EVERFI 306: AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY 4.4 FREEDOM RIDES
Introduction
In 1946 and 1960, the US Supreme Court had ruled that states could not segregate buses that traveled across state lines. Many states, however, continued to enforce segregation on buses, and in 1961, a group of civil rights activists decided to do something about it.
Known as “Freedom Riders,” these activists would go out and break the law on segregated buses. They would organize interracial pairs to sit side-by-side, a violation of the rules of segregation. However, one member of the team would follow the rules of segregation. That person’s job was to stay out of jail so they could post bail when the others were arrested.
They knew they would be arrested. But violence was something else entirely.
It was May 4, 1961 when the first Freedom Ride left Washington D.C., they planned to ride the bus all the way to New Orleans. They rode across Virginia and North Carolina with only minor trouble—some insults and threats.
Then the riders’ bus was stopped and attacked on two occasions, in Anniston and Montgomery, Alabama, leaving many of the riders in the hospital.
The Freedom Rides might have ended right then and there, if it weren’t for the efforts of a young woman named Diane Nash. On May 17, 1961 Diane Nash and 9 other members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a Civil Rights organization of college students also known as “snick”, headed to Birmingham, Alabama to resume the Freedom Rides.
Diane Nash said later, “It was clear to me that if we allowed the Freedom Ride to stop at that point, just after so much violence had been inflicted, the message would have been sent that all you have to do to stop a nonviolent campaign is inflict massive violence.” When other Civil Rights protesters told her that continuing meant people would be killed, she said that the students who were going to make the ride knew that, and had already written their wills.
Click on the Map for more on the Freedom Rides and Civil Rights Protests in the South.
Content
On May 4, 1961 the first Freedom Ride bus carrying Civil Rights activists left Washington DC. Led by James Farmer, the group set out in Greyhound busses with the goal of riding through a number of Southern states before arriving in New Orleans, Louisiana to attend a civil rights EVERFI 306: AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY 4.4 FREEDOM RIDES rally.
* On February 1, 1960, at 4:30pm four African-American men, students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat down at a lunch counter in a Woolworths and ordered coffee. The lunch counter was white only. They were refused service, but still they stayed. The next day there were over twenty students. Then over 300. Some people heckled them, poured coffee over their heads, and threatened them. The students continued to study and read. The protests spread all over the south, until July 25, 1960, when they were served. Segregation stopped in all Woolworths the following day.
* Diane Nash was one of the organizers of Greensboro-type lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville. Between February 13 and May 10, 1960, African-American students conducted nonviolent sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. Over 150 students were arrested. Diane Nash asked the mayor of Nashville if he agreed with segregation, and he publicly admitted he did not. On May 10, Nashville removed all race restrictions on lunch counters.
* Anniston was the site where Ku Klux Klansmen slashed the tires of a bus to stop Freedom Riders from reaching Birmingham. The bus was firebombed, and the riders were beaten.
* Birmingham was the site of some of the worst attacks on Civil Rights protesters. When Diane Nash’s bus of Freedom Riders rolled into Birmingham, they were all arrested and taken to jail. They sang “We Shall Overcome” in jail for hours. Eventually they were taken to the Tennessee state line and let go.
* On May 21, 1961, after the attacks on the first group of Freedom Riders, the ones who could still continue traveled on by bus to Montgomery. They were protected along the way by Alabama State Patrol. At the city limits, the State Patrol abandoned them. They were met by a mob at the bus station and again violently attacked. Ambulances refused to take the injured to the hospital.
* Jackson, Mississippi became a go-to destination for Freedom Rides. Without fail, Freedom Riders were arrested upon arrival to this city. The strategy became to fill the jails. So many Riders were sent to jail, they started filling the Mississippi State Prison. Riders would sing day and night, and when they did not stop, the jailers took their mattresses. In September 1961, in response to the Freedom Rides and the national attention they had gained, the federal government issued rules that desegregated the buses.