In a piece about the Freedom Riders activism in the 1960's, Dr. Silas Norman Jr., associate dean for admissions, diversity and inclusion at Wayne State University\'s College of Medicine, comments extensively. During the summer of 1964, he was a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of Wisconsin who went to Selma, Ala., to be part of a five-member Selma Literacy Project designed to prepare people to vote. Shortly after settling in Selma, Norman became Alabama state director for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. \"We are living through a time when people literally gave their lives for the right to vote,\" he said. \"Now, seeing the kind of apathy and lack of involvement in politics, it\'s puzzling. In order to gain political power, you have a voice. Voting is your voice. Things changed in this country because we got a voice through voting. We just have to keep trying to tell the story.\"

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-01-30-freedom-riders_N.htm
http://www.freep.com/article/20110130/NEWS01/101300536/1318/7daysarchives/Black-History-Month-Foot-soldiers-revolution-recall-hostility-hope-early-60s?odyssey=mod_sectionstories