Looking for Loopholes

The Associated Press is carrying an intriguing story about repentant former KKK supporter Elwin Hope Wilson.

Mr. Wilson actually took part in an historic event: the first violent attack on the 1961 Freedom Riders in  Rock Hill, South Carolina. From the website of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee:

The Supreme Court decision to end desegregation not only in travel, but also in bus terminal facilities, prompted a new set of Freedom Rides and SNCC's involvement. In 1961 a group of seven black and six white people, including John Lewis, left Washington, D.C. for New Orleans on two buses, a Trailways bus and a Greyhound bus. The group made it through Virginia and North Carolina without incident.At the Greyhound bus station in Rock Hill, South Carolina, the group encountered violence. A mob of twenty attacked the group, and John Lewis was the first to be hit as he approached the white waiting room. Police eventually interfered and the group was allowed access to the white waiting room.

Mr. Wilson was one of that "mob of twenty" who attacked Mr. Lewis. He now explains:

"All I can say is that it has bothered me for years, all the bad stuff I've done," Wilson says, speaking slowly and deliberately. "And I found out there is no way I could be saved and get to heaven and still not like blacks."

If this is starting to sound a little like the redemption of Ebeneezer Scrooge, then consider his wife's explanation for Mr. Wilson's change of heart:

"I wasn't ever scared of no one, or nothing," says Wilson, still a tall, strapping man despite his illness.
"You were scared of the ghost of that black man you saw rocking in the chair," his wife reminds him, describing the nightmare several years ago when he furiously beat his fists into thin air. Wilson narrows his eyes and scowls at her.

All of which brings to mind an old story about Darby Borough native W. C. Fields. Nearing the end of his life, Mr. Fields was spotted, incongruously, flipping through a Bible. Asked what he was up to, he explained, "Looking for loopholes."