This is an accepted version of this page
| Freedom Riders | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part of thecivil rights movement | |||
.jpg) | |||
| Date | May 4 – December 10, 1961 (7 months and 6 days) | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by |
| ||
| Resulted in |
| ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
| Lead figures | |||
CORE members SNCC and Nashville Student Movement members | |||
Freedom Riders werecivil rights activists who rode interstate buses into thesegregatedSouthernUnited States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of theUnited States Supreme Court decisionsMorgan v. Virginia (1946) andBoynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional.[3] The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government had done nothing to enforce them. The first Freedom Ride leftWashington, D.C., on May 4, 1961,[4] and was scheduled to arrive inNew Orleans on May 17.[5]
Boynton outlawedracial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines.[6] Five years prior to theBoynton ruling, theInterstate Commerce Commission (ICC) had issued a ruling inSarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company (1955) that had explicitly denounced thePlessy v. Ferguson (1896) doctrine ofseparate but equal in interstate bus travel. The ICC failed to enforce its ruling, andJim Crow travel laws remained in force throughout the South.[citation needed]
The Freedom Riders challenged this status quo by riding interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation in seating. The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the Americancivil rights movement. They called national attention to the disregard for the federal law and the local violence used to enforce segregation in the southern United States. Police arrested riders fortrespassing,unlawful assembly, violating state and localJim Crow laws, and other alleged offenses, but often they first let white mobs ofcounter-protestors attack the riders without intervention.
TheCongress of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsored most of the subsequent Freedom Rides, but some were also organized by theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The Freedom Rides, beginning in 1961, followed dramaticsit-ins against segregatedlunch counters conducted by students and youth throughout the South, and boycotts of retail establishments that maintained segregated facilities.
The Supreme Court's decision inBoynton supported the right of interstate travelers to disregardlocal segregation ordinances. Southern local and state police considered the actions of the Freedom Riders to be criminal and arrested them in some locations. In some localities, such asBirmingham, Alabama, the police cooperated withKu Klux Klan chapters and other white people opposing the actions, and allowed mobs to attack the riders.
The Freedom Riders were inspired by the 1947Journey of Reconciliation, led byBayard Rustin andGeorge Houser and co-sponsored by theFellowship of Reconciliation and the then-fledglingCongress of Racial Equality (CORE). Like the Freedom Rides of 1961, the Journey of Reconciliation was intended to test an earlierSupreme Court ruling that bannedracial discrimination in interstate travel. Rustin,Igal Roodenko,Joe Felmet and Andrew Johnnson, were arrested and sentenced to serve on achain gang inNorth Carolina for violating localJim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation.[7]
The first Freedom Ride began on May 4, 1961. Led by CORE DirectorJames Farmer, 13 young riders (seven black, six white, including but not limited toJohn Lewis (21),Genevieve Hughes (28), Mae Frances Moultrie, Joseph Perkins, Charles Person (18), Ivor Moore,[8]William E. Harbour (19),Joan Trumpauer Mullholland (19), andEd Blankenheim),[8][9] left Washington, DC, onGreyhound (from theGreyhound Terminal) andTrailways buses. Their plan was to ride throughVirginia, the Carolinas,Georgia,Alabama, andMississippi, ending inNew Orleans, Louisiana, where a civil rights rally was planned. Many of the Riders were sponsored by CORE andSNCC with 75% of the Riders between 18 and 30 years old.[citation needed] A diverse group of volunteers came from 39 states, and were from different economic classes and racial backgrounds.[10] Most were college students and received training in nonviolent tactics.[11]
The Freedom Riders' tactics for their journey were to have at least one interracial pair sitting in adjoining seats, and at least one black rider sitting up front, where seats under segregation had been reserved for white customers by local custom throughout the South. The rest of the team would sit scattered throughout the rest of the bus. One rider would abide by the South's segregation rules in order to avoid arrest and to contact CORE and arrange bail for those who were arrested.
