An Analysis of Freedom Riders: The Documentary by Stanley Nelson

In America, the reaction to the protest was very intense. Throughout the protest, the Freedom Riders came across violence and the reaction of the protest was ruthless. While having to delay their journey to change a slashed tire, “one bus was firebombed and the Freedom Riders were beaten (by a white mob). The second bus was similarly attacked and the passengers beaten”.11 In America, there was a Freedom Ride accompanied by the State Highway Patrol, taking their journey headed for Montgomery; but when “local police failed to protect them, they were again beaten”12.

Nearly a century after the civil war ended, African Americans continued to encounter discrimination, racism, inequality, and segregation. Because of their skin color, they were labeled as second-class citizens. They decided to take actions into their own hands and fight against segregation and attain equal civil liberties. They have faced countless battles, setbacks and enormous resistance. Activists from all around the country, with all types of backgrounds joined in on the fight against racial injustice. Their main strategy emphasized passive resistance and nonviolence.

As African Americans gained civil rights, a new generation, eager to break away from past horrors, emerged while others remained chained to the specter of past inequality and poverty. The story scrutinizes the intense tensions and trains that were created as these two conflicting worlds came together.

The African-American population was highly persecuted, although instead of being cast aside and thought to be useless they were kept as slaves. Many of the Black populous attempted to rise up against their white masters but they were easily cut down by the government and everyone else around them. To deal with this, the African-Americans turned to God and began following Christian practices in their homes and families. This created a massive Christian culture among them. Many people eventually rose up, and on December 1, 1955, a woman named Rosa Parks went against the government’s rule of black and white segregation in the bus system. Her act was the start of many non-violent protests which included; sitting in, marches and the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders were a group of people, of both black and white ethnicity who drove through the south of the United States to prove the point of racial equality. This proved effective, as did the other non violent protests, set up by Martin Luther King Jr. He was one of the few black ministers to rise up for his people. Although Martin Luther King Jr. was effective throughout his life, his death was the most influential part of his work. His death was a catalyst which eventually drew the government to allow basic civil rights, stopping the oppression of

However in the novel, The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead, freedom is just a dream every African American character desires. Whether enslaved or free they must navigate the impossible choice between slavery or racism. The stigma of colored people create this idea that Ridgeway believes "If niggers were supposed to have their freedom, they wouldn't be in chains. If the red man was supposed to keep hold of his land, it'd still be his. If the white man wasn't destined to take this new world, he wouldn't own it now." (Whitehead) Similarly, any white person who feels sympathy for the enslaved is confronted with the fact that if they choose to assist enslaved people, they will likely be killed along with their families.

42. Freedom Riders tried to draw attention to the South’s refusal to integrate bus terminals.

The Freedom rides were put together by Mr. Farmer and consisted of a mixed race of people. They all followed the rule: “Jail no bail.” This ride was non-violent and resulted in turmoil near the south. This smart idea made James Farmer a powerful leader in the Civil Rights movement. No one had the same amount of courage and fight inside as he did.

The legacy of the Freedom Ride political action was a greater awareness of Aboriginal issues in a rural context. Perkins and his fellow students had successfully stirred up debate and sparked discussion around Australia on the state of Aboriginal affairs. Awakening media interest in Aboriginal affairs was positioned in favor of the Black Australian cause, to the severe embarrassment of many white townspeople in rural New South Wales. In the ensuing public debate, urban public knowledge of racial discrimination grew, some

As the trip started the first two days were uneventful and in fact pretty easy. One rider said if it says the same then will have accomplished what we came to do. Martin Luther King Jr. was an icon for these riders and some of the riders were pulled aside to talk with him. As they are heading into the most dangerous location of the trip many are becoming fearful. Upon arriving to Alabama, there were about 200 people around the bus stay screaming at them and calling them names. Some of those were: “ let’s kill these niggers these nigger lovers”(Freedom Riders). They stood around the bus to make sure that the bus could not move. One rider said, “we sat there for about 10-15 minutes but it felt like hours”. Once, the driver was able to drive out of the bus stop there was a car diving in front of him that was making it difficult to get by. Just as they thought things could not get any worse the bus gets a flat tire and the bus drivers tries to fix it but couldn’t so he walk away and leaves the riders on the bus to fend for themselves. As the bus is sitting there a

