Sara Sandstrom-Kobi, Gilpin County. Several months ago, I was at the Gilpin County Library checking out a book by US Representative John Lewis. I had just been to the Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, NC. The museum tour was profound and powerful. I came home wanting to learn more about the people who risked their lives in the Civil Rights Movement. 

The gentleman behind the desk at the library kindly greeted me. I knew he was a local author and worked at the library for several years. He looked at the books I was checking out and very casually said, “I was a Freedom Rider in Mississippi in the early 1960s.”

Trying not to sound too aghast my response was, “You mean, one of THE Freedom Riders, like John Lewis?”

His response was very matter of fact, “Yes, I was.”

I felt like I was in the presence of someone pretty incredible. Someone who must have an amazing story to tell. And here he was in rural Gilpin County. In my opinion, anyone who risks their life to better an entire marginalized group of people is a hero. This librarian is, at 80 years of age, an American hero. This gentleman is George Blevins. 

It was an honor to finally sit down with George and hear his story. 

George was born and raised in Natchitoches, Louisiana. He describes it as a small picturesque town in central Louisiana on the beautiful Cane River Lake. Natchitoches is the original French colony in Louisiana and the oldest white settlement of the Louisiana Purchase. It still has a European charm from the French influence. This part of the South is worlds away from Gilpin County, Colorado, especially in 1939, the year George was born. The question burning in my head was, “How does a white boy growing up in central Louisiana grow up to be a Freedom Rider, fighting against the very institution he was raised in?” My question would be answered. 

When George was 12 years old his life and his perception of life was profoundly altered. His father was a water well driller and worked for US Foreign Aid. He accepted a job in Ecuador. George said that he found himself in school in Ecuador where all the kids were a different skin color. Race did not matter in his new home. In Louisiana he never had friends that were black. The races did not mix. But in Ecuador everyone looked different and society accepted it. 

Being in Ecuador even for just a few years he learned Spanish and that time helped shape his attitude on race. Which would guide some of his decisions as a young man. 

His parents sent him back to the United States to a boarding school for his high school years. George attended San Marcos Baptist Academy in San Marcos, Texas, for his high school education. 

I asked George if he then graduated from this school. He raised his voice a little, smiled and said, “No, I was expelled! And it was Harry Scott’s fault.” 

I couldn’t help but say, “What in the world did you do?”

The school had a car and his friends thought it would be cool if they stole the keys from the principal’s office, drive the car to Austin and get back to school before anyone knew about it. George and three of his pals succeeded with their plan. 

Then one of the guys bragged about it. They were soon expelled from the academy. He did get a high school diploma but was not allowed to finish the year at the school or attend the graduation ceremony. 

George then headed to California to attend Chorinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He chose this particular art school because Walt Disney was on the board of directors. He has always loved animation and making comic strips. He had aspirations of becoming an inker for Walt Kelly’s Pogo comic strip. An inker is someone who takes the original comic strip and embellishes or finishes it. 

While in Los Angeles George started to attend meetings or gatherings for followers of Leon Trotsky with some friends. He said that what he took out of those meetings is that the world is a mess. This is also where he heard about the organizing of the Freedom Riders. It was 1960-1961. The Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum and George Blevins would soon be stepping onto a bus and into history.

After the Civil War in the United States there was a period of approximately 12 years known as Reconstruction. During this time laws were passed in attempt to right some of the wrongs of slavery. Ultimately it was a failure. As soon as it ended in 1877 the white south implemented a reign of terror to keep blacks subordinate. 

In 1946 the US Supreme Court ruled that interstate travel was to be desegregated. This was not enforced in southern states despite the ruling. The Freedom Riders came to Mississippi to challenge the discrimination and segregation on Interstate travel lines and their facilities in 1961. 

These non-violent actions were organized by the Civil Rights advocate group CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). According to the Federal government their actions were legal. Southern states saw the Freedom Riders as a threat to their culture and color code. George Blevins and hundreds of others were a threat to the white southern power structure. 

Before boarding a bus or train, the Freedom Riders were trained to know how to react when people started to insult and attack them. George boarded a bus with 18 other Freedom Riders. It was mixed race group with both men and women. 

As we started to talk about this time in George’s life his face lit up as he mentioned a friend from the Freedom Riders, Claude Liggins. A young black man also fighting for equality. George said that he and Claude kept the tense situation a little lighter with their good humor. 

The police were waiting for the bus of Freedom Riders when they arrived in Jackson, Mississippi. George and his fellow Riders were taken to the Jackson City Jail via a paddy wagon. They were charged with Breach of Peace. This was a misdemeanor charge that the State of Mississippi soon changed to a felony charge. They did this to further punish those challenging their racist system. It did not stop the flood of Freedom Riders coming into Jackson week after week and month after month. 

They filled the jails. The offenders were sent to the Mississippi State Prison, also known as Parchman Farm. Here inmates were made uncomfortable, to say the least. 

