Freedom rides what was it

The "Freedom Riders" traveled with limited difficulty through North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina, but encountered violent resistance in Alabama. A mob of angry whites firebombed one of their buses outside the city of Anniston, and riders were severely beaten in Birmingham and Montgomery.

Although injuries prevented many of the original participants from continuing, activists from the Student Nonviolent Committee volunteered to ride in their place, and the reconstituted freedom riders traveled under federal protection to Mississippi where they were arrested and jailed.

The next generation: She was 13 when a beaten John Lewis arrived at her Alabama family's home, seeking refuge. Walker was the mother of four children when she decided to join the movement. Her husband, the Rev. The Walkers did not have much wealth at the time, and Theresa Walker saw this as her chance to fight against racism.

So she sent the children to live with their grandparents and joined him. Walker recalled the driver letting other passengers off but not allowing the Freedom Riders to leave the bus until they reached their destination. After a long ride with no food or bathroom breaks, the riders were arrested as soon as they entered a white waiting room in Jackson. She sang songs of freedom to let her husband and other riders know she was alright, and voices would join from other cells in response.

When they were finally released and given back their belongings, she found that someone had stolen the diamond from her wedding band. So I feel it was worth it. Frieze was in her last year of college in Boston when she heard about the sit-ins and protests in the South. After she graduated, she decided to travel to Montgomery to join a Freedom Ride. Frieze was on the same bus as Walker and was also arrested in Mississippi after they attempted to desegregate a white waiting room.

And others were fighting with me. Most know about the Freedom Riders who worked to integrate bus stations, but less discussed are those who worked to integrate airports.

Petway was one of those who took to the skies in search of equal rights. On July 24, , a then year-old Petway flew out of Montgomery along with her father and brother. Police were already waiting for them at the Jackson airport. Their activism cost their father his job, and he had to move to another state to find work.

After the first Freedom Rides failed to reach New Orleans due to firebombing in Anniston and brutality in Birmingham, Thompson was one of those who traveled from New Orleans to Montgomery to participate anyway. When other demonstrators arrived in Jackson they were also arrested and sent to Parchman where they faced similar conditions.

By the end of the summer over women and men were incarcerated there. However the international attention their efforts received forced Attorney General Robert Kennedy to petition the Interstate Commerce Commission ICC to outlaw segregation in interstate travel.

Unlike the earlier Supreme Court rulings which segregationists largely ignored, the ICC immediately imposed sanctions and penalties for the violation of its order. On November 1, , the new order went into effect across the nation. The Freedom Rides illuminated the courage of black and white youth and highlighted the leadership of Diane Nash. The Freedom Rides also inspired rural southern blacks to embrace civil disobedience as a strategy for regaining their civil rights.

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