The Freedom Riders

The civil rights era consisted of extreme amounts of violence. Many people were beaten, hospitalized, placed behind bars, and in extreme cases but majority lost their lives during this time. Segregation was big, integration wasn’t wanted, and separatism ruled the South. So many people wanted change. Bravery played a very important part in getting segregation to end. People were literally willing to risk their life for it to end. People would get on a bus and ride to the most separated southern states, even if it meant their lives.

The Freedom Riders had so much heart, they carried their heads high, and their prides higher. The Freedom Rides started when the Supreme Court found that segregated public buses and related facilities on interstate

Lewis was an African American who was born outside of Troy, Alabama, on February 21st, 1940. His childhood wasn’t rough, but once he got to the age where he could work, he realized the unfairness of segregation. Lewis heard Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermons and news about the Montgomery bus boycott and he pushed him to act for the changes he wanted to see. Lewis attend the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. He was taught about nonviolent protest and helped to organize sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. He eventually ended up being arrested for these practices, but Lewis was determined to make a change to the system and participated in the Freedom Rides of

It consisted of 13 people, 7 black and 6 white, departing from Washington, DC. They were planning to stop at Richmond, Petersburg, Farmville, Lynchburg and Danville in Virginia. Stops in North Carolina included Greensboro, High Point, Salisbury and Charlotte. Nobody really bothered them at most of these stops, but in Charlotte, North Carolina, there was an arrest. Black rider Joseph Perkins tried to get a shoe shine at a “white only” shoe shine station, he was arrested for trespassing, refused bail, and spent two nights in jail. He was released after his two day and continued the ride. Violence occured May 10th in Rock Hill, South Carolina at the Greyhound Bus terminal. Black rider John Lewis and white rider Albert Bigelow we’re trying to enter a white-only waiting area. Several white men attacked the pair. May 13th, the Freedom Riders had dinner with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in hopes to get him to join the ride. King kindly refused because he warned them that if they continued the ride, the Ku Klux Klan would be waiting for them and that they wouldn’t make it out of New Orleans, but the Freedom Riders didn’t let that discourage them and continued the ride on May 14th for