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"I can still see the guy who blocked the way," Dion Diamond said.

It was the summer of 1960 when he stepped out of a limousine dressed in traditional African clothing and tried to pass as a foreign diplomat. Flanked by two white friends posing as his interpreter and driver, Diamond attempted to enter Glen Echo Park and got a few feet inside before being stopped by a guard.

"I shouted in French, ‘I desire to enter the park now!'" said Diamond, of Washington D.C., now 68. "There's a whole bunch of anecdotes like that."

Fifty years have passed since Diamond and other members of the D.C. Non-violent Action Group, mostly composed of Howard University students, united with dozens of white residents of the nearby Bannockburn neighborhood to picket the segregation of Glen Echo Park. Five black members of the group, including former Maryland State Sen. Gwendolyn Britt, were arrested for riding the carousel in the privately owned park that summer. Britt died of heart failure in 2008.

On Saturday, Glen Echo Park will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the non-violent protests that led to the integration of the amusement park in 1961 and the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case that determined Montgomery County law enforcement improperly had enforced private segregation at Glen Echo.

The Glen Echo amusement park opened to all races in the spring of 1961, but met its demise seven years later because of declining attendance, continued racial tensions and financial issues. Glen Echo reopened as an arts park operated by the National Park Service in 1971, with the carousel as its only functioning ride. It has been managed by the county since 2002 and boasts many multicultural activities and arts programs.

"The reason that we have to celebrate at Glen Echo is that [the Howard students] were backed up by whites, and we were ready to welcome them," said Esther Delaplaine, 86, of Friendship Heights. "We got the rest of the county to say it's important. We let these young people lead us to make changes in Montgomery County."

Delaplaine was one of many Bannockburn mothers who brought children in strollers to stand in picket lines holding homemade signs in the air in the summer heat. She made sure the picket line was always staffed with picketers from 2 to 10 p.m. daily and opened her house to protesters for food and water breaks.

Across the street, and separated by law enforcement, were counter-protestors who wanted to keep the park white-only, including members of the American Nazi Party. Tensions ran high all summer, but there was no violence, Delaplaine said. The pro-integration picketers often were taunted and had things thrown at them.

"They put their bodies on the line, it's what they did," Delaplaine said. "That's why this story is so precious."

Joining the Glen Echo protests in 1960 was a turning point for Joseph Flynn, who grew up in Washington, D.C., with a father who tried to keep blacks out of their neighborhood.

"Until I got out of the Army, I was a racist like everyone else," said Flynn, 87, of Glen Echo. "I saw the light since I got out of the Army and since then of course, my wife and children and I have worked on social issues."

Flynn's younger brother, Jim, met his wife, Emily, during the Glen Echo protests and the couple now lives in New Zealand. Emily rode on the carousel along with the five black protesters, and Joseph Flynn said she was angry when she wasn't arrested, too.

"I think [desegregating the park] was a large part of the history of certainly this area and the country as a whole," Joseph Flynn said.

"Going to Glen Echo was sort of a summer ritual," said Joan Mulholland, 68, of Arlington, Va., who stood on the picket lines. "When you finally got old enough to go on the real rollercoaster it was a big deal. But of course it was all whites. So it was a pretty big symbol."

Both Mulholland and Diamond took part in the Freedom Rides of 1961, in which groups of civil rights activists took busses to Southern states to challenge local laws that enforced segregation.

"So many people are not from here and they don't think of this being the South," Mulholland said. "It wasn't basically as bloody, but we had the American Nazi Party always working in the backdrop. We didn't have drama of the Deep South and people just don't think of this area in that context."

The park will mark the 50th anniversary of its integration with speical events on Saturday. Visit www.glenechopark.org. It is also open for Heritage Days events Saturday and Sunday. Visit www.heritagemont

gomery.org.

Glen Echo amusement park opened in 1898 and operated for 70 years.

The privately owned park was for whites only and thrived during the World War II era.

After pressure from the community, Glen Echo Park opened the venue to all races in 1961.

The park closed in 1968 because of continued racial tension, declining attendance and financial issues. It reopened as an arts park operated by the National Park Service in 1971.

Since 2002, the park has been managed by the county's Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture Inc., a nonprofit that manages the facilities and programs.