Only minor trouble was encountered in Virginia and North Carolina, butJohn Lewis was attacked inRock Hill,South Carolina. More than 300 Riders were arrested inCharlotte, North Carolina;Winnsboro, South Carolina; andJackson, Mississippi.[10]
The Freedom Rides were mostly focused on events that occurred during the spring and summer of 1961. However, the idea of an interracial bus ride through the South, at a time when racial segregation was mandated in public transportation, originated in 1947. Bayard Rustin and George Houser, who were part of a civil rights organization called the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), came up with a plan to test whether southern long-distance buses were following a 1946 Supreme Court ruling that prohibited segregation on interstate travel.[12]
"Yet the Freedom Rides, in plural, was just the beginning. The Alabama attacks, coupled with the Mississippi arrests, inspired multiple small bands of civil rights supporters from all over the continental United States to head southward too," explains Arsenault.[12]
The riders in 1961 successfully completed their journey through Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. However, they encountered violent and horrific situations in Alabama. A white segregationist mob attacked and burned one of the two buses they were traveling in outside Anniston. The second group of riders faced violence from Ku Klux Klansmen in Birmingham, while the city police deliberately held back.[12]
The Freedom Rides had two important outcomes. Firstly, due to the pressure from Robert Kennedy's Justice Department, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which had regulatory power over interstate buses and terminals, declared an end to racial segregation in all waiting rooms and lunch counters, effective from November 1, 1961. Although not everyone immediately followed this rule, Arsenault points out that this directive sent a clear message to southern whites that desegregation of other institutions was likely to happen soon.[13]
TheBirmingham, Alabama, Police Commissioner,Bull Connor, together with Police Sergeant Tom Cook (an avidKu Klux Klan supporter), organized violence against the Freedom Riders with local Klan chapters. The pair made plans to bring the Ride to an end in Alabama. They assuredGary Thomas Rowe, anFBIinformer[14] and member of Eastview Klavern #13 (the most violent Klan group in Alabama), that the mob would have fifteen minutes to attack the Freedom Riders without any arrests being made. The plan was to allow an initial assault inAnniston with a final assault taking place in Birmingham.
On Sunday, May 14, 1961, Mother's Day, inAnniston, Alabama, a mob ofKlansmen, some still in church attire, attacked the first of the two Greyhound buses. The driver tried to leave the station, but he was blocked until KKK members slashed its tires.[15] The mob forced the crippled bus to stop several miles outside town and then threw afirebomb into it.[16][17] As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intending to burn the riders to death. Sources disagree, but either an explodingfuel tank[16] or an undercover state investigator who was brandishing a revolver caused the mob to retreat, and the riders escaped the bus.[18] The mob beat the riders after they got out. Warning shots which were fired into the air by highway patrolmen were the only thing which prevented the riders from beinglynched.[16] The roadside site in Anniston and the downtown Greyhound station were preserved as part of theFreedom Riders National Monument in 2017.
Some injured riders were taken to Anniston Memorial Hospital.[19] That night, the hospitalized Freedom Riders, most of whom had been refused care, were removed from the hospital at 2 am, because the staff feared the mob outside the hospital. The local civil rights leader Rev.Fred Shuttlesworth organized several cars of black citizens to rescue the injured Freedom Riders in defiance of the white supremacists. The black people were under the leadership ofColonel Stone Johnson and were openly armed as they arrived at the hospital, protecting the Freedom Riders from the mob.[20]
When the Trailways bus reached Anniston and pulled in at the terminal an hour after the Greyhound bus was burned, it was boarded by eight Klansmen. They beat the Freedom Riders and left them semi-conscious in the back of the bus.[16]
On Sunday morning, May 14, the Freedom Riders embarked on a journey from Atlanta in two buses that also accommodated regular passengers. However, the first bus was unable to reach Birmingham as it was attacked by a group of 200 men. The attackers hurled a firebomb through a rear window of the bus, and the Freedom Riders were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were mostly ignored until being instructed to leave. The bus was left completely destroyed, and this became the first memorable image of the Freedom Ride.[21]
