Fischer, David H. and James M. McPherson Eds. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. Oxford University Press, 2011. Archer, Jules.
9 The Freedom Riders were groups of Americans who supported equal rights for both whites and African-Americans. They took bus trips across the south of the U.S to fight segregation and promote equality in bus terminals (History). Now, how did the Freedom Riders contribute to the Civil Rights Movement? Well, throughout their journeys, they garnered much attention on the subject of segregation. For example, their trips to New Orleans, Alabama, and Mississippi.
The film depicts how Morgan Freeman struggled to effect the change in the lives of the individuals by removing away the segregation boundaries. He offered to stand at the expense of abolishing segregation system and come up with an integrated system of education still there was a lot of resistance. The resistance was mainly coming from the whites. It’s so unfortunate that up to the late years of 1997 the integration was not affected in most parts of the United States including the Charleston, Mississippi, while the film is acted (Goleman,
The racial segregation in the U.S led to the killing of Africa Americans who did not abide by the laws made based on the racism. The African Americans started fighting for their civil rights in the 1950s (Button, 2014). This struggle was mainly done in the form of riots. The film clearly illustrates such efforts put in by the African Americans to fight for their civil rights such as the bus riots that are depicted in the first episode of this
Why were the Freedom Riders important? They created a way to show racist people in the south that they were equal, it showed the importance becoming an equal and not a separated nation. They began the Freedom Rides to celebrate ¨ Brown vs. the board of education,¨ but it became an essential piece of the civil rights movement. The Freedom Rides were mainly organized by the Congress of Racial Equality; they recreated the trips as they had done before in “1946 when the case of Morgan v. Virginia declared that segregated buses were unconstitutional.” These extraordinary people were truly hated in the deep south because they tried using white-only bathrooms and diners, and many southerners persecuted and got them arrested because they didn't
In January 1960 a college student was denied service at a bus station due to the color of his skin (p. 267). At that time nobody knew that he would be one of four courageous students to spark the very successful student sit-ins that would stimulate the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. After the Civil War, African Americans were treated as second class citizens and were prevented from exercising their basic rights under the constitution, so they used direct action and civil demonstrations to obtain their natural rights. Not all African Americans felt that this was a smart idea since most were raised to fear whites and to be respectful to them.
Over a few months the Freedom Riders had a following several hundreds people supporting the cause. In 1961 Freedom Rides, organized by CORE, were made after the organization’s 1947 Journey of Reconciliation. During the 1947 action, AfricanAmerican and white bus riders tested the 1946 U.S.
That September the Interstate Commerce Commission delivered its order to end segregation on buses and in railway stations, and the civil rights movement had an enormous triumph. Now so too does this genre of documentary film. It is easy to imagine “Freedom Riders,” attaining the status of “Eyes on the Prize,” the multipart film on the history of the civil rights movement that has been an essential component of American history classes for years. “Freedom Riders” should have an equally long life. AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
They wanted to support them and help them stand up for their rights. Martin Luther King was of African descent whereas; Charles Perkins was native to Australia (Bbc.co.uk, 2014; Charles Perkins and the Freedom Rides,
The event that I have chosen is the Freedom Rides, which started May 4, 1961 and ended December 10, 1961. The Freedom Rides were inspired by the Greensboro Sit-ins, and started with 13 African American and Caucasian protestors riding buses into the segregated south to challenge the lack of enforcement to the Supreme Court ruling that segregated buses were unconstitutional. While the activists were peaceful the local law enforcement and people against their message were not. The activists were beaten at several stops along their journey from Anniston to Birmingham with chains, bricks, and bats by Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members in Alabama, and activists that were injured would be refused hospital treatment. Bull Connor, Commissioner of Public Safety
