![]() ![]() The first Freedom Ride began on May 4, 1961. Rustin, Igal Roodenko, Joe Felmet and Andrew Johnnson, were arrested and sentenced to serve on a chain gang in North Carolina for violating local Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation. Like the Freedom Rides of 1961, the Journey of Reconciliation was intended to test an earlier Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. The Freedom Riders were inspired by the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, led by Bayard Rustin and George Houser and co-sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the then-fledgling Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). In some localities, such as Birmingham, Alabama, the police cooperated with Ku Klux Klan chapters and other white people opposing the actions, and allowed mobs to attack the riders. Southern local and state police considered the actions of the Freedom Riders to be criminal and arrested them in some locations. The Supreme Court's decision in Boynton supported the right of interstate travelers to disregard local segregation ordinances. The Freedom Rides, beginning in 1960, followed dramatic sit-ins against segregated lunch counters conducted by students and youth throughout the South, and boycotts of retail establishments that maintained segregated facilities. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsored most of the subsequent Freedom Rides, but some were also organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Police arrested riders for trespassing, unlawful assembly, violating state and local Jim Crow laws, and other alleged offenses, but often they first let white mobs attack them without intervention. They called national attention to the disregard for the federal law and the local violence used to enforce segregation in the southern United States. The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement. The Freedom Riders challenged this status quo by riding interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation in seating. The ICC failed to enforce its ruling, and Jim Crow travel laws remained in force throughout the South. ![]() Ferguson (1896) doctrine of separate but equal in interstate bus travel. ![]() Carolina Coach Company (1955) that had explicitly denounced the Plessy v. Five years prior to the Boynton ruling, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) had issued a ruling in Sarah Keys v. īoynton outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Morgan v. See, for example, the PBS Special airing, and the 2011 Jackson, Mississippi and Chicago gatherings of the Freedom Riders, and. See particularly the Proclamation by the then-Governor of Mississippi, Ronnie Musgrove, issued at the request of the 40th Anniversary Reunion Committee, based on a text prepared by the Chair of the Reunion, Carol Ruth Silver.Ĭontributions made on this web site are tax deductible and will be used for the 50th Anniversary Reunion of the Freedom Riders in 2011, and beyond, to honor the deeds and the memory of the Freedom Riders.įor the 2011 commemoration of the 50 years since the 1961 Freedom Rides, there are numerous web sites, blogs, videos, events, and activities. Freedom Rides in 2011, see other web sites (as below.)įor the 40th Anniversary Reunion of the Freedom Riders, this site preserves the history of, and the research prepared for, the 40th Reunion, held at Tougaloo College, Jackson Mississippi, on Veterans Day, November, 2001 (just days after the 9-11-2001 terrorist attach on the US World Trade Center.) ![]()
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