Background
Blankenheim was born on March 16, 1934 in Lake Benton, Minnesota.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Editor Blankenheim
Edit ProfileEducation
University of Arizona.
Career
He moved with his family to Chicago at age 10. He served in the United States Marine Corps in the Korean War and observed Southern racism during his time in the Corps. While studying chemistry at the University of Arizona, he became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, and joined the Congress of Racial Equality (Congress of Racial Equality).
Editor was one of the few white people who participated in local civil rights activities.
He started out by becoming involved with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Youth Council in Tucson, Arizona and later became a leader for a division of Congress of Racial Equality known as Students for Equality. In 1961, thirteen civil rights workers boarded buses to test the United States Supreme Court ruling Boynton v.
Virginia (1960) that outlawed segregation in all interstate public facilities. The objective was to travel on interstate buses into the southern United States practicing non-violent protests that challenged the practice of Jim Crow travel laws.
The participants encountered violent protests the further south they traveled and endured countless violent actions, threats, beatings, and even the risk of death every time they traveled to a new bus station.
During the journey and upon arriving in Anniston, Alabama an angry mob attacked the Greyhound business The mob firebombed the bus, but the passengers managed to escape. The riders were regrouped by the mob and severely beaten.
Editor was hit in the face with a tire iron and lost several teeth.
Police looked away as the riders were severely beaten by the angry mob. Facing danger, injury, and death Editor managed to survive the attack.
He was interviewed on National Public Radio in 2001 on the 40th anniversary of the freedom rides. That year he rode on a bus to recreate the first freedom ride, but this time was welcomed as a hero, in contrast to the beatings and bus burning of 1961.
He died on September 26, 2004.
-
Born
-
Died
September 26, 2004 (aged 70) -
Nationality
American