press conference today that it is kicking off a Freedom Ride campaign to help
raise awareness about abortion and other acts that “destroy” human life.
The ride is based on a movement
that began in 1961 when 13 individuals boarded a bus headed from Washington,
D.C., to New Orleans. The group set out to test the enforcement
of a 1960 Supreme Court decision that outlawed racial segregation in
restaurants and waiting areas of bus terminals.
“In those days we were fighting
for the civil rights of people being persecuted … because of their skin color,”
said Alveda King, niece of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and
director of African-American outreach for Priests for Life.
“Today, in the 21st century, the
battle still rages,” she added. “And yet another precious class of human beings
is now suffering discrimination due to their age and place of residence. They
are temporarily housed in the wombs of their mothers, and the threat to them is
abortion.”
Father Frank Pavone, national
director of Priests for Life, said the civil rights movement and the pro-life movement are one endeavor.
“It is the movement that stands up every time human life and dignity are
cast down,” he said. “It is the movement that cries out for equal protection
when some are denied their most basic rights.”
An awareness campaign will run up
to a national Pro-life Freedom Ride from Birmingham, Ala., to Atlanta July
23-25.
Riders will attend a concert and rally July 23 at the
Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center and then board the bus bound for
Atlanta. Dozens of rides may be scheduled across the country over the next
year.
King says the effort will address
more than abortion. “We want to draw
attention to abortion, euthanasia, anything that would rob someone of human
life,” King told Charisma.
The Freedom Ride campaign has
support from African-American pro-life advocates including the Rev. Sam Mosteller, Georgia State
President for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Catherine Davis, director of minority outreach for Georgia Right
to Life, which helped sponsor a billboard
campaign around Atlanta that proclaim, “Black children are an endangered
species.”
“For centuries, people have
valiantly fought for freedom,” King said. “The issues change, but the goal
remains the same-freedom for all to live abundant lives.”