CORE paid for the Freedom Riders to be out of jail on bond. When George was released, he and two African American men were sent to New Orleans to stay with a black family. While there two white New Orleans police officers took them out of the home and asked them what they were doing there. They were told that they were resisting arrest and were beaten with a sap. A sap is a leather weapon filled with lead. George said that is was probably a good thing he was hit in the head first because he didn’t feel as much of the rest of the beating…until later. 

At this point George’s father came to him and asked him to stop. Neither his dad nor the majority of his family understood why George was putting his life on the line for the Civil Rights Movement. George knew that separate was not equal and our society had to change. At first he refused his father’s wishes, but in time decided to leave CORE.

I had to pause our conversation here for a moment and ask how a young man in the 1960s had not said anything about Vietnam. George said, “Oh, my number came up, but the military didn’t want me.”

When his draft number came up he went to the proper authorities. They soon saw that he was out on bail for the felony charge of Breach of Peace. The army would not take someone with a felony charge. 

With no military service in his future and deciding to move on from being an activist with CORE George decided to drive to Mexico. His dad bought him a 1954 Ford truck and he drove west back to Los Angeles and then to Mexico.

I thought when George said that he went to Mexico this would be a calm relaxing time in his life. It was anything but that. 

George picked up a hitchhiker after he crossed the border into Mexico. After several hours of driving George told the guy that he would have to drive, or they would have to stop so he could sleep. The hitchhiker could not get the hang of how to drive the truck, so they pulled over to rest. The next thing George remembers is waking up in a hospital in Mexico. 

The hitchhiker had beaten George when he was sleeping. He had been hit in the head 14 times with a heavy object. His truck was found not far from where George was found on the side of the road. The hitchhiker never learned how to drive the truck and ran off without it. 

George stayed in Mexico while healing from his wounds. Then returned to art school in Los Angeles. 

Before long he packed his packs and moved to New York City, it was 1962. He rented an apartment in Brooklyn on Fulton Street. He says he had a most interesting view out his window. As he spoke, I am thinking it must be a great view of the city, but no, it was one of the pylons for the Brooklyn Bridge. 

When he first arrived in New York George found a job in the garment industry as an order picker. On the side he drew and made advertisements in hopes of selling his work. Soon he became an apprentice copywriter with Carl Ally Inc. This marketing company produced ads for TV and in print. He wrote ads for automats. Automats were like a large fancy vending machine where people could grab a quick lunch. He helped write and make commercials. George always loved writing the funny or more humorous advertisements. He even had some things published in the World Journal Tribune, which later became New York Magazine. 

George married, divorced and moved around a lot for a number of years. He speaks proudly of his four sons and their accomplishments. In 1982 his wife said that they had to move to Colorado. So they did. They divorced a short time later and George stayed in Nederland and worked at the Bagel Bakery in Boulder. That seems common enough until George holds up a finger and says, “I lost part of this finger working there.” He had put his hand in a dough divider at the wrong time. 

While in Nederland he become very fond of reading The Mountain-Ear. He liked their sound local reporting and offered to work for them for free. He was hired at 10 dollars a week for an editorial cartoon. The staff would meet in what is now the Business Connections and discuss the week’s events. George would get his ideas from those conversations. In 1983 he started a six panel comic strip for The Mountain-Ear. Each week readers would read about George and the local community through his characters. He did this for decades. 

George also worked with Scott Harrison, creator of The Carousel of Happiness, at Amnesty International. They became good friends. When George bought an old mining claim on 4th of July Road his friends, including Scott, built him a cabin. He spent years hiking and skiing up and down from the cabin. These were adventures he would write about in his comic strip. 

The cabin is now deteriorating. Against a friend’s better judgement George put in a skylight. His advice to anyone building a cabin. Never put in a skylight! 

George started working with the Gilpin County Library in 1992. He was hired to drive the bookmobile around the county three days a week. When the bookmobile broke down a new library was being built and the vehicle was taken out of service. When the new library opened its doors in 1995 George became the tech librarian maintaining all the software and computers. In 2018 George moved into semi-retirement. Michael Carlson Director of the Gilpin County Library says, “George has become the public face of the library as he handles many of the patron interactions at the front desk. For over 28 years George has served the community, and for many people it just wouldn’t be the same without him.” 

In his 80 years George Blevins has helped change the face and attitudes of our county. He is a valued community member and friend to so many. All of his comic strips have been complied into a three book series titled Cabin Fever. He has also published a delightful and thought provoking little book titled Mr. Turtle meets Ms. Ladybug.  

George loves working at the library. He is still very interested in animation and may just publish another book someday. He is not 80 years old and slowing down. He is 80 years old still doing the things he loves with passion and energy. 

George Blevins is our local artist, writer, librarian, friend and a hero for Civil Rights. 

(Originally published in the February 6, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)