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Freedom Rider is also a song by Rascal Flatts

Civil Rights activists called Freedom Riders rode in interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia, (1960) 364 U.S. The first Freedom Ride left Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. Riders were arrested for trespassing, unlawful assembly, violating state and local Jim Crow laws, etc. Most of the subsequent rides were sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) while others belonged to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The Freedom Rides followed on the heels of dramatic "sit-ins" against segregated lunch counters conducted by students and youth throughout the South, and boycotts beginning in 1960.

Contents 1 History 2 Violence 3 Impact 4 Bibliography 5 References

The Freedom Rides were based on the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, led by civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Like the Freedom Rides, the Journey of Reconciliation was intended to test an earlier Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. Rustin and a few of the other riders, chiefly members of CORE, 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.

Notable Freedom Riders of 1961 included Diane Nash, James L. Farmer, William Mahoney, John Lewis, Jim Zwerg, James Peck, George Bundy Smith, Frederick Leonard, and William Sloane Coffin, among others totaling 436. About 75% were male, and the same percentage were under the age of 30, mostly evenly divided between black and white.

Arguably, the Riders did not engage in civil disobedience since they had a legal right to disregard segregation laws concerning interstate transportation facilities in the states they visited. But their rights were not enforced and were considered criminal acts throughout most of the South. In fact, upon the Riders' arrival in Mississippi, their journey ended with imprisonment for exercising their legal rights pursuant to the Supreme Court's decision in Boynton v. Virginia. Despite this decision, the prevailing enforcement patterns and local judicial decisions in the South meant that local and state governments regarded the Riders' actions as unlawful and, most importantly, they had to rely on non-violent resistance in facing both mob violence and mass arrest by authorities determined to stop their protests. The Freedom Riders faced much resistance against their cause but ultimately received strong support from people both inside and outside the South for their efforts.

The worst violence that occurred during the Freedom Rides was after the buses entered Alabama. In Anniston, a mob attacked the bus and slashed its tires. Several miles outside of Anniston, when the crippled bus had to stop, it was firebombed [1] by the mob who had followed it in cars. As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intent on burning the riders to death. An undercover law enforcement officer finally drew his gun and forced the doors to be opened. The Riders were viciously beaten as they fled the burning bus.

When the Trailways bus reached Birmingham, the other Freedom Riders were also mercilessly beaten by Ku Klux Klan members aided and abetted by the police under the orders of Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor. When these Freedom Riders exited the bus, they were beaten by the mob with baseball bats, iron pipes and bicycle chains. Among the Klansmen attacking the riders was FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe. White Freedom Riders were particularly singled out for frenzied beatings. Two riders were hospitalized, including white Freedom Rider Jim Peck who required 52 stitches to close the wounds in his head.[2]

That night, the hospitalized Freedom Riders were kicked out of the Hospital at 2 AM because the staff feared the mob outside the hospital. Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth organized several cars of blacks who penetrated the mob to rescue the injured Freedom Riders.

With most of the Freedom Riders injured, and the danger of the violence escalating to someone being killed, it was suggested that the Freedom Rides should be discontinued. After the serious beatings and hospitalizations, most of the original Freedom Riders flew to New Orleans to attend a previously scheduled rally.

Nashville student Diane Nash, a leader in the SNCC felt that if violence were allowed to halt the Freedom Rides, the movement would be set back years. She pushed to find replacements to resume the ride, and on May 17th a new set of riders, students from Nashville, took a bus to Birmingham where they were arrested by Bull Connor and jailed. These students kept their spirits up in jail by singing Freedom Songs. Out of frustration, Police Chief Bull Connor drove them back up to the Tennessee line and dropped them off, stating "I just couldn't stand their singing."

When reports of the bus burning and beating reached US Attorney General Robert Kennedy, he urged restraint on the part of Freedom Riders and sent an assistant, John Seigenthaler, to Montgomery, Alabama to observe the Freedom Riders' arrival in that city which was to happen shortly.

On May 21, 1961, a fresh set of Freedom Rider reinforcements who answered SNCC's call from across the Eastern US joined with some of the original group of Freedom Riders May 20, 1961. They headed from Birmingham to Montgomery, protected by a contingent of the Alabama State Highway Patrol. However, when they reached the Montgomery city limits, the Highway Patrol abandoned them. At the bus station, a large white mob was waiting and viciously beat the Freedom Riders with baseball bats and iron pipes. The local police allowed the beatings to go on uninterrupted. Again, white Freedom Riders, branded "nigger-Lovers," were singled out for particularly brutal beatings. There is a famous picture of Jim Zwerg in the hospital, beaten and bruised. [3]. Justice Department official Seigenthaler was beaten and left unconscious lying in the street. Ambulances refused to take the wounded to the hospital. Local blacks rescued them, and a number of the Freedom Riders were hospitalized.

Again, Diane Nash, seeing that the Freedom Rides were about to collapse, sent out a call for activists to resume the Ride. Both blacks and whites went to Montgomery to join the Freedom Rides. A pattern was established in which they would ride buses to Jackson, Mississippi where they would be arrested and jailed. The strategy became one of trying to fill the jails. Once the Jackson City and Hinds County jails were filled to overflowing, Freedom Riders were transferred to Parchman Penitentiary ("Parchman Farm"). There abusive treatment included placement in the Maximum Security Unit (Death Row), issuance of only underwear, no exercise, no mail, and, when Freedom Riders refused to stop singing Freedom Songs, they took away mattresses, sheets and toothbrushes and removed the screens from the windows. When the cell block became filled with mosquitoes, they hosed everyone down with DDT at 2 AM.

During their journey, the original group of 13 grew to almost 450. The Freedom Rides established great credibility with blacks and whites throughout the United States who became motivated to engage in direct action for civil rights. Perhaps most significantly, Freedom Riders impressed blacks living in rural areas throughout the South who later formed the backbone of the civil rights movement. This credibility inspired many subsequent civil rights campaigns, including voter registration, freedom schools, and the black power movement.

During the summer of 1961, Freedom Riders also campaigned against other forms of racial discrimination. They sat together in segregated restaurants, lunch counters and hotels. This was especially effective when it targeted large companies who, fearing boycotts in the North, began to desegregate their businesses.

Attorney General Robert Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to draft regulations to end racial segregation in bus terminals. The ICC was reluctant, but in September of 1961 it issued the necessary orders, and the new policies went into effect on November 3, 1961.

• Raymond Arsenault, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (Oxford University Press, 2006).
• David Fankhauser, FREEDOM RIDES: Recollections by David Fankhauser

A web page with personal description of the experiences of a Freedom Rider, with illustrations. He has given specific permission to cite this copyrighted page:

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Society/freedom_rides/Freedom_Ride_DBF.htm

Site about the Freedom Riders

Civil Rights Movement Veterans ~ 1961