Analysis Of The Freedom Riders

I want to pursue my graduate studies on history at Cal State Los Angeles. I gained an interest in history as a career. I’m going to become one of the children from my family to pursue this endeavor. I see history as important information which teaches to not repeat past errors for society in the 21st century. Furthermore I want to see what jobs I can do in my current condition, after being diagnosed for multiple schelrosis and asperger’s syndrome.

The Freedom Rides were formed on May, 1961, launched by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a U.S. civil rights group. A group of African-Americans and white civil rights activists departed in two buses from Washington, D.C. to the South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. The Supreme Court rules in December of 1960, that segregation in interstate travel is illegal but still state laws in the southern states and local ordinances ordered segregation of the races on buses.

Stanley Nelson chronicles the journey of a group of individuals, known as the Freedom Riders, whom fought for the rights of African Americans to have the same amenities and access as the Caucasians. The purpose of the Freedom Rides was to deliberately violate the Jim Crow laws of the south that prohibited blacks and whites from mixing together on buses and trains. Expectedly, many of the Freedom Riders were beaten and the majority was imprisoned. This carried on for the majority of 1961 and culminated with the Interstate Commerce Commission issuing an order to end the segregation in bus and rail stations. Nelson encapsulates this entire movement in about two hours. At the end of the two hours, the viewer is emotionally tied to the

The focus of this investigation is to evaluate ¨In what ways did the legal system respond to the freedom riders in the southern state?¨ and will analyze what was done to both help and harm the freedom riders journey as they protested throughout the south for racial equality. Racial equality was fought for by many other groups and people but the freedom riders will be the main focus for this investigation. The sources The Enduring Courage of The Freedom Riders and Freedom Rides have been used throughout. They are best suited because they show how the law enforcement responded to the riders and what they faced during their protests.

Freedom Rides were a group of northern African-Americans who rode buses to protest segregation. The buses rode into the South in order to challenge racial segregation. In 1961 James Peck , a white Civil Rights Activist, joined other CORE members on a historic bus trip across the south. The two bus trips would test the Supreme Court decisions banning segregated seating on interstate bus routes and segregated facilities in bus terminals.

13 Freedom Riders were divided into two groups and left for Birmingham, Alabama on May 1, 1961. The two buses, a Grey hound and a Trailways bus, departed from Washington, D.C. 7 black and 6 white men and women were led by CORE director, James Farmer. The riders plan was to have at least 1 interracial pair sitting beside one another and at least 1 single black person sitting in the front of the bus which was reserved for whites only. The remainders of the group would sit where there was room. Only one of the Freedom Riders in the group would obey the South’s segregation laws.

Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. By Raymond Arsenault New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. In the book, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, historian Raymond Arsenault, writes about the six month between the spring and summer of 1961 where four hundred and fifty men and women rode segregated buses in the south. Their mission was to defy the non-enforcement of the Supreme Court decisions that ruled segregated public buses were unconstitutional, and how majority of white southerners did not observe these laws.

The Freedom Riders would ride on commercial buses with passengers of mixed races and would travel to the south to put an end to the segregation that African-Americans were facing. Freedom Riders (Who were they and what did they do) The Freedom riders were a group formed on May 4, 1961, composed of 13 African-American and white civil rights activists who were recruited by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Their aim was to abolish segregation in the South with a series of bus trips to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals.

The Freedom Riders went through a devastating downfall through their movement. In May of 1961, the Greyhound carried the Freedom Riders into South Carolina where, like Carson’s article

May 4th, 1961. Upon arrival in Atlanta, Dr. Martin Luther King prepared a reception for the riders and warned them not to continue the ride to Alabama for fear of retaliation from the white Southerners, the students insisted upon continuing their journey and spreading their message. On day eleven, May 14th, 1961, the first bus arrived in Birmingham, the riders discovered several groups of white men anticipating their arrival. These white men surrounded the bus, began yelling obscenities, flattened the bus tires, and then proceeded to burn the bus by tossing gasoline then lighting it on fire. Surprisingly the senseless and barbaric acts by the whites did not spur a violent retaliation from the freedom riders. The freedom riders were prepared for the worst and even role-played in an effort to remain calm and non-violent. The strategy of non-violence can be considered a psychological manipulation to demonstrate that they were not a threat, nor would they allow anyone to intimidate them. The nonviolent approach is vital for social movements as G. William Domhoff, PhD. indicates on his website, “Studies of social movements in the United States also show that the necessary social disruption has to be created through the principled use of strategic nonviolence. Any form of violence, whether property damage or physical battles with opponents and police, will turn off the great majority of Americans and bring down overwhelming police

The freedom riders have had a lasting impact on everyone’s lives even if people don’t know it. I believe this because they were fighting for the equal treatment of all people. Learning about the freedom riders was an interesting experience. When I see any documentaries about the past I feel thankful for those who stood up for the rights of those being discriminated against. I think that their legacy is being known for peacefully making the government in the worst part of Alabama see what they were doing was wrong. One of the most horrible things was there was people being beaten and just ready to die they already had their wills prepared and that the president didn’t step in until it got so bad that they were feeling

As we have learned about the Freedom Riders I have learned many things about them. The freedom riders movie and the information that I have learned about them are both similar in many ways. Both the information from the movie and the information learned in class are similar because they both describe how brave the freedom riders are, they both described how crucial the freedom riders were to the civil rights movement, and they both explain how what the cruel punishments were to to freedom riders.

Freedom riders fought for racial equality among African Americans in America in the 1960’s. Their purpose was to first stop segregation of transportation, and then later expand to racial equality everywhere. They were inspired by Rosa parks actions and advised by Martin Luther King Jr. The freedom riders protests lasted 7 months with about 400 members participating in them. Riders were supported by the Congress for Racial Inequality or CORE. Throughout history the southern states has been a place of slavery and after it has been abolished, the south finds a hard time integrating African Americans into daily lives. As a result of this behavior, the races are segregated. In the south the freedom riders faced many oppositions by legal forces to stop their protests.

“Freedom Riders” were a group of people, both black and white, who were civil rights activists from the North who “meant to demonstrate that segregated travel on interstate buses, even though banned by an I.C.C. Ruling, were still being enforced throughout much of the South” (The South 16). The Riders attempted to prove this by having a dozen or so white and black Freedom Riders board buses in the North and travel through Southern cities. This was all “a coldly calculated attempt to speed up integration by goading the South, forcing the Southern extremists to explode their tempers” ('Freedom Riders' 20). The author of the Newsweek article stated this as the Southern opinion of the reason for the Freedom Riders. The

Social climate change is something that people are very hesitant to talk about. The reactions you might receive for feeling a certain way towards social change are enough that many choose to not act upon it. If social change was something that could easily be achieved in American history, or history in general, would not be so significant. There were several activists and authors who chose to speak out on their beliefs of social change. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is known for his peaceful protests, speeches, and overall achievements in gaining equality for African Americans. Henry David Thoreau wrote a famous piece called Civil Disobedience, in which he wrote about protesting the government. Another very prominent activist is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi is famous for his practice of passive resistance. He developed this practice himself and from this, achieved remarkable things for South Africa. One mass social movement that should be considered is the movement of the Freedom Riders. Although they were met with much hardship, they stood for what they believed in. After reading works by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau, as well as studying activists such as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and the Freedom Riders movement, I believe that social climate change is possible and can be achieved in today’s society.