Thomas will be speaker for unveiling ceremony

Historic City News will be on hand when Atlanta businessman, Henry “Hank” Thomas, speaks at Saturday’s unveiling of the St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument.

Thomas, who lived in St. Augustine and graduated from Murray High School, was one of the original “Freedom Riders” of the 1960′s. However, Thomas began questioning the racial status quo from the time he was very young.

Thomas recalls that when he was only 9 or 10 years-old, he bristled at a white insurance man who would only address his aunt by her first name. Later, because blacks were not allowed in the public library, Thomas would take his own books there and read for about an hour or so.

During the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott, in St. Augustine, Thomas sat in the “whites only” seats on local city buses. When he suggested to St. Augustine ministers that they attempt a similar bus boycott here, Thomas says that they declined.

In 1960, while on break from his studies at Washington’s Howard University, Thomas staged a solo sit-in at the lunch counter of the McCrory’s store on St. George Street, and a year later, at 19, he joined the 1961 Freedom Ride. In 1961, he defined himself as a civil rights activist; protesting segregated facilities as he traveled to Greyhound bus stations throughout the south.

Hank Thomas, today, is a successful Atlanta businessman; he owns several fast food franchises. Last week, Thomas was among dozens “Freedom Riders” appearing on the Oprah Winfrey show commemorating the 50th anniversary of that period, and, next Monday, he will be part of a PBS documentary “The Freedom Riders”.

The monument, which was installed in the southeast section of the Plaza de la Constitución today, will be dedicated in the ceremony Saturday afternoon. Thomas will be the main speaker.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News archive photograph