Freedom Riders Research Paper

1090 Words3 Pages

Freedom riders were civil rights activities who 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 Iren Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia 1946 and Boynton v. Virginia 1960 which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. however this rule didn't stop us from the segregation of an equal right. Violence in Anniston, Alabama Anniston, Alabama, a white mob awaited the arrival of the first bus bearing the Freedom Riders at the Greyhound station. As it arrived, they attacked the bus with iron pipe, which s and baseball bats and slashed its tires. The terrified bus driver hastily drove out of the station, but the punctured …show more content…

The plan was reported to the FBI headquarters, but no action was taken. The Trail ways station was filled with Klansmen and reporters. When we exited the bus, they are beaten by the mob with baseball bats, iron pipes and bicycle chains, and then, battered and bleeding, I was arrested. White Freedom Riders were particularly singled out for frenzied beatings. Two riders were hospitalized, including white Freedom Rider. Shuttles worth in Birmingham were notified of the beatings by a fleeing reporter. That night, my partners and i were ejected from the hospital because hospital personnel were afraid of the mob. Eight cars of churchmen, brimming with shotguns and rifles, headed off to rescue us. My partners and I were injured and battered, felt that we could not continue the freedom ride and elected to fly to New Orleans where. At this point, SNCC felt more than ever that the Freedom Rides should continue. Diane Nash of SNCC sent out a call to campuses around the eastern United States for volunteers to come to join the Freedom Ride to keep the demonstration going. Planning Meetings with Martin Luther King Dr. King held another planning meeting at which we developed a new strategy. I saw that authorities in Jackson, Mississippi were intent on arresting all Freedom Riders who integrated the bus stations. Our new plan called for refusing bail, and filling the jails with Freedom Riders. Following our arrest, we would have 40 days in which to enter a plea. We would stay in jail those 40 days and then bail

Show More
Related

  • An Analysis Of Robin Kelley's Congested Terrain

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    Political protesting within today’s society is often relegated to mass marches, social media usage, and other large acts. Unfortunately, small and simple everyday acts of protest are often overlooked or deemed useless in the long run. Sadly, this diminishes most of the protests that take place within America. However, this is not a new trend, but one that can be seen throughout American history, specifically within Jim Crow laws and segregation Deep South during World War II. Within Robin Kelley’s “Congested Terrain,” the way lower and middle-class black citizens fought for their rights to the public spaces within Birmingham Alabama are explored. Because the space in buses was much less defined that other public, segregated spaces, black

    Read More

  • The Freedom Rides: Malcolm X And The Civil Rights Movement

    422 Words  | 1 Pages

    Black liberation was stalled once again in 1961 and 1962, as white savagery reared its head again and black people were forced to deal with the reality that success was not inevitable, yet. Still more "sit-ins", "shoe- ins" were led to combat segregation in public places which were met with violent responses from some white people. These responses ranged from burning down a bus with black people to assaulting black passengers on a train car in Anniston. These racist white people also targeted other white people who were deemed as sympathizers to black struggle or "nigger lovers". Police refused to arrest the white aggressors and in some cases also refused to protect the black people. The Freedom Rides resulted in both losses and gains in the civil rights movement. People came to the realization that justice will not be won through merely trying to persuade Southern whites with peaceful protest but only "when

    Read More

  • The Australian Freedom Ride: Inspiration And Role Models

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    The attention drew from both historical events highlighted the inequality present, between the black and white. It created an shadowing type of effect, which impacted on society. It influenced many black people to take a stand, especially those who had accepted this type of discriminating behaviour as an inevitable part of their day. The Freedom Rides were successful in their work due to their strategy. In this case, it was power, people power. Power creates change, whether it’s for the better, or worse. An example of this would be towards the end of the US Freedom Rides. Violence and arrests continued to amass national and international attention due to the media and newspaper coverage. This drew hundreds of more freedom riders to the cause. The US Freedom Ride had inspired many people to mirror their work, which added to the accumulation of the population fighting for rights and equality between races, specifically public transport in this

    Read More

  • Ain't Scared of your Jails

    1527 Words  | 4 Pages

    The focus of the video documentary "Ain't Scared of your Jails" is on the courage displayed by thousands of African-American people who joined the ranks of the civil rights movement and gave it new direction. In 1960, lunch counter sit-ins spread across the south. In 1961, Freedom Rides were running throughout the southern states. These rides consisted of African Americans switching places with white Americans on public transportation buses. The whites sat in the back and black people sat in the front of the public buses. Many freedom riders faced violence and defied death threats as they strived to stop segregation by participating in these rides. In interstate bus travel under the Mason-Dixon Line, the growing movement toward racial equality influenced the 1960 presidential campaign. Federal rights verses state rights became an issue.

    Read More

  • Hypothetical Southern White Reaction to the Distribution of the Montgommery Bus Boycott Leaflet

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... the Ku Klux Klan the people living in that area had taken on board the message of acting as a community and instead of hiding away in their houses from the convoy, which was what the Ku Klux Klan expected, many blacks came out into the streets and waved at the cars as they passed by.

    Read More

  • James Baldwin and the Jewish Freedom Riders

    2850 Words  | 6 Pages

    When the call went out in the summer of 1961 for volunteers to ride buses throughout the South to help integrate public transportation, a large percentage of the people who made a commitment to take on this dangerous assignment were Jews. To be exact, nearly two-thirds of the Freedom Riders were Jewish which is “quite an amazing feat for a minority which made up less than 2% of the entire American population” (Weinblatt 5). Although Jews and African Americans are two very distinct, and often opposing, cultural groups in our society, the great struggle to end racism in America meshed these two groups tightly together. Their shared motivations, expectations and experiences in dealing with white racists during the civil rights movement are amazingly similar, especially when they are compared in the writings of African American essayist and activist James Baldwin and the personal recollections of the Jewish Freedom Riders.

