by Zinie Chen Sampson

RICHMOND, Va. (AP)—Charles Reed Jr. skipped his college graduation ceremony to do something much more significant to him: retracing the original 1961 Freedom Ride and paying tribute to those who helped win the civil rights that his generation enjoys.

FREEDOM RIDERS—These 1961 file photos released by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History shows the booking photos of Reginald Green and Joan Trumpauer Mulholland taken after their arrest in Jackson, Miss., as part of the original Freedom Ride. (AP Photo/Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

Reed says missing graduation doesn’t compare to the sacrifices the original Freedom Riders made when they challenged the South’s segregation laws: quitting jobs, dropping out of college, and ultimately, risking their lives.

“What the Freedom Rides did 50 years ago paved the way for what I have today as an African-American,” said Reed, a 21-year-old business administration major at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. Reed was one of 40 college students who joined a handful of the original Freedom Riders on an eight-day journey from Washington, D.C., through the South.

ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP)—Colin Powell told graduates of South Carolina's premier historically Black university that they were graduating during a tumultuous time that saw a royal wedding, a pope’s beatification and a U.S. military assault that killed Osama bin Laden, “the worst person on earth.”

But the former secretary of state and Joint Chiefs chairman told South Carolina State University’s 400 graduates on May 6 that he particularly enjoyed another recent event: “That was when President Obama took out his birth certificate and blew away Donald Trump and all the birthers!”

GEN. COLIN POWELL

by Thomas Beaumont
Associated Press Writer

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP)—First lady Michelle Obama said Saturday that the U.S. military specialists who killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden showed “the very essence” of public service.

Mrs. Obama made her first public remarks about bin Laden’s death during the commencement address at University of Northern Iowa. U.S. officials have said Navy SEALs shot and killed bin Laden and four others May 2 at his luxury compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

CALL FOR PUBLIC SERVICE—First lady Michelle Obama gives the commencement address at the University of Northern Iowa graduation May 7, at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Week of May 14-20

May 14

RAMONA AFRICA, JOHN CONYERS JR.

1885—Erskine Henderson, an African-American jockey, wins the Kentucky Derby on “Joe Cotton”—a horse trained by Alex Perry—an African-American trainer. Henderson was the sixth Black jockey to win the coveted race. Indeed, Black jockeys and trainers dominated the Kentucky Derby from 1875 to 1902. However, while some of the reasons are not entirely clear, it appears that as the race became more and more prosperous Black jockeys and trainers were forced out.