Cane of the tiny Somerset County town of Marion Station. One of the more notable pioneers was Rudolph C. That effort, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union and others, was eventually rewarded as town halls and county courthouses became integrated. The eventual remedy? One by one, the offenders were required to create at least one representative district where Black voters would hold a majority, thus creating an opportunity for minority candidates to have a place at the governance table. They had clearly violated the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 federal legislation that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. All of the towns had deep segregationist roots, and all had failed to elect Black candidates to public office, despite having significant number of African American residents. Department of Justice and civil rights advocates against Eastern Shore towns and counties with a history of voter discrimination. The outside of the memorial features towering walls on either side of a walkway that follows the final path of the doomed flight that was forced off its Newark, N.J.-to-San Francisco course.Nearly 40 years ago, a series of lawsuits were filed by the U.S. “It just looked like a flaming hole,” Monaco said. Frank Monaco said yielded little because the plane hit the soft ground so fast the bulk of it burrowed underground. Other displays tell of investigators’ search for clues in the strip mine and surrounding woods, which retired state police Capt. One display plays the last recorded moments of Flight 93’s passengers as they used airfones and cellphones to call 911 and loved ones. Inside the Visitor Center Complex, a wall-size display uses images, text, sound and video to tell the story of Sept. The Flight 93 memorial has attracted thousands of visitors each weekend since it officially opened last year. They helped bring to fruition the Flight 93 National Memorial, which grew from barrels and a chain-link fence holding small mementos into a stunning feat of architecture that embraces the beauty of nature and the resolve of mankind. Using notebooks to keep track of the facts, they relayed to tourists and mourners alike how the hole smoldered and the crash left little wreckage above ground except scattered papers and pieces of engine and fabric. Often not seen in pictures are stories of residents who manned the crash site in two-hour volunteer shifts to ensure it was respected and not vandalized. That knowledge is why so many residents here have embraced their unfortunate celebrity not as a curse but as a blessing. If the plane had traveled just a few seconds longer “it surely would have hit our town or the high school,” Shaffer said. Residents here know the difference between life and death was measured in heartbeats that day. “At the time, we knew what was going on in New York City, but we never expected to have something like this in our area.”Īll 33 passengers, seven crew members and four hijackers died. that morning to respond to an aircraft down,” said Terry Shaffer, the now retired chief of the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Co. And so does the knowledge that the passengers and crew died fighting their captives, as messages relayed in phone calls and the plane’s data recorders show. The sight, sound and feel of the hijacked Boeing 757 smashing into a vacant strip mine at 563 mph reverberate in this community. “I saw the mushroom cloud and heard explosion after explosion,” he said. Then, just as fast, it banked sharply right and disappeared behind trees. But on this cloudless day all Butler knew was that the airliner seemed too close to the trees. He would learn later it was United Airlines Flight 93. Under the hood, prying off the radiator, he heard engines roar somewhere above. Moving away from the TV, Butler got back to work, tracking down a 1995 Dodge Caravan in Stoystown Auto Wreckers. He is one of many local residents who volunteer their time helping National Park Service rangers keep alive an interlocking story of terror, heroism and small-town pride that speaks of the briefness of human life and the importance of U.S. If you travel to the Flight 93 memorial’s 15th anniversary events, you may run into Butler and hear his story in person. “This story has to be told,” Butler said, his voice cracking with emotion. local time in rural Somerset County, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. No one did on that day, 15 years ago Sunday.īutler, a burly yet soft-spoken man, willingly serves as a witness to the world events that flew over his head on Sept. “Because I knew what was going on, I didn’t want to believe it.” The customer needed a radiator for a minivan, and the job gave Terry Butler an excuse to get away from the shop’s TV, which was blaring live news about planes smashing into the World Trade Center and leaving the Pentagon smoldering.
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