Five Things to Know Today, April 9

Welcome to Monday and a new week. Kids go back to class today after spring break in Gwinnett County public schools. If yours are out of the house again, here’s something to read in the peace and quiet.

The weather: It’s classic spring, with a sunny warm day and chilly night. The National Weather Service expects a high today of 75 degrees under clear skies and a low of 47 tonight. The rest of the week looks much the same, with a cooler dip Wednesday. There’ll be a high fire danger this afternoon and evening in much of northern Georgia including Gwinnett County, because of low humidity, although winds will be calm today.

Gas prices: If you traveled over the Easter weekend, you know already that gas prices have jumped again. The lowest reported for Lilburn on Sunday to www.georgiagasprices.com was $3.78 (at Citgo, 331 Rockbridge Road). The highest was $3.87 at the Citgo at 1218 Turner Road at Five Forks Trickum.

Equality: The first Freedom Ride of the young Civil Rights movement started on this day in 1947 with 16 men, half of them black and half white, defying Jim Crow laws to ride a bus across the South. The so-called Journey of Reconciliation lasted two weeks. It was meant to pressure Southern states into complying with a Supreme Court decision the year before that banned segregation in interstate travel as unconstitutional. The riders were repeatedly arrested during the trip but their protest is credited with inspiring the larger Freedom Rides of the early 1960s.

Surrender: This was the day when Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his remaining Confederate forces to the Union army under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, Virginia. The act effectively ended a war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, with estimates ranging from 625,000 to around 700,000 fallen between 1861 and 1865.

Rock around the clock: For those over 50, the Gwinnett parks department is hosting an honest-to-goodness sock hop on Wednesday evening at the Bethesda Park Senior Center in Lawrenceville. There’ll be 50s music and shakes, root beer floats and fries. You can compete in a 50s best-dressed contest. It’s $6 per person and you need to register ahead of time at 770-565-4680.