Freedom Riders
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Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and following years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960),[1] which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional.[2]
The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961,[3] and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.[4]
Southern local and state police considered the actions of the Freedom Riders to be criminal and arrested them in some locations. In some places, such as Birmingham, Alabama, the police worked with the Ku Klux Klan and other white people against the actions of the riders, and allowed mobs to attack the riders.
Freedom Riders Media
The Greyhound bus attack site (center) is south of Anniston on Old Birmingham Highway (right). See Freedom Riders National Monument (2017 photo)
Violence at the Anniston Trailways Terminal, at 901 Noble St., is commemorated with a mural (2012 photo)
A mob of white people beat Freedom Riders in Birmingham, Alabama. This picture was reclaimed by the FBI from a local journalist who also was beaten and whose camera was smashed.
The Old Montgomery Greyhound Station, site of the May 20, 1961 violence, is preserved as the Freedom Rides Museum (2011 photo)
Mugshot of Miller G. Green when arrested for being a part of The Freedom Rides
George Raymond Jr. was a CORE activist arrested in the Trailways bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi, on August 14, 1961.
Some Freedom Riders were incarcerated in the Mississippi State Penitentiary
Activists Patricia Stephens and Reverend Petty D. McKinney arrested in Tallahassee, Florida, on June 16, 1961.
Tri-State Trailways depot, Jackson, Miss. (1940s Postcard)
Atlanta, GA, Greyhound Bus Station and Restaurant, c. 1940
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References
- ↑ 364 U.S.
- ↑ 328 U.S. 373 (1946); also Morgan v. Virginia. Law.cornell.edu. Archived from the original on February 17, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ↑ "The Freedom Rides". Congress of Racial Equality. Archived from the original on July 10, 2013. Retrieved March 20, 2011.
- ↑ "1961 Freedom Rides Map" Archived 2018-03-11 at the Wayback Machine, Library of Congress
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