05/04/2021
60 years ago today, on May 4, 1961, an in*******al group of thirteen civil rights activists left Washington, DC, on buses bound for New Orleans. Their planned journey—the first Freedom Ride in 1961—was organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
The original Freedom Riders were an intergenerational group. Some, like James Peck, had taken part in similar protests against segregation in interstate travel going back to the 1940s. Other riders were younger. Charles Pearson, a 1st-year student at Morehouse College, was 18. John Lewis was already an experienced organizer in 1961, but he was 21 when he joined the protest.
When they left D.C. in early May, the Freedom Riders hoped to travel together through the U.S. South in order to test the Supreme Court's decisions in cases like Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which had declared that segregation on interstate buses, trains, and related facilities was unconstitutional. Despite the court's decisions, racial segregation and other illegal forms of discrimination against Black travelers had largely stayed in place. In 1961, inspired by other civil rights protests like the student sit-in movement, the Freedom Riders hoped to publicly challenge segregation, forcing the federal government to intervene and enforce the Supreme Court’s rulings.
The original Freedom Ride did not complete its journey to New Orleans in 1961. On May 14, one of the group's buses was ambushed, pursued, and firebombed by an angry mob organized by the Ku Klux Klan (K*K) in Anniston, Alabama. Although the Freedom Riders and other passengers were able to escape the burning bus, many were attacked and beaten. On the same day, another mob in Birmingham, Alabama—operating with the approval of the city's police—assaulted the second group of Freedom Riders.
Although the original Freedom Riders ended their planned protest shortly after these attacks, their actions had far-reaching effects. From May until November 1961, more than 400 Americans rode south together on Freedom Rides. The Freedom Rides inaugurated a new chapter in the civil rights movement, where people all across the nation, not just Black Americans in the South, began to envision themselves in unity and working together toward a better future for all Americans. Their protest captured national attention, forced the Kennedy administration to intervene, and eventually pushed the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to adopt new policies banning segregation in the facilities it oversaw.
📷: CORE button, "Freedom Ride"
60 years ago today, on May 4, 1961, an in*******al group of thirteen civil rights activists left Washington, DC, on buses bound for New Orleans. Their planned journey—the first Freedom Ride in 1961—was organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
The original Freedom Riders were an intergenerational group. Some, like James Peck, had taken part in similar protests against segregation in interstate travel going back to the 1940s. Other riders were younger. Charles Pearson, a 1st-year student at Morehouse College, was 18. John Lewis was already an experienced organizer in 1961, but he was 21 when he joined the protest.
When they left D.C. in early May, the Freedom Riders hoped to travel together through the U.S. South in order to test the Supreme Court's decisions in cases like Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which had declared that segregation on interstate buses, trains, and related facilities was unconstitutional. Despite the court's decisions, racial segregation and other illegal forms of discrimination against Black travelers had largely stayed in place. In 1961, inspired by other civil rights protests like the student sit-in movement, the Freedom Riders hoped to publicly challenge segregation, forcing the federal government to intervene and enforce the Supreme Court’s rulings.
The original Freedom Ride did not complete its journey to New Orleans in 1961. On May 14, one of the group's buses was ambushed, pursued, and firebombed by an angry mob organized by the Ku Klux Klan (K*K) in Anniston, Alabama. Although the Freedom Riders and other passengers were able to escape the burning bus, many were attacked and beaten. On the same day, another mob in Birmingham, Alabama—operating with the approval of the city's police—assaulted the second group of Freedom Riders.
Although the original Freedom Riders ended their planned protest shortly after these attacks, their actions had far-reaching effects. From May until November 1961, more than 400 Americans rode south together on Freedom Rides. The Freedom Rides inaugurated a new chapter in the civil rights movement, where people all across the nation, not just Black Americans in the South, began to envision themselves in unity and working together toward a better future for all Americans. Their protest captured national attention, forced the Kennedy administration to intervene, and eventually pushed the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to adopt new policies banning segregation in the facilities it oversaw.
📷: CORE button, "Freedom Ride"