When the bus arrived in Birmingham, it was attacked by a mob of KKK members[15] aided and abetted by police under the orders of Commissioner Connor.[22] As the riders exited the bus, they were beaten by the mob with baseball bats, ironpipes andbicycle chains. Among the attacking Klansmen wasGary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informant. White Freedom Riders were singled out for especially frenzied beatings;James Peck required more than 50 stitches to the wounds in his head.[23] Peck was taken toCarraway Methodist Medical Center, which refused to treat him; he was later treated atJefferson Hillman Hospital.[24][25]
On the afternoon of that same Sunday, the second bus arrived at Birmingham's Trailways station, with James Peck as the captain of this leg. Peck, a 46-year-old descendant of thePeck & Peck New York retail family and one of the two Harvard alums on the ride, had participated in CORE'S 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, where he was surprised by the level of tolerance towards integration among drivers and passengers. However, fourteen years later, he faced a hostile group of white men in sports shirts, who carried lead pipes hidden in paper bags. Peck challenged them, declaring that they would have to kill him before hurting his fellow Freedom Riders. Despite his brave words, he was attacked and severely beaten by five men in an alley. The attackers used a Coke bottle, which was a typical weapon for southern vigilantes. Peck lost consciousness within seconds and needed 53 stitches to close his exposed skull. Meanwhile, inside the station, the Klansmen violently assaulted the Freedom Riders and anyone else who tried to stop them, including a news photographer who arrived at the scene.[21]
When reports of the bus burning and beatings reached theU.S. Attorney General,Robert F. Kennedy, he urged restraint on the part of Freedom Riders and sent an assistant,John Seigenthaler, to Alabama to try to calm the situation.[26]
Despite the violence suffered and the threat of more to come, the Freedom Riders intended to continue their journey. Kennedy had arranged an escort for the Riders in order to get them toMontgomery, Alabama, safely. However, radio reports told of a mob awaiting the riders at the bus terminal, as well as on the route to Montgomery. The Greyhound clerks told the Riders that their drivers were refusing to drive any Freedom Riders anywhere.[15]
Recognizing that their efforts had already called national attention to the civil rights cause and wanting to get to the rally in New Orleans, the Riders decided to abandon the rest of the bus ride and fly directly to New Orleans from Birmingham. When they first boarded the plane, all passengers had to exit because of a bomb threat.[15]
Upon arriving in New Orleans, local tensions prevented normal accommodations—after whichNorman C. Francis, president ofXavier University of Louisiana (XULA), decided to house them on campus in secret at St Michael's Hall, a dormitory.[27]
Diane Nash, aNashville college student who was a leader of theNashville Student Movement andSNCC, believed that if Southern violence were allowed to halt the Freedom Rides the movement would be set back years. She pushed to find replacements to resume the rides. On May 17, a new set of riders, 10 students from Nashville who were active in the Nashville Student Movement, took a bus to Birmingham, where they were arrested by Bull Connor and jailed.[22]
The students kept their spirits up in jail by singingfreedom songs. Out of frustration, Connor drove them back up to theTennessee line and dropped them off, saying, "I just couldn't stand their singing."[28] They immediately returned to Birmingham.
In answer to SNCC's call, Freedom Riders from across the Eastern US joinedJohn Lewis andHank Thomas, the two young SNCC members of the original Ride, who had remained in Birmingham. On May 19, they attempted to resume the ride, but, terrified by the howling mob surrounding the bus depot, the drivers refused. Harassed and besieged by the mob, the riders waited all night for a bus.[22]
Under intense public pressure from theKennedy administration, Greyhound was forced to provide a driver. After direct intervention byByron White of the Attorney General's office, Alabama GovernorJohn Patterson reluctantly promised to protect the bus from KKK mobs and snipers on the road between Birmingham and Montgomery.[29] On the morning of May 20, the Freedom Ride resumed, with the bus carrying the riders traveling toward Montgomery at 90 miles an hour, protected by a contingent of theAlabama State Highway Patrol.
The Highway Patrol abandoned the bus and riders at the Montgomery city limits. At theMontgomery Greyhound station on South Court Street, a white mob awaited. They beat the Freedom Riders with baseball bats and iron pipes. The local police allowed the beatings to go on uninterrupted.[22] Again, white Freedom Riders were singled out for particularly brutal beatings. Reporters and news photographers were attacked first and their cameras destroyed, but one reporter took a photo later ofJim Zwerg in the hospital, showing how he was beaten and bruised.[30] Seigenthaler, a Justice Department official, was beaten and left unconscious lying in the street. Ambulances refused to take the wounded to the hospital. Local black residents rescued them, and a number of the Freedom Riders were hospitalized.
