The Freedom Riders : Jim Zwerg

In addition, according to “Freedom’s Children”, people experience struggles during the Civil Rights Movement. For example, Joseph Lacey, one of the African American witnessed the attack people on the Freedom Riders in Montgomery. Freedom Riders were among the most famous of the Civil Right. It is a protest toward the segregated waiting rooms, restaurant, and buses. Joseph Lacey state in the book that he saw the Freedom Riders beaten. He cried and couldn't believe that human being beat up other human beings like crazy (Text 1: Freedom’s Children, page 73). Joseph Lacey’s description in the book shows one of the struggles that people face during the Civil Rights Movement, violent. And most of the violence happens between different race, even though they are all human being. This is what also makes Civil Rights Movement such an inhumanity movement in America history. The other struggle that people face during the Civil Rights Movement is people get attack by the America police. For example, Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama, people who attend the march no matter what age may get attack by police or the police dog. Children’s Crusade is a march with more than one thousand student skipping classes and gather at Sixth Street Baptist Church in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. According to “ Freedom’s Children”, Audrey Faye Hendricks mention that when he watched the first demonstrator, the saw a police dog attack an elderly black man watching. He couldn’t believe that the police did not take care of the dog and let it attack an elder man (Text 1: Freedom’s Children, page 78). This description shows one of the struggles that African American who’s in different age face during the march during the Civil Rights Movement, attack by police and the police

The American Freedom Rides were motivated by the ‘Journey of Reconciliation’ in 1947, “led by civil rights activists Bayard Rustin and George Houser”1. The Freedom Rides in America involved riding a bus opposing the segregation of black and whites riding together in buses2.

On May 4th, 1961, thirteen brave individuals set out on a mission to start a national movement to overturn segregation in the south. Under the leadership of Congress of Racial Equality, seven African Americans and six whites traveled together on two commercial buses, the Greyhound and the Trailways. They called themselves “The Freedom Riders.” They intended to travel from Washington DC to New Orleans, Louisiana together. On the way, they would deliberately violated Jim Crow laws. The Freedom Riders risked being assaulted, arrested, and even killed. Many other civil rights activists opposed their plan because they felt the idea was too confrontational and dangerous, and could possibly result in a setback for the civil rights movement. Despite the risks and opposition, the Freedom Riders did not abort their mission. The activists were tired of waiting, therefore they decided that they are not going to

Though the conclusion of the American Civil War in 1965 marked the end of slavery in the United States, African-Americans would not see anything resembling true freedom from the segregation and isolation imposed by slavery until very recently, and only after decades of difficult struggle. Some of the most important achievements occurred during the 1960s, when a generation of African-American leaders and activists, including Martin Luther King Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and the Freedom Riders, fought against some of the last vestiges of explicit, institutionalized segregation, discrimination, and isolation in order to attain equality and civil rights. Only by examining the treatment of African-Americans throughout America's history can one begin to understand how the the ending of slavery, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and the contemporary issues facing the African-American community are inextricably linked. In turn this allows one to see how rather than existing as a single, identifiable turning point in the history of civil rights, African American's struggle for equality and an end to isolation must be considered as an ongoing project.

The Freedom Riders used another tactic of nonviolent protests. The Freedom Riders on their bus just sat there and they counted on the racists to provoke a reaction. CORE Director James Famer said: “We felt we could count on the racists of the south to create a crisis so that the federal government would be so compelled to enforce the law.” The Riders began facing little resistance. “You didn't know what you were going to encounter. You

Despite nearly one hundred years passing since the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern States were still faced with the most distinct forms of racism. The so-called “Jim Crow” laws that were present in United States at the time, served to segregate blacks and whites from all aspects of public life, including schools, public transport and juries. Often faced with extreme right-wing terrorist groups such as the white supremacist Klu Klux Klan, many among the African American community chose to live in a society of oppression that to actively campaign for equal rights for all humans regardless of the colour of their skin. It wasn’t until the 1950’s and 60’s that the people attempted to challenge the established order by engaging in influential protest movements with the help of key activist groups and their leaders. In particular, one key example of a powerful protest campaign was that which occurred in 1965 in Selma, a small town in Alabama. Here, the African American community united in an effort to ensure that all citizens were equal before the law in regards to their ability to register to vote. Their work in banding together and marching from Selma to the state capital Montgomery, was vastly important to both the Civil Rights Movement as a whole, as well as the assurance of the Black vote within the United States. Consequently, this essay seeks to emphasize just how influential this act of protest was to the movement as a whole, whilst analysing the

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

In a march against segregation and barriers for African-American voting rights, peaceful marchers were exposed to harsh treatment by the police, 50 being hospitalized by the terrorism inflicted on them (civilrights.org). The targeted protest became infamous in the Civil Rights Movement, marked “Bloody Sunday” and was crucial to gaining favor of the public (civilrights.org). The two causes went hand in hand in this, rocketing in support and becoming the main goal of the country - the end of segregation was the most dire problem that the Civil Rights Movement needed to solve. And with the 24th Amendment, Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Voting Rights Act of 1965 being ratified, the civil rights movement and the fight to end segregation reached its legal goal (infoplease.com). However, the nation’s mentality needed work - though the popularity of Civil Rights was rising, many riots and racial hate crimes continued to occur throughout the country, with many casualties resulting from them (infoplease.com). The ratification of these laws may have made the “separate but equal” rhetoric illegal for the U.S. but the citizens inside it still battled for their beliefs. As segregation and civil rights become national topics, their

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

Freedom riders challenged the facilities they encountered at bus terminals in the south which had been deemed illegal by the supreme court doing that those were dangerous the things that happened were beatings and arrests for the many people who were in it even Lewis suffered through it.

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

The SNCC helped shed light on the southern civil rights movement first through student involvement in the 1961 Freedom Rides to protest segregation in interstate travel facilities in the south. The 1960 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in interstate travel facilities unconstitutional but racist fanatics brutally attacked black bus riders traveling throughout Alabama. (Jeffries) So African American Freedom Riders sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality, began riding buses and trains challenging the segregation of “whites only” bathrooms and other facilities forcing the Interstate Commerce Commission to begin

Another significant transformation took place in the Civil Rights Movement in terms of its strategies. In analyzing this facet of the movement, we notice a great shift from nonviolent demonstration to forward, forceful action. Specifically, at the start of the Civil Rights Movement, lunch counter sit-ins were evident throughout the nation, as were Freedom Riders. Starting in Greensboro, North Carolina at a luncheonette called Woolworths, young black citizens would seat

It is hard to wrap my head around the fact that riding the bus can get one hurt and killed and how non-volient acts can lead to so much hate and violence. The Freedom Rides help bring attention to national level. The level of violence is extreme in response to a non-violent movement. The white supremacy was trying its best to make the colored population inferior. The segregation is a symbol of fear and hate. The press and television is a big part in the success of the movement. They help shape the public opinion toward segregation. The media brought the problem to our attention through dramatic and often disturbing photos and reports.