Plessy V. Ferguson Argumentative Essay

Slavery was abolished by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 and the court decision of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 ruled that “separate but equal” was constitutional, however African Americans living in the Southern United States continued to face racial segregation and injustice for over sixty years (Head). While the law required segregated facilities to be equal, utilities designated for “colored people” were instead vastly inferior. Sadly, African-Americans were forced to endure this segregation in nearly every part of their daily life. Additionally, severe prejudice was directed to the people by whites - the worst of which was done by members of the Ku Klux Klan who often lynched and hanged innocent African-Americans. After sixty years

of these horrible acts, a group of people rose up in opposition to it, these people were known as the “Freedom Riders”. The efforts of the Freedom Riders during the American Civil Rights Movement were successful because they drew attention on a national level to the unlawful disregard for the federal laws that were supposed to protect the rights of all United States citizens.
The Freedom Riders, consisting of both African American and caucasian individuals, departed in buses from northern cities heading towards the South in an effort to end segregation in bus terminals; their goal was to gain nationwide attention as the participants sat together ignoring segregation laws. "Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in [the] Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals” (History.com Staff). The original rides, designed to attract public awareness to the inhumanity of segregation, were organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) - a civil rights group whose goal was to bring about equality to all people. The initial ride began in Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961, and travelled south, often on Greyhound buses. At first there was little to no violence despite the intentional flouting of segregation laws, but that would soon change when the group temporarily split into two and took slightly different paths. “On May 14, 1961, the Greyhound bus was the first to arrive in Anniston, Alabama...there, an angry mob of about 200 white people surrounded the bus, causing the driver to continue past the bus station...the second bus, a Trailways vehicle, traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, and those riders were also beaten by an angry white mob, many of whom brandished metal pipes” (History.com Staff). At Anniston, the mob slashed the bus’s tires and followed it until the tires blew out - the mob then threw a bomb into the bus and began beating the surviving members; likewise, the Riders at Birmingham faced similarly heavy violence. To clarify, the mobs attacked the Riders with violence in order to stop them from continuing their mission, and while CORE did withdraw their representatives, it was quickly continued by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, maintaining the fight for freedom (with an additional police escort to the state border). After facing all this violence, it might have been expected for the Riders to stop their struggle for equality; instead, they pressed on deeper into the South and even more dangerous states.
The ultimate test of bravery and determination would meet the Riders at Montgomery, Alabama where a dramatic event would further focus the world’s attention to their cause and ultimately lead to the desegregation of bus terminals.

“The bus traveled downtown alone, then pulled into an oddly quiet Greyhound terminal...Passengers began to disembark...Dozens, hundreds, soon more than 1,000 enraged people swarmed the area” (Bausum). Unfortunately, the defenseless Riders were beaten with baseball bats, metal pipes, lengths of rubber hose, and worse; additionally, state troopers and even local police (due to an arrangement with the KKK) did not intervene until much later. Also, there was strategy to the violence, with newscasters and reporters being attacked first, followed by two hours of rampaging and the refusal of admittance of several injured Riders at hospitals. However, the violence that was intended to end the Riders once and for all just focused the spotlight on their cause, as seen especially by a broadcast that night: “That evening citizens...tuned into their nightly news and watched as Jim Zwerg, [the single white Rider], bruised and battered, lying flattened on his hospital bed, delivered a stunning statement: 'Segregation must be stopped. It must be broken down. We're going on to New Orleans no matter what. We're dedicated to this. We'll take hitting. We'll take beating. We're willing to accept death'" (Bausum). It seemed as if Zwerg’s words were a call to action as hundreds of people of all kinds became Riders, travelling into the deep South to try and end segregation. Finally, on September 22, 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission abolished all segregation from bus travel throughout the nation, and the official Rides stopped at the end of 1962. After facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles of racism, violence, and persecution, the Freedom Riders’ goal had been achieved at last: desegregated buses and bus terminals all throughout the United

States.
The Freedom Riders’ objective to end interstate segregation for bus travel was finally reached through the national attention they received in large part due to the brutal violence they faced. The Riders fearlessly set out from the North hoping to draw enough attention to their purpose to end discrimination while encountering hostile mobs along the way. The sheer brutality and hatred they faced inspired hundreds and thousands of others to join in their fight as well, eventually ending Jim Crow’s grotesque stain on bus travel to an end. The heroic deeds of the Freedom Riders were just the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, but they helped bring segregation to a close in the United States taking this nation one step closer to realizing the Declaration of Independence’s claim that “all men are created equal”.