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu and Muhammad Ali, and groups including the governments of Canada and Australia that apologized for how indigenous people were mistreated.

“Sometimes you do what's right, even if it takes your whole life to do it, and it makes people realize it is never too late to make things right,” Wilson said. “That sure is true for me.”

After January's inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's first black president, Wilson apologized to local civil rights protesters he had berated and bullied in the early 1960s. He said he was sorry for a life of race-hating that he then and now can't explain.

Wilson then admitted he was one of about six young men who beat up Lewis when Lewis was stopped in Rock Hill as part of the 1961 Freedom Rides protesting segregated facilities.

The Herald first reported Wilson's apology and Lewis' acceptance in late January. A few days later, Wilson went to Washington and apologized to Lewis in person in a meeting arranged by ABC News.

Through TV and newspapers and the Internet later on, the nation and world learned of the former bigot who apologized and the congressman who accepted.

The Common Ground leadership was among those stunned by the power of Wilson's apology and Lewis' acceptance. At a speech Monday night at Winthrop, Common Ground communications director Susan Koscis told students at a symposium how that group sees Wilson's actions as an example of how apologies can change the world.

Common Ground has a presence in dozens of countries, with much of its focus on the Middle East. Its work is translated into six languages and focuses on achievements in collaborative problem solving instead of adversaries sniping or shooting at each other. This year's other honorees are as far-ranging as a community group from Chicago trying to reduce violence, to music efforts that promote unity.

Wilson's words and actions show how an actual apology and following through on that apology can make the world a better place, Koscis said.

Tonight's ceremony isn't the first time Wilson and Lewis have met since the historic apology. This summer, the two were part of a civil rights conference in Georgia over unsolved murders from the 1940s. A few weeks later, both were honored by the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance at a conference in California.

Wilson came to that talk at Winthrop earlier this week and told the students how he was ashamed of his past. He talked bluntly, like always, about race. But the students applauded him for having the guts to apologize.

A black student from Chester came up after it was over, and hugged Elwin Wilson.

Karen Kedrowski, the Winthrop political science chairwoman who organized that event Monday night, told the audience that she was proud of how far Rock Hill — and Wilson — had come.

The year 1961 is a long time ago. And certainly most people from Rock Hill did not beat up civil rights protesters.

But one guy, Elwin Wilson, 72 and gray-haired, admits he did. And he's not afraid to say now, to the whole world, that he shouldn't have.

And he is not afraid to look the man he beat up right in the eye and say that he is sorry.

Want to know more?

To learn more about Search for Common Ground, go to sfcg.org.

Columnist Andrew Dys and The Herald's chief photographer Andy Burriss and will be covering tonight's Common Ground awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. Look for complete coverage in Friday's Herald and at heraldonline.com.