On the following night, Sunday, May 21, more than 1,500 people packed into ReverendRalph Abernathy'sFirst Baptist Church to honor the Freedom Riders. Among the speakers were Rev.Martin Luther King Jr., who had led the 1955–1956Montgomery bus boycott, Rev.Fred Shuttlesworth, andJames Farmer. Outside, a mob of more than 3,000 white people attacked the black attendees, with a handful of theUnited States Marshals Service protecting the church from assault and fire bombs. With city and state police making no effort to restore order, the civil rights leaders appealed to the President for protection. President Kennedy threatened to intervene with federal troops if the governor would not protect the people. Governor Patterson forestalled that by finally ordering theAlabama National Guard to disperse the mob, and the Guard reached the church in the early morning.[22]
In a commemorative Op-Ed piece in 2011,Bernard Lafayette remembered the mob breaking windows of the church with rocks and setting off tear gas canisters. He recounted heroic action by King. After learning that black taxi drivers were arming and forming a group to rescue the people inside, he worried that more violence would result. He selected ten volunteers, who promised non-violence, to escort him through the white mob, which parted to let King and his escorts pass as they marched two by two. King went out to the black drivers and asked them to disperse, to prevent more violence. King and his escorts formally made their way back inside the church, unmolested.[31] Lafayette also was interviewed by the BBC in 2011 and told about these events in an episode broadcast on the radio on August 31, 2011, in commemoration of the Freedom Rides. The Alabama National Guard finally arrived in the early morning to disperse the mob and safely escorted all the people from the church.[32][33]
The next day, Monday, May 22, more Freedom Riders arrived in Montgomery to continue the rides through the South and replace the wounded riders still in the hospital. Behind the scenes, the Kennedy administration arranged a deal with the governors of Alabama and Mississippi, where the governors agreed that state police and the National Guard would protect the Riders from mob violence. In return, the federal government would not intervene to stop local police from arresting Freedom Riders for violating segregation ordinances when the buses arrived at the depots.[22]
On Wednesday morning, May 24, Freedom Riders boarded buses for the journey toJackson, Mississippi.[34] Surrounded by Highway Patrol and the National Guard, the buses arrived in Jackson without incident, but the riders were immediately arrested when they tried to use the white-only facilities at the Tri-State Trailways depot.[35] The third bus arrived at theJackson Greyhound station early on May 28, and its Freedom Riders were arrested.[36][37]
In Montgomery, the next round of Freedom Riders, including theYale University chaplainWilliam Sloane Coffin, Gaylord Brewster Noyce,[38] and southern ministers Shuttlesworth, Abernathy,Wyatt Tee Walker, and others were similarly arrested for violating local segregation ordinances.[22]
This established a pattern followed by subsequent Freedom Rides, most of which traveled to Jackson, where the Riders were arrested and jailed. Their strategy became one of trying to fill the jails. Once the Jackson andHinds County jails were filled to overflowing, the state transferred the Freedom Riders to the infamousMississippi State Penitentiary (known as Parchman Farm). Abusive treatment there included placement of Riders in the Maximum Security Unit (Death Row), issuance of only underwear, no exercise, and no mail privileges. When the Freedom Riders refused to stop singing freedom songs, prison officials took away their mattresses, sheets, and toothbrushes. More Freedom Riders arrived from across the country, and at one time, more than 300 were held in Parchman Farm.[15]
Riders arrested in Jackson includedStokeley Carmichael (19), Catherine Burks (21),[8] Gloria Bouknight (20), Luvahgn Brown (16), Margaret Leonard (19), Helen O'Neal (20), Hank Thomas (20), Carol Silver (22), Hezekiah Watkins (13), Peter Stoner (22),Byron Baer (31), and LeRoy Glenn Wright (19) in addition to many more[10][39]Nashville Student Movement leaderJames Lawson, who played a prominent role in coordinating the Freedom Rides, was among the first to be arrested in Jackson.[40]
While in Jackson, Freedom Riders received support from local grassroots civil rights organization Womanpower Unlimited, which raised money and collected toiletries, soap, candy and magazines for the imprisoned protesters. Upon Freedom Riders' release, Womanpower members would provide places for them to bathe while offering them clothes and food. Founded byClarie Collins Harvey, the group was considered instrumental in the success of the Freedom Riders.[41] Freedom RiderJoan Trumpauer Mulholland said the Womanpower members "were like angels supplying us with just little simple necessities."[42]
The Kennedys called for a "cooling off period" and condemned the Rides as unpatriotic because they embarrassed the nation on the world stage at the height of theCold War.James Farmer, head of CORE, responded to Kennedy saying, "We have been cooling off for 350 years, and if we cooled off any more, we'd be in a deep freeze."[43] The Soviet Union criticized the United States for its racism and the attacks on the Riders.[16][44]
Nonetheless, international outrage about the widely covered events and racial violence created pressure on American political leaders. On May 29, 1961, Attorney General Kennedy sent a petition to theInterstate Commerce Commission (ICC) asking it to comply with the bus-desegregation ruling it had issued in November 1955, inSarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. That ruling had explicitly repudiated the concept of "separate but equal" in the realm of interstate bus travel. Chaired bySouth Carolina Democrat J. Monroe Johnson, the ICC had failed to implement its own ruling.
