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

“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