Freedom Rides

Freedom Rides

      in U.S. history, a series of political protests against segregation (segregation, racial) by blacks and whites who rode buses together through the American South in 1961.

      In 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court banned segregation in interstate bus travel. A year later the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Fellowship of Reconciliation tested the ruling by staging the Journey of Reconciliation, on which an interracial group of activists rode together on a bus through the upper South, though fearful of journeying to the Deep South. Following this example and responding to the Supreme Court's Boynton v. Virginia decision of 1960, which extended the earlier ruling to include bus terminals, restrooms, and other facilities associated with interstate travel, a group of seven African Americans and six whites left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, on a Freedom Ride in two buses bound for New Orleans, Louisiana. Convinced that segregationists in the South would violently protest this exercise of their constitutional right, the Freedom Riders hoped to provoke the federal government into enforcing the Boynton decision. When they stopped along the way, white riders used facilities designated for blacks and vice versa.

      The Freedom Riders encountered violence in South Carolina, but in Alabama the reaction was much more severe. On May 14, upon stopping outside of Anniston to change a slashed tire, one bus was firebombed and the Freedom Riders were beaten. Arriving in Birmingham, the second bus was similarly attacked and the passengers beaten. In both cases law enforcement was suspiciously late in responding, and there were suspicions of collusion in that late response. Although the original Riders were unable to find a bus line to carry them farther, a second group of 10, originating in Nashville, Tennessee, and partly organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), renewed the effort. Undeterred by being arrested in Birmingham and transported back to Tennessee, the new Freedom Riders returned to Birmingham and, at the behest of U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, secured a bus and protection from the State Highway Patrol as they traveled to Montgomery, where, when local police failed to protect them, they were again beaten.

      Thereafter National Guard support was provided when 27 Freedom Riders continued on to Jackson, Mississippi, only to be arrested and jailed. On May 29 Kennedy ordered the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce even stricter guidelines banning segregation in interstate travel. Still, Freedom Riders continued to travel by public transportation in the South until the dictate took effect in September.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Freedom rides — Freedom ride Les Freedom Rides (voyage de la liberté en anglais) sont les actions de militants du mouvement des droits civiques aux États Unis qui utilisaient des bus inter états afin de tester l arrêt de la Cour suprême Boynton v. Virginia qui… …   Wikipédia en Français

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  • Freedom-Rides — Free|dom Rides [ fri:dəm raidz] die (Plur.) <aus engl. freedom rides, eigtl. »Freiheitsfahrten«> in der amerik. Bürgerrechtsbewegung entwickelte Form der Massendemonstration, bei der sich Demonstrationszüge sternförmig aus verschiedenen… …   Das große Fremdwörterbuch

  • Freedom-Rides — Free|dom|rides auch: Free|dom Rides 〈[fri:dəmraıdz] Pl.〉 1. 〈urspr.〉 (in den USA entstandene) Protestform seit Ende der 50er Jahre, bei der protestwillige Weiße aus dem Norden der USA in kirchl. od. studentisch organisierten Busfahrten in die… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Reverse freedom rides — were attempts in 1962 by Southern segregationists to send impoverished African Americans from cities such as New Orleans to New York City, Chicago, and Cleveland by bus. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=120 Negroes Took… …   Wikipedia

  • Freedom ride — Freedom Rider is also a song by Traffic and later Rascal FlattsCivil Rights activists called Freedom Riders rode in interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia …   Wikipedia

  • Freedom Ride — Les Freedom Rides (voyage de la liberté en anglais) sont les actions de militants du mouvement des droits civiques aux États Unis qui utilisaient des bus inter états afin de tester l arrêt de la Cour suprême Boynton v. Virginia qui rendait… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • freedom riders — [freedom riders] noun [pl](AmE) groups of both black and white people from the northern US who in 1961 rode together in buses in the ↑Deep South as a protest against ↑segregation on public transport there. The first ‘freedom rides …   Useful english dictionary

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  • Freedom Ride — Der Freedom Ride ist die Bezeichnung einer Widerstandsform, die aus der US amerikanischen Bürgerrechtsbewegung entstand. Die sogenannten Freedom Rider beteiligten sich an der Abschaffung der staatlich sanktionierten Rassentrennung, indem sie in… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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