.jpg)
CORE, SNCC, and theSCLC rejected any "cooling off period". They formed a Freedom Riders Coordinating Committee to keep the Rides rolling through June, July, August, and September.[22] During those months, more than 60 different Freedom Rides criss-crossed the South,[45] most of them converging on Jackson, where every Rider was arrested, more than 300 in total. An unknown number were arrested in other Southern towns. It is estimated that almost 450 people participated in one or more Freedom Rides. About 75% were male, and the same percentage were under the age of 30, with about equal participation from black and white citizens.
During the summer of 1961, Freedom Riders also campaigned against other forms ofracial discrimination. They sat together in segregated restaurants, lunch counters and hotels. This was especially effective when they targeted large companies, such as hotel chains. Fearing boycotts in the North, the hotels began to desegregate their businesses.
In mid-June, a group of Freedom Riders had scheduled to end their ride inTallahassee, Florida, with plans to fly home from theTallahassee Municipal Airport. They were provided a police escort to the airport from the city's bus facilities. At the airport, they decided to eat at theSavarin restaurant that was marked "For Whites Only".[46] The owners decided to close rather than serve the mixed group of Freedom Riders. Although the restaurant was privately owned, it was leased from the county government. Canceling their plane reservations, the Riders decided to wait until the restaurant re-opened so they could be served. They waited until 11:00 pm that night and returned the following day. During this time, hostile crowds gathered, threatening violence. On June 16, 1961, the Freedom Riders were arrested in Tallahassee for unlawful assembly.[47] That arrest and subsequent trial became known asDresner v. City of Tallahassee, named forIsrael S. Dresner, a rabbi among the group arrested.[48] The Riders were convicted of unlawful assembly by the Municipal Court of Tallahassee, and the convictions were affirmed in theFlorida Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District.[42] The convictions were appealed to theUS Supreme Court in 1963, which refused to hear the case based on jurisdictional reasons.[49] In 1964, theTallahassee 10 protesters returned to the city to serve brief jail sentences.[46]
In early August, SNCC staff membersJames Forman and Paul Brooks, with the support ofElla Baker, began planning a Freedom Ride in solidarity withRobert F. Williams. Williams was an extremely militant and controversial NAACP chapter president forMonroe, North Carolina. After making the public statement that he would "meet violence with violence," (since the federal government would not protect his community from racial attacks) he had been suspended by the NAACP national board over the objections of Williams' local membership. Williams continued his work against segregation however, but now had massive opposition in both black and white communities.[citation needed] He was also facing repeated attempts on his life because of it. Some SNCC staff members sympathized with the idea of armed self-defense, although many on the ride to Monroe saw this as an opportunity to prove the superiority of Gandhian nonviolence over the use of force.[50] Forman was among those who were still supportive of Williams.[citation needed]
The Freedom Riders in Monroe were brutally attacked by white supremacists with the approval of local police. On August 27, James Forman – SNCC's Executive Secretary – was struck unconscious with the butt of a rifle and taken to jail with numerous other demonstrators. Police and white supremacists roamed the town shooting at black civilians, who returned the gunfire. Robert F. Williams fortified the black neighborhood against attack and in the process briefly detained a white couple who had gotten lost there. The police accused Williams of kidnapping and called in the state militia and FBI to arrest him, in spite of the couple being quickly released. Certain he would be lynched, Williams fled and eventually found refuge inCuba. Movement lawyers, eager to disengage from the situation, successfully urged the Freedom Riders not to practice the normal "jail-no bail" strategy in Monroe. Local officials, also apparently eager to de-escalate, found demonstrators guilty but immediately suspended their sentences.[51] One Freedom Rider however, John Lowry, went on trial for the kidnapping case, along with several associates of Robert F. Williams, includingMae Mallory. Monroe legal defense committees were popular around the country, but ultimately Lowry and Mallory served prison sentences. In 1965, their convictions were vacated due to the exclusion of black citizens from the jury selection.[52][53]
On September 13, 1961, a group of 15Episcopal priests, including three black priests and twelve white priests, entered theJackson, MississippiTrailways bus terminal. Upon entering the coffee shop, they were stopped by two policemen, who asked them to leave. After refusing to leave, all 15 were arrested and jailed forbreach of peace, under a now-repealed section of theMississippi code § 2087.5 that "makes guilty of a misdemeanor anyone who congregates with others in a public place under circumstances such that a breach of the peace may be occasioned thereby, and refuses to move on when ordered to do so by a police officer."
