"When we began the ride I think all of us were prepared for as much violence as could be thrown at us. We were prepared for the possibility of death." (James Farmer) . 1961 was a dark yet successful year for the Civil Rights Movement. Buses were bombed and hundreds of African American’s were mauled and arrested fighting for rights that they so much deserved. In this expository report we will explore the causes of the Freedom Rides, how the people and government played a role in the Freedom Rides, and the outcome that came from the rides. Before the Freedom Rides’ era, there was extensive amounts of racial violence in the U.S, especially in the South, and the Civil Rights Movement was started to preclude all of it. African Americans acted subservient to the whites. When laws were passed against segregation and violence to break the imbalance, like the Supreme Court’s 1946 decision in the Irene Morgan case, declared “segregated seating of interstate passengers unconstitutional”. Even with these laws, almost nothing changed and many saw it. The Freedom Riders saw this as a chance to s...
The 1955 AFRO--American newspaper article “Boycott Still On; Bus Co. Loses $3,000 Daily,” takes a liberal stance in describing the black leaders of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Bus Company. The article states how bus drivers told black passengers, “N…. r get up out of your seat.”[viii] The n-word is a derogatory term used to refer to African Americans—particularly slaves--before and after the Civil War, and its use in the article illustrates that the bus drivers do not even think of blacks as human beings but rather property, authorizing the bus drivers to address black passengers in an uncivilized and insulting manner. Explicit racial language allows the media to point out how racial segregation between white bus drivers and black passengers remains a predominant aspect in the relationship between the two racial groups. Ironically, the AFRO newspaper claims that the Montgomery Bus company “insisted that the drivers were ‘always courteous.’”[ix] However, the ‘N…r’ proclamation from the driver directly opposes the bus company’s statement, and invalidates the company’s message. This dissonance can be explained by George Lipsitz’s article, “The which argues how systemic whiteness has created institutions that stress the incompatibility of racially
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
Freedom Crossing talks about how someone point of view can change completely. Laura went back North to live with her father and brother, Bert she had recently been living in the South with her aunt and uncle. One night she fond Bert talking to Joel (an old friend) in the middle of the night about whether or not Martin (a runaway slave) can stay with they until Joel could come back and take Martin to the place where a boat will pick Martin up and take him to The Promised Land, Laura said that she did not care if Martin stayed with them or not, even though deep down she knew it wasn’t right and that they shouldn’t do it. The day after they decided that Martin could stay Laura found out that Martin could read, but his master
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.
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.
On May 4, 1961, the Freedom Riders left the safety of the integrated, northern city of Washington D.C. to embark on a daring journey throughout the segregated, southern United States (WGBH). This group of integrated white and black citizens rode together on buses through different towns to test the effectiveness of newly designed desegregation laws in bus terminals and areas surrounding them (Garry). Founded by the Congress of Racial Equality (Garry) , or CORE, the first two Freedom Ride buses included thirteen people as well as three journalists to record what would become imperative historical events in the Civil Rights Movement. This group of fifteen people would begin to emerge as an organization that would eventually reach 400 volunteers (WGBH). Those involved were mostly young, college students whose goal it was, as said by the CORE director James Farmer, to “…create a crisis so that the federal government would be compelled to enforce the law.” (Smith). But on their journey throughout these southern states, the Freedom Riders faced many challenges, threats, and dangers.
On December 5, 1955, thousands of African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama walked, carpooled, or hitchhiked to work in an act of rebellion against segregation on buses. This bus boycott was not the first of its kind – black citizens of Baton-Rouge, Louisiana had implemented the same two years prior – but the bus boycott in Montgomery was a critical battle of the Civil Rights Movement. Though the original intent of the boycott was to economically cripple the bus system until local politicians agreed to integrate the city’s buses, the Montgomery Bus Boycott impacted the fabric of society in a much deeper way. Instead of only changing the symptoms of a much larger problem, this yearlong protest was the first step in transforming the way all Americans
The Freedom Rides was a landmark event in the civil rights movement. The 1961 Freedom Rides were a series of organized interstate bus rides to the South, meant to challenge the discriminatory Jim Crow Laws. Although the Rides were a form of civil disobedience, technically, they were protesting peacefully to maintain the federal laws against discrimination.
Gross, Terry. "Get On the Bus: The Freedom Riders of 1961." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
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. .
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.
One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was written, African Americans were still fighting for equal rights in every day life. The first real success of this movement did not come until the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 which was followed by many boycotts and protests. The largest of these protests, the March on Washington, was held on August 28, 1963 “for jobs and freedom” (March on Washington 11). An incredible amount of preparation went into the event to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people attending from around the nation and to deal with any potential incidents.
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
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
The Civil Rights Movement began in order to bring equal rights and equal voting rights to black citizens of the US. This was accomplished through persistent demonstrations, one of these being the Selma-Montgomery March. This march, lead by Martin Luther King Jr., targeted at the disenfranchisement of negroes in Alabama due to the literacy tests. Tension from the governor and state troopers of Alabama led the state, and the whole nation, to be caught in the violent chaos caused by protests and riots by marchers. However, this did not prevent the March from Selma to Montgomery to accomplish its goals abolishing the literacy tests and allowing black citizens the right to vote.