The Freedom Riders

From Bill Bennett's American Patriot's Almanac:

On May 4, 1961, thirteen men and women, black and white, boarded a bus in Washington, D.C., and set out toward New Orleans. Their mission: challenge segregation practices on public transportation. History remembers them as the Freedom Riders.

The U.S. Supreme Court had already ruled that segregation in interstate bus travel was unconstitutional. But in several Southern states where Jim Crow laws still prevailed, it was considered a crime for whites and blacks to sit side by side on a bus. Yet that’s exactly what the Freedom Riders did as they headed south. When they stopped at bus stations, they sat together in segregated waiting rooms and at lunch counters.

By the time they reached the Deep South, trouble was waiting. Near Anniston, Alabama, angry whites firebombed the bus. The Freedom Riders barely escaped with their lives. In Birmingham, riders on a second bus were beaten with clubs and lead pipes. In Montgomery a mob surrounded the church where they sought refuge.

Some Civil Rights activists urged the Freedom Riders to halt their journey. Despite the danger, more people joined the effort. But the Freedom Ride came to an end in Jackson, Mississippi, where police herded the Riders through the bus station and into paddy wagons. More than 300 went to jail.

The Freedom Riders never made it to New Orleans, but they achieved their objective. Inspired by those brave few, more Americans worked to break segregation and lead the country down a better road. In 2001, when some of the Freedom Riders made a fortieth anniversary bus trip retracing their route, the mayor of Anniston welcomed them with the keys to the city.

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