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Documentary: The Freedom Riders

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    This documentary is based on Raymond Arsenault’s book “Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice”. It was a radical idea organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that alarmed not only those who challenged the civil rights but also deliberately defied Jim Crows Law that were enacted between 1876 and 1965, by challenging the status quo by riding the interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups. This law segregated public services like public transportation, public places, public schools, restrooms, restaurants, and even drinking fountains for black and whites. Though these activists were faced by various bitter racism, mob violence and imprisonment, they were successful in desegregating the buses and bus facilities in the Deep South in September 22, 1961. They strove for nonviolent protest for justice and freedom of African Americans freedom.

    Read More

  • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and His Transcendental Idea

    1846 Words  | 4 Pages

    King, Martin Luther Jr. “Letter from the Birmingham jail.” Why We Can't Wait 1963: 77-100.

    Read More

  • The Children’s Crusade: Dr Martin Luther King Jr

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    Foner, Eric and John A. Garraty. "Freedom Rides." The Reader's Companion to American History. 1 Dec. 1991: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 19 May. 2014. .

    Read More

  • The Selma-Montgomery March

    2478 Words  | 5 Pages

    Enraged with the death of Jim, around 650 protestors gathered again on March 7 and attempted a march through Selma to Montgomery, ignoring Governor Wallace’s orders not to march. They again met with state troopers and a crueler response. A wall of state troopers was formed at US Highway 80 to stop the march. After refusing the orders from the police to stop the march, the troopers took action. The prot...

    Read More

  • The Scottsboro Trials

    2407 Words  | 5 Pages

    A local stationmaster was told the “attack” by the white hobos that had been thrown off of the train. This stationmaster wired ahead to the next stationmaster to let him know of the situation. As the train slowed down and came to a stop in Paint Rock, Alabama, those that were accused of the future crime had no telling what they were going to be up against. Once in Paint Rock, 9 black youths were rounded up, tied together and taken to prison in Scottsboro Al. Here the boys were placed in a jail cell awaiting their charges. Little did they know an additional charge was going to be added that never even crossed their minds.

    Read More

  • African-American Teenagers: The Scottsboro Trial

    450 Words  | 1 Pages

    On March 25 1931 nine African American teenagers were caught riding a train illegally at Scottsboro, Alabama they would have been sent away with a minor charge but got in to a fight with white teenagers, they successfully scared them off but one still remained. After the train started picking to a dangers level the one left was hanged out of the train. The other parts of the gage went to the local police station to report them. But after closer examination the deputies found 2 white women Ruby Bates and Victoria Price aboard. None of them would answer any questions Do to the pressure on them they told police they have been raped by 6 of the nine.

    Read More

  • The Civil Rights Movement: Freedom Rides

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans sought to have their Constitutional Rights permitted. One form of protesting came forth in the form of the Freedom Rides. After slavery ended, many amendments and laws were created to ensure the rights of African Americans, but because of prejudices and racism, most of these were ignored. The Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Fergunson established "separate but equal" on interstate transportation in 1896, but in 1947 the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional. And although segregation was outlawed, Jim Crow laws still ruled the Deep South and “codified in law, sanctioned by the courts, and enforced by the ubiquitous threat of physical violence even more than legal reprisal" (Catsam 87). The Jim Crow laws drastically affected the public transportation systems of the South. The Congress of Racial Equality challenged the unfair laws with Freedom Rides, which "arose out of the need to end segregation at lunch counters, in bus terminals, as well as in other facilities essential to the intercity traveler" (Olds 17-18). The first freedom ride commenced in Washington, DC, in 1961.Because the first Freedom Riders were from the North, they didn't realize how harsh the racist South was and “violence in Anniston and Birmingham, Alabama, would prove to be too much for the first group of freedom riders, who ended up flying from Birmingham to New Orleans. . ." (Catsam 94). However the movement didn't stop there because ". . .students from the Nashville Movement, led by Diane Nash, realized that to allow violence to stop the Rides would send a message that would do incalculable harm to the movement" and the progression of the African American race (94). The students choose to continue t...

    Read More

  • Freedom Rides In The 1960's

    204 Words  | 1 Pages

    Inspired by the 1961 Freedom Rides that took place in the southern states of the USA, during the civil rights campaign, a group of students from the University of Sydney, organized a bus tour of western and coastal New South Wales towns in February 1965. The Freedom Rides of 1965, similar to the American Freedom Riders, aimed to uncover racism against Indigenous Australians, as well as draw public attention to the poor state of Aboriginal health, education, and housing. The students hoped to decrease the socially discriminatory barriers that existed between Aboriginal and white residents and encourage and support Aboriginals in resisting discrimination.

    Read More

  • The Crucible Research Paper

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    Two white females claimed they were raped by nine african american teenagers on their way to Memphis from Chattanooga on March 25, 1931 (Linder). Four young whites and five African Americans were looking for a rumor of government jobs, but on the way back from an unsuccessful job search, a white youth accidently stepped on the hand of Haywood Patterson who was hanging off the side of the train (Linder). A stone-throwing fight occurred, and a posse stopped the train (Linder). Dozens of men with guns rushed to the train and rounded up every African American (Linder). Nine African Americans were captured and tied together with plow line and were taken to jail (Linder).

    Read More

More about Freedom Riders Research Paper

Open Document