Text Box: COUNCIL EXPRESSES SADNESS AT DEATH OF GWENDOLYN BRITT By Bill Turque Text Box: Town Council members noted with deep regret the Jan. 12 death of Maryland State Senator Gwendolyn Britt, who passed away unexpectedly at the age of 66. Ms. Britt is best remembered in Glen Echo as one of the five black Howard University students arrested on the evening of June 30, 1960 for riding the carousel in then-segregated Glen Echo Amusement Park. In a 2004 Washington Post story, reporter Brigid Schulte described the scene, as recounted to her by Ms. Britt--then Gwendolyn Greene--and other witnesses: "A friend handed Greene a 75-cent ticket for a ride on the merry-go-round, the spectacular Dentzel with hand-carved horses, rabbits, tigers and ostriches that whirled round and round under the wings of smiling angels. She clambered onto the nearest horse, a spotted yellow one. “ In her starched dress and low-heeled pumps, she held onto the shiny brass pole as if it was her lifeline. Her legs shook. Her heart beat fast. And then it began. “ 'Miss, you have five minutes to leave the park,' a security guard told her, 'or you will be arrested.'" The protest triggered changes at the park. By the spring of 1961, it was opened to all comers by owners Abram and Samuel Baker, although Montgomery Country stopped busing white children to the Crystal Pool. In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that park security guards, working as agents of the county, had improperly enforced private segregation. Ms. Greene told Ms. Schulte that the summer of 1960 changed her life. "I became determined to do what I could to make a person's life better," she said. Ms. Greene later left Howard to work in the Deep South as a Freedom Rider, spending 40 days in a Mississippi jail in 1961 for sitting in a whites-only train station waiting Text Box: room. She was elected to the Maryland State Senate in 2002 from Prince George's County, and last year co-sponsored a bill to allow convicted felons the right to vote after their release from prison. The Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture and the National Park Service announced that it will dedicate the first carousel ride of the 2008 season to Sen.. Britt's memory on Saturday, April 26. On that day, a plaque in memory of the protests will also be unveiled. "She was a person of very quiet, effective demeanor, very dignified in the work she did," said Town Council member Nancy Long. "It's a shame she had to die." Text Box: CLASSIFIED ADS LOST: At Ladies Night on Thursday 1/17. Lime green wool hat with black trim and a Greenland word embroidered on the side. Sentimental value and would appreciate if someone took it by mistake that it be returned to my front porch. Thanks. Eleanor Balaban, 6003 Bryn Mawr Ave. Classified ads are free to Glen Echo residents. Fee to non-residents: $.75 per line of 50 characters or fewer. Display ads: $4 per column inch. Ads may be left with or mailed to the editor at 38 Wellesley Circle, Glen Echo, MD 20812. Make checks payable to: Town of Glen Echo. Deadline: 24th of each month.