Freedom Rides In The 1960s

The Freedom Rides was a huge step towards desegregation in the 1960s and put many African American lives on the line. CORE created the rides to bring national attention to segregation laws in America, but mainly to test the Supreme Court’s ruling in Boynton v. Virginia (1960), the declared segregation in interstate buses and rail stations unconstitutional. Even with violent mobs and attacks, they continued on with bravery to keep pushing for desegregation. Many activists and speakers came out of these rides. As well as making segregation in bus terminals unconstitutional. It was the start of a new era, and was made possible by the Freedom Rides. The Freedom Rides were created in 1947 when CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation organized

and end in New Orleans. There were seven blacks and six whites, on two public buses. The first few days only consisted of minor hostility. In Virginia, they face resistance and arrest.* They didn’t face violence until they arrives in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The ride continued to Anniston, Alabama on May 14th, Mother’s Day. Riders were met with a violent mob of over 100 people. They were screaming and shouting at blacks calling them niggers and threatening them. Permission was even given by the Anniston local authorities for the Ku Klux Klan to strike against the Freedom Rides without the fear of arrest. One of the buses was firebombed, forcing the riders off of the bus and into the angry mob. The rides then continued to the Birmingham bus terminal, where riders were met by violence there as well. The police force of Birmingham offered no protection to the riders. These attacks prompted James Farmer to end the campaign. The riders flew to New Orleans, which brought an end to the first Freedom

had been speaking on a tour in Chicago during these rides. He was one of the biggest reasons these rides were conceived. Students had become intrigued by his speeches about racial equality that they decided to get themselves involved as well to make He had been in favor of the Freedom Rides from the start, but decided not to ride himself. When he heard about the incident in Montgomery, he returned there, and staged a rally at Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church. King blamed Governor Patterson and in his speech he said that he aided and abetted the forced of violence and wanted federal intervention. “The federal government must not stand idly by while white bloodthirsty mobs beat nonviolent students with impunity” (King, May 1961). Soon after this speech, on May 29, 1961, the ICC had been directed to ban segregation in all facilities under its jurisdiction by the Kennedy administration, and the rides continued. Then, on November 1, 1961, the ICC ruled that segregation on interstate buses and facilities was illegal and it took