Man Attempts to Make Amends for Racist Past

2009-04-06 23:00:27 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Law, News)

Wired PR News reports South Carolina man seeks to atone for past racism

A man offers apologies for years of racist acts.

Wired PR News – A South Carolina man is seeking to atone for his racist past. As reported by the Associated Press (AP), Elwin Hope Wilson has spent the past several months apologizing for acts of racism, many criminal, committed against African Americans including cross burnings and several violent occurrences.

The now ailing 72 year-old, who used to be a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, has been visiting black churches, socializing with black men his own age, and other measures in what’s been deemed an attempt to save his soul for the afterlife. Wilson is quoted in the AP report as stating, “All I can say is that it has bothered me for years, all the bad stuff I’ve done…And I found out there is no way I could be saved and get to heaven and still not like blacks.”

Wilson initially made headlines after issuing an apology to Atlanta Congressman John Lewis for attacking him over four decades ago during the Freedom Rides of the 1960s.