The Freedom Train travels from San Jose to San Francisco on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. to honor his life and his causes. This year another civil rights leader, Rosa Parks, was also recognized for her activism. Parks was the black woman who, in 1955, refused to give up her bus seat to a white man and is credited with sparking the civil rights movement.

In a symbolic nod to Parks, who died last year, organizers changed the traditional march from the train station to the Civic Center in San Francisco to a bus ride.

Almost 900 people got on the train at the Diridon station in San Jose. As the train made its way up the Peninsula, it gathered more and more passengers. In Sunnyvale 150 people got on. By the time it arrived in San Francisco, there were more than 2,000 passengers.

Freedom Train riders were encouraged to arrive early at the stations. For a school group from San Francisco, that meant being on the road by 8 a.m. to catch the first train at 10 a.m. at Diridon station. About 44 people, including students, staff, administrators and friends from S.R. Martin College Prep School piled into cars and made the journey south so they could ride the train together north. They did it for the experience and to help students understand the importance of King, Parks and the civil rights movement.

Along the way the school director, Elizabeth Halcomb, quizzed students about King.

Some of those who road the Freedom Train knew first-hand about racism and the civil rights movement.

Creola Ford, 79, and Mary Martin, 68, who is both teacher and founder of S.R. Martin, were both raised in the segregated South in New Orleans. Both have personal stories of living through racism, inequality and injustice.

Ford and Martin recall the signs above drinking fountains designating "colored" and "white." They had to use separate public bathrooms and were forced to sit in the balcony at movie theaters. Day or night, they had to come and go through back doors of many businesses. The counter at Woolworth's was divided according to skin color.

Martin remembers when she was about 5 years old and wanted to ride on the bus her father was driving. She was told to vacate the seat behind her father and move to the back of the bus. Confused, she later looked to her mother for answers. Her mother told her that "some people made some bad laws," but she needed to obey.

Ford and Martin were grateful that King's dream of desegregation was coming to fruition, and they liked the idea of riding the bus in honor of Rosa Parks.

"It's amazing how one person can make a difference," Martin said.

"They went through a whole lot to get what we've got now," Ford said.

Across the aisle from Ford and Martin sat Pat Colvin, 54, of Pacifica, and Pearlene March, 55, of South San Francisco. They sang along softly when those on the train began singing such songs as "We Shall Overcome" and the traditional "Happy Birthday" song to Martin Luther King and then Stevie Wonder's tribute to King, also titled "Happy Birthday."

Some wiped away tears.

Colvin was reminded of the time when she was a 10th-grader in Panama City, Fla., a town divided by train tracks and color. Integration and busing had become the rule of the land, and Colvin was transferred to a "white" school across town. There were no buses for her or her black classmates. The school said it didn't have the money.

On the first day in her new school, she and the other black students were greeted with "jungle drums," taunts and racial epithets. It's an image that haunts Colvin to this day.

March grew up in Texarkana, Ark. She remembers reading from second-hand textbooks and always receiving used equipment in school.

"The names in the books we were using were white children's names. We never got anything new," she said.

To Colvin and March, getting up early to catch the train in San Jose was nothing in comparison to their childhood experiences.

"Getting to the station early, that's not really a sacrifice," March said.

Not everyone got to the station early, or even on time.

Willow Glen High School seniors Diem Ly Vo and Nancy Duong were late and missed the Freedom Train. They were tied up at a breakfast event at the Wyndham Hotel in San Jose. Diem was there to receive recognition from the Movers of Mountains award and accept a $1,500 scholarship from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Santa Clara Valley.

Lavell Pennington Jr., president of the association, said that students such as Diem, who is Asian, are examples of the association carrying out King's message, which was freedom for all races.