Freedom Riders

• • In December 1960, Supreme Court ordered that all state transport and facilities should be desegregated
  • 13 CORE activists tested bus desegregation by riding two buses from Washington DC to the South
  • Segregation was still being enforced on buses, so the activists wanted to encourage government action to enforce desegregation
• • The bus reached Anniston in Alabama with very little trouble
  • 100 KKK members attacked and firebombed first bus in Anniston, nearly killing everyone inside. The riders on second bus were beaten but drove on to Birmingham, where they were beaten again by KKK
• • What happened to the Freedom Riders was a huge embarrassment to government as state policemen and politicians had supported the KKK's violence
• • It inspired the SNCC to have their own freedom rides
  • In May they tried to ride from Tennessee to Birmingham, Alabama and were trapped in the bus station by an angry mob
  • The federal government forced the Governor to escort them away to Montgomery, but were attacked by members of the WCC and KKK and the Riders were arrested
• • In total there were 60 freedom rides and 300 riders were arrested
  • On 1st November 1961 the federal government said it would use federal officers to enforce desegregation, so Southern states began to desegregate buses