Freedom Rides

[sheshe2]

On May 4, 1961, a group of 13 African-American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. The Freedom Riders, who were recruited by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a U.S. civil rights group, departed from Washington, D.C., and attempted to integrate facilities at bus terminals along the way into the Deep South. African-American Freedom Riders tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters, and vice versa. The group encountered tremendous violence from white protestors along the route, but also drew international attention to their cause. Over the next few months, several hundred Freedom Riders engaged in similar actions. In September 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in bus and train stations nationwide.

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The original group of 13 Freedom Riders–seven African Americans and six whites– left Washington, D.C., on a Greyhound bus on May 4, 1961. Their plan was to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 17 to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ruled that segregation of the nation’s public schools was unconstitutional. The group traveled through Virginia and North Carolina, drawing little public notice. The first violent incident occurred on May 12 in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where John Lewis (1940-), an African-American seminary student and influential member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a civil rights organization; white Freedom Rider and World War II (1939-45) Navy veteran Albert Bigelow (1906-93); and another African-American rider were viciously attacked as they attempted to enter a whites-only waiting area. The next day, the group reached Atlanta, Georgia, where some of the riders split off onto a Trailways bus.

Massive Violence in Alabama



On May 14, 1961, the Greyhound bus was the first to arrive in Anniston, Alabama. There, an angry mob of about 200 white people surrounded the bus, causing the driver to continue past the bus station. The mob followed the bus in automobiles, and when the tires on the bus blew out, someone threw a bomb into the bus. The Freedom Riders escaped the bus as it burst into flames, only to be brutally beaten by members of the surrounding mob. The second bus, a Trailways vehicle, traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, that day, and those riders were also beaten by an angry white mob, many of whom brandished metal pipes. Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor (1897-1973) stated that, although he knew the Freedom Riders were arriving and violence awaited them, he posted no police protection at the station because it was Mother’s Day.

Photographs of the burning Greyhound bus and the bloodied riders appeared on the front pages of newspapers throughout the country and around the world the next day, drawing international attention to the Freedom Riders’ cause and the state of race relations in the U.S. Following the widespread violence, CORE officials could not find a bus driver who would agree to transport the integrated group, and they decided to abandon the Freedom Rides. However, Diane Nash (1938-), an activist from the SNCC, organized a group of 10 students from Nashville, Tennessee, to continue the rides. U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (1925-68), brother of President John F. Kennedy (1917-63), began negotiating with Governor John Patterson (1921-) of Alabama and the bus companies to secure a driver and state protection for the new group of Freedom Riders. The rides finally resumed, on a Greyhound bus departing Birmingham under police escort, on May 20.

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-rides

[guillaumeb]

1. ancient history?

Not at all. The tactics have sometimes changed but the race hatred is still there.
Consider:
In 2008 a black man was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Paris Texas.
Travon Martin-murdered by police
Tamir Rice-murdered by police
Eric Garner-murdered by police
Amadou Diallo-murdered by police.

No I was wrong. The tactics have not changed.

When will the American Civil War ever end?

[ismnotwasm]

2. K&R

For truth

[sheshe2]

3. You are a sweetheart for posting here.

Love you, thanks.