The group included 35-year-oldReverend Robert L Pierson. After the case against the priests was dismissed on May 21, 1962, they sought damages against the police under theCivil Rights Act of 1871. Their claims were ultimately rejected in theUnited States Supreme Court casePierson v. Ray (1967), which held that the police were protected by a new court-created legal doctrine,qualified immunity.[54]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Freedom Riders" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
By September it had been more than three months since the filing of the petition by Robert Kennedy. CORE and SNCC leaders made tentative plans for a mass demonstration known as the "Washington Project". This would mobilize hundreds, perhaps thousands, of nonviolent demonstrators to the capital city to apply pressure on the ICC and the Kennedy administration. The idea was pre-empted when the ICC finally issued the necessary orders just before the end of the month.[55] The new policies went into effect on November 1, 1961, six years after the ruling inSarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. After the new ICC rule took effect, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they pleased on interstate buses and trains; "white" and "colored" signs were removed from the terminals; racially-segregated drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms serving interstate customers were consolidated; and the lunch counters began serving all customers, regardless of race.
The widespread violence in response to the Freedom Rides sent shock waves through American society. People were worried that the Rides were evoking widespread social disorder and racial divergence, an opinion supported and strengthened in many communities by the press. The press in white communities condemned thedirect action approach that CORE was taking, while some of the national press negatively portrayed the Riders as provoking unrest.
At the same time, the Freedom Rides established great credibility with black and white people throughout the United States and inspired many to engage in direct action for civil rights. Perhaps most significantly, the actions of the Freedom Riders from the North, who faced danger on behalf of southern black citizens, impressed and inspired the many black people living inrural areas throughout the South. They formed the backbone of the wider civil rights movement, engaging invoter registration and other activities. Southern black activists generally organized around their churches, the center of their communities and a base of moral strength.
The Freedom Riders helped inspire participation in subsequent civil rights campaigns, including voter registration throughout the South,freedom schools, and theBlack Power movement. At the time, most black Southerners had been unable to register to vote, due to state constitutions, laws and practices that had effectivelydisfranchised them since the turn of the 20th century. For instance, white administrators supervised reading comprehension and literacy tests that even highly educated black people could not pass.
In Australia, the American Freedom Riders inspired the 1965Freedom Ride in New South Wales. This event brought attention to the significant social and legal discrimination againstAboriginal Australians in regional, rural and remote areas ofNew South Wales, including segregation from public facilities and private businesses.
| Ride | Date | Carrier | Point of departure | Destination | Ref. | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Journey of Reconciliation | April 9–23, 1947 | Trailways andGreyhound | Washington, D.C. | Washington, D.C. | [56] | [note 1] |
| Little Freedom Ride | April 22, 1961 | East St. Louis, Illinois | Sikeston, Missouri | [58] | [note 2] |
.jpg)
.jpg)
| Ride | Date | Carrier or terminal | Point of departure | Destination | Ref. | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original CORE Freedom Ride | May 4–17, 1961 | Trailways | Washington, D.C. | New Orleans, Louisiana | [61] | [note 2] |
| Greyhound | Washington, D.C. | New Orleans, Louisiana | ||||
| Nashville Student Movement Freedom Ride | May 17–21, 1961 | Birmingham, Alabama | New Orleans, Louisiana | [62] | [note 3] | |
| Connecticut Freedom Ride | May 24–25, 1961 | Greyhound | Atlanta, Georgia | Montgomery, Alabama | [63] | [note 4] |
| Interfaith Freedom Ride | June 13–16, 1961 | Greyhound | Washington, D.C. | Tallahassee, Florida | [64] | [note 5] |
| Organized Labor–Professional Freedom Ride | June 13–16, 1961 | Washington, D.C. | St. Petersburg, Florida | [66] | [note 6] | |
