Freedom Rides,

1961

Mary Kate McDaniel

 What was the Freedom
Ride ?
On May 4, 1961 seven African Americans and
six Whites left Washington, D.C., on two public
buses bound for the South. They intended to
test the Supreme Court's ruling in Boynton v.
Virginia case of (1960), which declared
segregation in interstate buses and rail
stations unconstitutional.
 Jim Crow Laws .
Buses
Railroads
Restaurants
Toilet Facilities
Police Stations
Taxis
Military
Hospitals and Care
Ect.
C.O.R.E.
Founded in 1942, the Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE) became one of the leading
activist organizations in the early years of the
American Civil Rights Movement.
 Who was involved in these
Freedom Rides?
Tom Gaither CORE
activist purposed the
Freedom Ride
James Farmer CORE
director leads the
Freedom Riders onto
the bus
Among the riders
includes Hank Thomas,
Jim Peck, Diane Nash,
John Lewis, Rudy Doris
Smith, Jim Zwerg, and
many more . .
 John Lewis
A member of C.O.R.E.
Was a Freedom Rider
in 1961
Member of the (SNCC)
Still gives back today
Roads
Traveled

The plan is to ride through Virginia, the

Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Their final destination is New Orleans,
Louisiana.
Along the way they were not welcomed into
hotels, restaurants, restrooms, police stations,
hospitals, and the houses where people
helped them were destroyed and demolished
after they left.
 Horrific obstacles
Joseph Perkins is the first Freedom Rider to be
arrested.
Later that same day, Freedom Rider John Lewis is
assaulted.
CORE Freedom Riders bus #1 burned.
The Freedom Riders arrive in Montgomery, AL where
a police escort abandons them to an angry mob.
Freedom Rider Jim Zwerg and Federal official John
Seigenthaler are badly injured in an ensuing brawl.
Freedom Riders jailed
Freedom Riders sent to Parchman State Prison Farm
Riders are transferred to Mississippis notorious
Parchman State Prison Farm.
Segregationist authorities attempt to break their
spirits by removing mattresses from the cells. New
Freedom Riders will continue to arrive in Jackson, MS
and be jailed throughout summer.
Why did the Freedom Rides
occur?
The Freedom Rides occurred because
people knew if they wanted change they had
to do it themselves.
This went down in history as one of the more
remunerable and more effective acts to push
the Civil Rights Movements.
Why these rides were so
significant!
The violence and arrests continued to garner
national and international attention, and drew
hundreds of new Freedom Riders to the cause.
The rides continued over the next several
months, and that fall, under pressure form the
Kennedy administration, the Interstate
Commerce Commission issued regulations
prohibiting segregation in interstate transit
terminals.
Work Cited
http://www.core-online.org/History/freedom%20rides.htm
(Photo) Freedom Rider bus outside of Washington D.C., loading station Library photo.
http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/links/misclink/examples/homepage.htm
(Photo) Colored sign from 1880s Jim Crow Laws segregation, police waiting room.
MISTER, THIS IS NOT YOUR FIGHT!: THE 1961 MONTGOMERY FREEDOM RIDE RIOTS Catsam, Derek Charles. Studies in
the Literary Imagination 40.2 (Fall 2007): 93-109,173
(Photo) The Rev Fred Shuttlesworth with Freedom Riders Charles Butler, Catherine Burks, Lucretia Collins, and Salynn
McCollum in the white Greyhound terminal waiting room. Nashville Tennesean photo
http://www.crmvet.org/riders/freedom_rides.pdf
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/congress-of-racial-equality
(Photo) Harlem protest including CORE member James Peck and Henry Thomas
Robert F. Williams, Black Power, and the roots of the African American freedom struggle Tyson, Timothy B. The Journal
of American History 85.2 (Sep 1998):540-570
(Photo) Rep. John Lewis was a student 1961 at American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville when he became one
of the original Freedom Riders.
(Photo) Jim Peck, seated, talks with a Justice Dept. representative and Ben Cox on the freedom plane to New Orleans,
May 15, 1961,. Photo by Theodore Gaffney. (Photo)
http://www.tolerance.org/supplement/john-lewis-reenacts-historic-1961-freedom-rides
(Photo) John Lewis. Freedom Rider. July 1961. Lewis recently tweeted the photograph, spawning this fascinating, powerful
thread.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/jim-zwerg /
(Photo) James Zwerg's physical wounds healed after he was attacked by an Alabama mob, but the emotional wounds
festered.