freedom rides

• Boynton v Virginia


  A court case in 1960 where the Supreme Court ruled that interstate travel should be desegregated
• CORE activists


  Wanted to show that the court's rulings were not being followed and provoke anger and gain publicity
• Freedom Riders


  • A group of 13 activists, seven black and six white, intended to travel 1,500 miles by bus through the southern states to New Orleans
  • Their tactics were to have at least one interracial pair sitting in adjoining seats and at least one black rider sitting up front, where seats were usually reserved for white customers
• The ride to Montgomery, 1961


  1. When the Riders reached Anniston, Alabama, a mob was ready for them

  2. On 14 May 1961, the first bus was attacked, its passengers were beaten and the bus was firebombed

  3. When the other bus reached Birmingham, Alabama, mob violence continued
• The violence was reported worldwide in news bulletins


  Causing other countries to condemn the USA, e.g. Japanese investors pulled out of a planned factory build in Birmingham
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)


  • Organised replacements and sent them to Birmingham after the first round of violence
• Federal government


  • Asked the state governor to protect the Riders
  • Intervened, sending in US Marshals and declaring martial law to calm the situation in Montgomery
• Ku Klux Klan (KKK)


  • Members led the angry white crowd that attacked the Riders in Montgomery
• When the Riders continued their journey to Jackson

  1. They again received police protection

  2. When they got to Jackson, they were arrested and the first ride came to an end
• Freedom Riding Coordinating Committee


  • Set up after the first Riders were arrested
• There were more than 60 Freedom Rides in the summer of 1961, and these continued to attract violence from white people, yet it was often the Freedom Riders who were arrested, rather than their attackers
• By November 1961, President John F Kennedy intervened


  He said that if the southern states did not desegregate interstate travel, he would send in US marshals to do it
• Most states enforced the order