| Missouri to Louisiana CORE Freedom Ride | July 8–15, 1961 | St. Louis, Missouri | New Orleans, Louisiana | [68] | [note 7] | |
| New Jersey to Arkansas CORE Freedom Ride | July 13–24, 1961 | Newark, New Jersey | Little Rock, Arkansas | [70] | [note 8] | |
| Los Angeles to Houston Freedom Ride | August 9–11, 1961 | Union Railway Station | Los Angeles, California | Houston, Texas | [71] | [note 9] |
| Monroe Freedom Ride | August 17–September 1, 1961 | Monroe, North Carolina | [72] | [note 10] | ||
| Prayer Pilgrimage Freedom Ride | September 13, 1961 | Trailways | New Orleans, Louisiana | Jackson, Mississippi | [74] | [note 11] |
| Albany Freedom Rides | November 1, 1961 | Trailways(terminal only) | Atlanta, Georgia | [77] | [note 12] | |
| Trailways | Atlanta, Georgia | Albany, Georgia | [77] | [note 13] | ||
| November 22, 1961 | Trailways(terminal only) | Albany, Georgia | [78] | [note 14] | ||
| December 10, 1961 | Central of Georgia Railway | Atlanta Terminal Station | Albany, Georgia (Union Station) | [79] | [note 15] | |
| McComb Freedom Rides | November 29, 1961 | Greyhound | New Orleans, Louisiana | McComb, Mississippi | [78] | [note 16] |
| December 1, 1961 | Greyhound | Baton Rouge, Louisiana | McComb, Mississippi | [83] | [note 17] | |
| December 2, 1961 | Greyhound | Jackson, Mississippi | McComb, Mississippi | [84] | [note 18] | |
| Date | Carrier or terminal | Point of departure | Destination | Ref. | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 24, 1961 | Trailways | Montgomery, Alabama | Jackson, Mississippi | [85] | [note 19] |
| Greyhound | Montgomery, Alabama | Jackson, Mississippi | [87] | [note 20] | |
| May 28, 1961 | Greyhound | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [89] | [note 21] |
| Trailways | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [90] | [note 22] | |
| May 30, 1961 | Illinois Central Railroad | New Orleans, Louisiana | Jackson, Mississippi | [91] | [note 23] |
| June 2, 1961 | Trailways (#1) | Montgomery, Alabama | Jackson, Mississippi | [92] | [note 24] |
| Trailways (#2) | Montgomery, Alabama | Jackson, Mississippi | [93] | [note 25] | |
| June 6, 1961 | Trailways | New Orleans, Louisiana | Jackson, Mississippi | [95] | [note 26] |
| June 7, 1961 | Trailways | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [96] | [note 27] |
| Greyhound Bus Station(terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [98] | [note 28] | ||
| Hawkins Field(airport) | St. Louis, Missouri | Jackson, Mississippi | [98] | [note 29] | |
| June 8, 1961 | Illinois Central Railroad | New Orleans, Louisiana | Jackson, Mississippi | [99] | [note 30] |
| Hawkins Field(airport) | Montgomery, Alabama | Jackson, Mississippi | [98] | [note 31] | |
| June 9, 1961 | Illinois Central Railroad | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [101] | [note 32] |
| June 10, 1961 | Greyhound | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [102] | [note 33] |
| June 11, 1961 | Greyhound | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [103] | [note 34] |
| June 16, 1961 | Greyhound | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [105] | [note 35] |
| June 19, 1961 | Greyhound Bus Station(terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [105] | [note 36] | |
| June 20, 1961 | Illinois Central Railroad | New Orleans, Louisiana | Jackson, Mississippi | [106] | [note 37] |
| June 21, 1961 | Trailways | Montgomery, Alabama | Jackson, Mississippi | [107] | [note 38] |
| June 23, 1961 | Tri-State Trailways station[108](terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [109] | [note 39] | |
| June 25, 1961 | Illinois Central Railroad | New Orleans, Louisiana | Jackson, Mississippi | [110] | [note 40] |
| July 2, 1961 | Trailways | Montgomery, Alabama | Jackson, Mississippi | [113] | [note 41] |
| July 5, 1961 | Tri-State Trailways station(terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [114] | [note 42] | |
| July 6, 1961 | Jackson Union Station(terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [116] | [note 43] | |
| Greyhound Bus Station(terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [117] | [note 44] | ||
| July 7, 1961 | Jackson Union Station(terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [120] | [note 45] | |
| Trailways | Montgomery, Alabama | Jackson, Mississippi | [121] | [note 46] | |
| July 9, 1961 | Trailways | Montgomery, Alabama | Jackson, Mississippi | [122] | [note 47] |
| Illinois Central Railroad | New Orleans, Louisiana | Jackson, Mississippi | [120] | [note 48] | |
| Tri-State Trailways station(terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [122] | [note 49] | ||
