The Freedom Rides
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Members of the Journey of
Reconciliation
  In early 1947,
CORE announced plans to
send eight white and eight
black men into the upper
South to test the Supreme
Court ruling that declared
segregation in interstate travel
unconstitutional.   This integrated team of
sixteen people set out on the
Journey of Reconciliation, a
two week pilgrimage through
Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee and Kentucky.   The Journey of Reconciliation
achieved a great amount of
attention and was the
foundation for the many direct
action campaigns led by
CORE in the future. 2
BOYNTON v. VIRGINIA   This Supreme Court case
overturned a judgment convicting
an African American law student
for trespassing by being in a
restaurant in a bus terminal
which was "whites only."   It held that racial segregation in
public transportation was illegal
because such segregation
violated the
Interstate Commerce Act.
  It held that bus transportation
was sufficiently related to
interstate commerce to allow the
United States Federal
government to regulate it to
forbid racial discrimination in the
industry.
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James Farmer   Farmer and several Christian
pacifists founded the Congress on
Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942.   The organization's purpose was to
apply direct challenges to American
racism by using Gandhian tactics of
non-violence.   As CORE National Director he
helped organize student sit-ins and
Freedom Rides in the Deep South.
  In 1961, he wrote to President
Kennedy about the upcoming
Freedom Ride, "designed to forward
the completion of integrated bus
service and accommodations in the
Deep South."
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The Journey of the Freedom Riders  memory.loc.gov/ammem/aao#AA3737
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Anniston, Alabama   In Anniston, Alabama, a white mob
awaited the arrival of the first bus
bearing the Freedom Riders at the
Greyhound station.   They attacked the bus with iron
pipes and baseball bats and
slashed its tires.   The bus driver drove out of the
station, but the punctured tires
forced the bus to pull off the road.   The white mob that pursued the
bus fire bombed it and held the
doors shut preventing riders from
exiting the burning bus.   An undercover policeman drew his
gun, and forced the doors to be
opened.   The mob pulled the Freedom
Riders off the bus and beat them
with iron pipes.
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Montgomery, Alabama Beating   On May 21, 1961, the surviving
contingent of Riders headed
from Birmingham to
Montgomery, protected by a
contingent of the Alabama
State Highway Patrol.   When they reached the
Montgomery city limits, the
Highway Patrol abandoned
them.   At the bus station was waiting a
large white mob that viciously
beat them with baseball bats
and iron pipes.   The local police allowed the
beatings to go on uninterrupted. 7
Martin Luther King, Jr   Dr. King delivered a
statement at a rally to
support the Freedom riders
on May 21, 1961.
  In it, he expressed his
support for the Freedom
Rides and condemned the
violence against the riders.
  He acknowledges that the
Deep South will not impose
limits on itself, that such
action must come from
outside.
  He also reasserts his call for
non-violent actions.
 www.stanford.edu/.webloc
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Robert Kennedy   When reports of the bus burning
and beating reached Attorney
General Robert Kennedy, he
urged restraint on the part of
Freedom Riders.
  Kennedy then sent an assistant,
John Seigenthaler, to
Montgomery, Alabama to
observe the Freedom Riders'
arrival in that city which was to
happen shortly.
  Upon his arrival in Montgomery,
Seigenthaler was attacked
along with the other freedom
riders on the bus. 9
David Frankhauser   David Frankhauser was
only 19 when he went
from Alabama to Ohio
to join the Freedom
Riders.
  He was eventually
arrested.
  Later in life, Dr.
Frankhauser wrote
about his experiences
as a member of the
Freedom Rides.
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