Who are the Freedom Riders you may ask? They were a courageous and daring group, which originally consisted of seven African Americans and six Whites.They fought for the equality and justice for their race. They fought against the racist South during the early 1960’s. Their goal was to make a safer and more fair world for current and future African Americans in the United States. They went through hardship and violence from things such as, angry mobs and racist law enforcement through a period of several months. The Freedom Riders risked their safety and put their lives in danger to impact the way society viewed African Americans and to make the United States fair and equal for all races not just white. There were many events that happened during the Freedom Rider’s protest throughout the deep South. But, the hardship payed off because the Freedom Riders made a huge impact on U.S. History and they also impacted the greater justice and equality for African Americans. The Freedom Riders also have an amazing story with major events and a very positive end result which helped out African Americans in the United States and they also help change how the government treated African Americans unfairly and did give them equal rights as White people had in the United States. The Freedom Riders changed everything for African Americans and gave them a positive future to look forward to.

Most riders were college students, some were apart of civil rights groups. From 40 states, the volunteers got training in nonviolent strategies. The ones that could not deal with being spit on, pushed, hit and hearing racial comments were rejected. They wanted strong people in these groups. No one could react in a negative way, the whole point of doing this was to show whites, they can be strong individuals also, just like them, and without the

During the freedom rides, African Americans would refuse to ride in black designated seats on public transportation. The creation of the Freedom Rides was one of the main movements of the CORE civil rights groups. One of the leaders, James Farmer, developed the type protest. The bus would travel down from Washington D.C. to New Orleans, Louisiana in an almost transcontinental nonviolent-protest. Farmers plan was imitated the Journey for Reconciliation. In May of 1961, an interracial collection of people boarded two buses from Washington to travel southward in protest of segregation. Known as the Greyhound and Trailways, the buses traveled peacefully throughout the country until they entered South Carolina. White racists outside of Rock Hill attacked the voyageurs. The ride became increasingly insecure the further south they traveled. A mob firebombed and attacked the members of the Greyhound bus in Anniston and another assaulted the Trailways’ riders in Birmingham. Although CORE discontinued the rides, many other riders assembled due to outrage over the violence displayed. A new wave of activists directed by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), including John Lewis, flooded Alabama where once again they were attacked in Montgomery. The significance of this the second wave of riders was that it forced the executive branch to act in response to the violence. Kennedy directed the Nation Guard to escort the riders their next destination of Mississippi. Kennedy’s brother Robert has the voyagers arrested for violating legislation set by pro-segregation officials in Mississippi and to prevent any further violence. James Farmer continued to encourage this type of protest and by the end of the season over 300 advocates had chose jail over fines to “dramatize” the issue. JFK’s forced recognition of the issues

Although ruled unconstitutional, segregation continued in the Deep South while the government ignored it. The Freedom Rides then set out to challenge these states who ignored the ruling of segregated public buses and continued to enforce the Jim Crow laws. The Freedom Rides rode buses with mixed racial groups into the states. Often white mobs awaited their arrival to beat them down. The people on the bus never responded with violence and took massive beatings. The local police often knew about these mobbing’s, but ceased to do anything about it. Freedom Rides continued to send buses down despite getting beat up and killed. The more often this occurred the more national attention it got. This showed everyone how these states were disregarding

When it comes to the topic of racial politics very few would agree that Howard fast did a great job of covering the main points of the Reconstruction period and Civil rights movement. The advancement of liberated slaves in the reconstruction period covered in Howard Fast’s Novel, Freedom Road, are more vulnerable over the gains made in civil rights over the course of the past 35 years. In actuality things were much more difficult in the reconstruction period than that of what happened in just the short novel. Also the gains made by minorities in the U.S since 1964 are more significant than the accomplishments of Gideon Jackson and his contemporaries, although the characters did a good job at proposing the issue, the events that took place in this period of history are much more than what was portrayed.

The movie Freedom Riders was important to the civil rights movement, which occurred in the 1990s during time this movie took place. The aim of freedom rides “was to call attention to blatant violations of recent Supreme Court ruling against segregation in interstate commerce” (Henretta, Hinderaker, Edwards, Self). The civil rights movement was a fight for equality and police mortality. Freedom Writers takes place in the 1900s during the Watt’s Riot (LA civil rights movement). Blacks were fighting for equality and to be treated as equally as whites; they wanted less police brutality and they rioted for what they believed in.