Hank Thomas (1941- ) is an American civil rights activist and businessman. He was one of the first Freedom Riders, those who rode buses in the South to test changes in civil rights laws.
He grew up in St Augustine, Florida. His father left before he was born, his mother was a maid. He won a scholarship and got into Howard University, a black university in Washington, DC. He felt out of place since his father was not rich or important.
He took part in the civil rights movement, protesting Congress, protesting nearby cinemas that would not admit blacks. In 1960 he became a founder of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a student arm of the civil rights movement.
In 1961 he became one of the first 13 Freedom Riders. He was a last-minute replacement: his roommate was too sick to go. He was on the very first bus to enter Alabama and found out too late that, unlike the others, he was not prepared to “give his life for freedom”! At Anniston 200 whites, mostly Klan, tried to destroy the bus and kill everyone on it. He thought he was going to die. His life was saved three times that day.
Ten days later he was back for his second Freedom Ride. Now he was ready to give his life for freedom. He wound up in Parchman, the worst prison in the state of Mississippi. The Freedom Riders were trying to fill Parchman to overflowing to break the back of Jim Crow.
He continued working for the civil rights movement but then in 1965 he had to go fight in the Vietnam War. There he served as a medic. In 1966 he was wounded in battle, won a Purple Heart and came home.
He moved to Atlanta: he saw it as the best city for the black middle-class. He went into business with a friend and opened a laundromat. From there he worked his way up through the franchise business: a Dairy Queen and a Burger King in a rough part of Atlanta, then six McDonald’s restaurants and now four Marriott hotels.
He was a millionaire by 1991, but even then the white banks would not lend him money because of redlining – until, that is, the newspaper outed them.
He says not enough blacks go into business, seriously weakening the black middle-class.
In 1994 he returned to Vietnam. The soldiers who once tried to kill him hugged him and invited him into their homes.
In 1991 and 2005 he returned to Anniston. The whites who once tried to kill him would not even talk to him. But the sister of one of them did:
She: When you were in Vietnam, the communists were trying to kill you. Right?
Thomas: Yeah.
She: They were trying to kill you because you were their enemy.
Thomas: Yeah.
She: Well, that’s the way it was here.
Thomas: [Silence] Huh? [Laughs.] But we were Americans.
She: I understand that. But you were the enemy. And that’s why they were trying to kill you.
See also:
With teh Vietnamese, it wasn’t really personal, for the most part. They’d been fighting off the Japanese and the French for decades before we got there. They just wanted to control their country (not that I’m down with Communism) and they were not driven by any sense of inherent superiority over anyone.
Those people in Anniston were white supremacists. That’s an extremely emotional-based (and super irrational) way of thinking adn ideology, and that leads to holding eternal grudges, even when you’re the one one who is/was dead wrong.
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What’s redlining?
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This is a really powerful post.
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ok, can I be anymore overwhelmed with surprise, gratitude and shock?
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He aged well!! LOL. Very nice post.
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Someone every man, of any race, can look up to. He stood for something and never backed down. He made his own way through life, without a father, and still persevered.
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Very inspirational man I’d say
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Cici,
Redlining is when companies, frequently insurance companies, target neighborhoods that are heavily black and brown, and decide to offer less favorable terms on insurance and other necessary products to the people in those areas. The name came from the old practice of taking out a map of a city and drawing an border around that neighborhood’s streets with a red marker. There’s more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining
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These are the kinds of stories that need to be told in the history books.
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Wow! This guy is American Hero in every sense of the word. And to be honest, I have never heard of Hank Thomas, until now, despite taking a Civil Rights history course in college, and studying on my own. Thanks again Abagond.
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I agree King and Claude. Here is a American hero in very traditional sense. To go trough those terrible years in the 60’s, then to go and be a medic(!) in combat. Zeesus what a guy this is!
Like I said, I could have never ever in a million years done what he and the others did in Aniston ja South. Nor I could’ve done what he did in Vietnam. Nor I am a millionaire :D.
What does that say about the charachter of this man that trough the civilrights movement and war he came out on top of the system? Kick ass guy. Propably does not see himself in extraordinary light at all and that is what the heroes are made of.
I think in his case the redlining came from the FBI. They considered all the civilrights activist as “subversives” and “communist sympathizers”. Hoover’s FBI tried every trick in their books to destroy these guys and in this case, failed magnificently!
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>>In 1991 and 2005 he returned to Anniston. The whites who once tried to kill him would not even talk to him. But the sister of one of them did:<<
And that goes to what I've said before. Those of the War and Boomer generations have not really changed the attitudes we were taught when young. As we felt in 1060, we still feel.
The Boomer Generation–born and raised in apartheid–will have to die before the US can hope to be a "post-racial" society.
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i loved reading about this man. he is truly an american hero. the younger generation needs to know about him in their history books, that’s if the revisionists haven’t gotten to them yet.
thank you for telling his story, abagond.
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Are you saying that Hank Thomas and the Freedom Riders have not been in American history books and taught to kids of all backgrounds in 40+ years?
He is a true inspiration and role model for everybody, irrespective of their backgrounds.
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For those interested and who understand French, here are some personal stories of 6 of the Freedom Riders.
(I didn’t check how good Google translation is for this.)
http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article_interactif/2009/01/16/les-freedom-riders-parlent-pres-de-50-ans-apres_1142604_3222.html
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What an amazing man. Merci, Abagond.
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This man is brave with a good heart. Nice to look at too.
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I would love to meet some of these freedom riders.
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I also had no idea how significant Hank Thomas was to the Civil Rights movement. The Dairy Queen that Hank owned was located right behind Morehouse College on Ashby Street. Many of us who were students at both Morehouse and Spelman College were frequent customers of his restaurant.
Thank you Hank for your efforts, you made the world better for African Americans.
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I met Hank at a speaking engament. I was riveted in my seat to hear such a brave and humble man he is after all the hell he went through. It was a pleasure to meet such a hero. God bless you Hank!
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he is a great man
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