| July 15, 1961 | Greyhound | New Orleans, Louisiana | Jackson, Mississippi | [127] | [note 50] |
| July 16, 1961 | Greyhound | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [128] | [note 51] |
| July 21, 1961 | Hawkins Field(airport terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [129] | [note 52] | |
| Greyhound | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [131] | [note 53] | |
| July 23, 1961 | Trailways | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [132] | [note 54] |
| July 24, 1961 | Hawkins Field(airport) | Montgomery, Alabama | Jackson, Mississippi | [133] | [note 55] |
| July 29, 1961 | Greyhound | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [135] | [note 56] |
| July 30, 1961 | Illinois Central Railroad | New Orleans, Louisiana | Jackson, Mississippi | [136] | [note 57] |
| July 31, 1961 | Greyhound Bus Station(terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [137] | [note 58] | |
| August 5, 1961 | Trailways(bus and terminal) | Nashville, Tennessee | Jackson, Mississippi | [138] | [note 59] |
| August 13, 1961 | Tri-State Trailways station(terminal only) | Jackson, Mississippi | [139] | [note 60] | |
.jpg)
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides,Oprah Winfrey invited all living Freedom Riders to join her TV program to celebrate their legacy. The episode aired on May 4, 2011.[140]
On May 6–16, 2011, 40 college students from across the United States embarked on a bus ride from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, retracing the original route of the Freedom Riders.[15] The 2011 Student Freedom Ride, which was sponsored by PBS andAmerican Experience, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the original Freedom Rides. Students met with civil rights leaders along the way and traveled with original Freedom Riders such as Ernest "Rip" Patton, Joan Mulholland, Bob Singleton, Helen Singleton, Jim Zwerg, and Charles Person. On May 16, 2011, PBS aired a documentary calledFreedom Riders.
On May 19–21, 2011, the Freedom Rides were commemorated in Montgomery, Alabama, at the newFreedom Rides Museum in the old Greyhound Bus terminal, where some of the violence had taken place in 1961. On May 22–26, 2011, the arrival of the Freedom Rides in Jackson, Mississippi was commemorated with a 50th Anniversary Reunion and Conference in the city.[141] During commemorative events in February 2013 in Montgomery, CongressmanJohn Lewis accepted the apologies of Chief Kevin Murphy of theMontgomery Police Department; Murphy gave Lewis his own badge, off his uniform, moving Lewis to tears.[142]
In late 2011, Palestinian activists, inspired by the Freedom Riders, used the same methods in Israel by boarding a bus from which they were excluded.[143][144][145]
In January, 2017, President Barack Obama declared the Anniston, Alabama bus station theFreedom Riders National Monument.
The 1980sPBS documentary seriesEyes on the Prize had an episode, "Ain't Scared of Your Jails: 1960-1961", that gave attention to the Freedom Riders. It included an interview with James Farmer.[146]
The title of the 2007 filmFreedom Writers is an explicit pun on the Freedom Riders, a fact made clear in the film itself, which references the campaign.
PBS in 2012 broadcastFreedom Riders as part of itsAmerican Experience series. It included interviews and news footage from the Freedom Riders movement.[147]
Dan Shore's 2013 operaFreedom Ride, set in New Orleans, celebrates the Freedom Riders.[148]
The Boondocks aired a 2014 episode about the Freedom Rides with the title "Freedom Ride or Die".
The Freedom Riders: The Civil Rights Musical is atheater musical retelling the story of the Freedom Rides.[149] The musical was created by Los Angeles screenwriter/director Richard Allen, and San Diego native music artist Taran Gray. Richard and Taran finalized the music in March 2016, and by April of the same year were asked to perform excerpts from their musical as a BETA Event at theNew York Musical Festival (NYMF).[150] The FREEDOM RIDERS musical received NYMF's inaugural BETA Event Award,[151] and is scheduled to return to New York, summer of 2017, for anOff-Broadway run as part of NYMF's festival.[152]
John Lewis is walking behind him on the right.
| History |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Culture | |||||
| Notable people |
| ||||
| Education, science and technology | |||||
| Religion | |||||
| Political movements | |||||
Civic and economic groups |
| ||||
| Sports |
| ||||
| Ethnic subdivisions | |||||
| Demographics | |||||
| Languages | |||||
| By state/city | |||||
| Diaspora | |||||
| Lists | |||||
