Freedom Riders

The initial Freedom Rides of 1961 were hastily improvised affairs which triggered violent reactions by white extremists. The Freedom Riders bore the brunt of this reaction with considerable dignity in part due to their training in the tactics of non-violent resistance. The Freedom Riders, together with other confrontations spearheaded by young activists, helped reinvigorate the civil rights movement and transform it into a movement of mass protest. The activities of the Freedom Riders also exacerbated divisions within the movement and were a part of the broader generational and social conflicts of the turbulent 1960s. The Freedom Riders and Freedom Rides accelerated important changes in public attitudes toward racial issues in the South, led to stronger federal interventions in support of the movement and produced tangible gains for blacks. The lasting legacy of the Freedom Riders is more mixed, but nevertheless represents a vivid reminder of their courageous efforts to further the cause of equal rights for black Americans.

Origins of the Freedom Rides and the Freedom Riders

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clothes on the orders of Alabama Governor John Patterson and who dispersed the mob by threatening to kill anyone who harmed the passengers (Weisbrot 57). At the Anniston bus terminal and later that same day at the Birmingham terminal, a white mob beat the passengers with baseball bats, clubs and chains. By pre-arrangement with Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner, "Bull" Connor, the local police arrived late on the scene. The bus was torched. Through the intervention of the SCLC and the Justice Department, the riders were flown to New Orleans. A second round of violence erupted a few days later. Weisbrot says that "initiative for the rides passed to scores of student volunteers after CORE halted its own campaign because of mounting violence" (58). SNCC organizers Lewis and Diane Nash sent a new group of eight blacks and two whites back to Birmingham on May 17 where they were arrested and escorted by Connor back to the Tennessee border. Then, they were bused back again this time to Montgomery, the capital. The Kennedy brothers persuaded Greyhound to drive them back; however, a mob in Birmingham attacked the riders and beat up many of them and also reporters and photographers as well as John Seigenthaler of the Justice Department,
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Approximate Word count = 2979
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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