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Freedom riders’ 1947 convictions vacated in North Carolina

Amy Zowniriw, niece of Igal Roodenko, applauds an announcement by a judge in Hillsborough, N.C., Friday, June 17, 2022, that the conviction of her uncle, civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, and two other men were vacated. The four men were sentenced to work on a chain gang in North Carolina after they were arrested in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1947 during one of the early freedom rides. (AP Photo/Skip Foreman)

North Carolina Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour speaks to an audience inside an historic courtroom in Hillsborough, N.C., Friday, June 17, 2022. Baddour vacated the convictions of civil rights leader Bayard Rustin and three other men who were on one of the early freedom rides which stopped in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1947. The four men were sentenced to work on a chain gang. (AP Photo/Skip Foreman)

Renee Price, chair of the Orange County, N.C., Commissioners, speaks to an audience inside an historic courtroom in Hillsborough, N.C., Friday, June 17, 2022. After her remarks, a judge vacated the convictions of four men, including civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, who were arrested in Chapel Hill, N.C., during one of the early freedom rides in 1947. They were sentenced to work on a chain gang. (AP Photo/Skip Foreman)

FILE - Bayard Rustin, leader of the March on Washington is shown at the National Headquarters, Aug. 1, 1963, New York. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams, File)

FILE - Bayard Rustin, deputy director of the planned march on Washington program, points to a map showing the line of march for the demonstration for civil rights during a news conference in New York on Aug. 24, 1963. (AP Photo, File)

Freedom riders’ 1947 convictions vacated in North Carolina