Prompted by the sit-ins and boycotts of the civil rights movement, in 1961 two field secretaries of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Tom Gaither and Gordon Carey, decided to challenge segregation on interstate buses and in terminals. The idea was inspired while traveling together on a bus. After reading the biography of Gandhi, along with learning of the recent U.S Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia, which banned segregation in interstate travel, Gaither and Carey decided to test the new ruling.

This was not the first time that desegregation of interstate buses was attempted. In 1947, activists challenged segregation in what was called, the Journey of Reconciliation. The Journey was composed of an interracial group of sixteen activists. Several activists were members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), which was a Gandhi influenced pacifist organization founded in Britain in 1914.

Other activists were members of CORE. The Journey lasted for two weeks, it took place in the upper South, and by the time it was over, twelve protesters had been arrested. The Journey did not elicit much national attention, nor did it garner results.

Accordingly, when the Supreme Court ruling in Boyton failed to cause states to change their laws and local ordinances, the CORE leadership knew that it was time to act. The plan was to have an interracial group of activists ride buses through the south. The whites were to sit in the back of the bus while the blacks were to sit in the front. In the terminals, the white riders would wait in the black waiting rooms and the black riders would wait in the white waiting rooms. In all instances, they were to refuse to move. As a consequence of their actions, it was anticipated that the federal government would have to enforce the Supreme Court decision.

Thirteen riders, seven blacks and six whites, were carefully chosen and trained. It was planned that on May 4, 1961, the group would travel on Trailways and Greyhound buses from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta, through Alabama and Mississippi, and then arrive in New Orleans on May 17, 1961.

As scheduled, the Freedom Riders left Washington on May 4. Things went smoothly until the Greyhound bus arrived in Rock Hill, South Carolina. When Freedom Riders, John Lewis and Albert Bigelow got off the bus and headed toward the white waiting room, they were stopped and beaten up by a group of white men. At the same stop, another rider attempted to get a shoeshine and haircut at a white barbershop. He was arrested, but the charges were thrown out the next day. These incidents received widespread media attention.

From Rock Hill, the Freedom Riders traveled to Atlanta. On May 14, the riders left Atlanta for Birmingham, where they knew that more trouble would occur. This time it was with the Ku Klux Klan. Two hours before the Trailways bus was scheduled to arrive in Birmingham, trouble began in Anniston, Alabama. When they arrived, awaiting them was the Klan. The Klan boarded the bus, beat the blacks sitting in the front, and forced them to the back. The bus then proceeded with Klan members on board to Birmingham where they were beat by more Klansmen.

The Greyhound bus was also stopped in Anniston by an angry mob. When the bus attempted to proceed to Birmingham, the Klan slashed the tires. The bus made it just outside of Anniston, and then it was forced to stop. The Klan had followed, and with the bus stranded, they held the door closed and threw a firebomb into the bus. The riders escaped before the bus was fully engulfed in flames.

When the riders attempted to leave Birmingham on May 15, the buses were blocked from leaving by the Klan. A decision was made to fly to New Orleans for the May 17 rally instead of proceeding by bus. Despite the riders being followed by the mob to the airport and the bomb threats, the riders safely flew out of Birmingham.

Just as it looked like the Freedom Rides were over, members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) decided to continue the rides where CORE had left off. On May 17, seven men and three women arrived in Birmingham to continue the ride.

On the bus, just outside of Birmingham, two riders were arrested and the others were taken to jail by Bull Conner. He claimed that this was for their safety and that they were not being arrested. On May 18, early in the morning, the police drove the riders toward the Tennessee state line, about 150 miles from Birmingham, and dropped them off.

Not deterred by this latest glitch, the riders were determined to continue. Back at the bus station in Birmingham, the Freedom Riders again attempted to get the ride underway. This time they were unable to find a willing bus driver.

In the meantime, the federal government was engaged in discussions with officials at Greyhound and with officials with the state of Alabama.

It was agreed that Greyhound would provide a driver and the riders would be protected by the police.

On May 20, the Freedom Riders were back on their way to Montgomery. When the bus arrived at the Montgomery station, it appeared empty. Not even the police were in sight. Suddenly as the Freedom Riders began to get off the bus, Klansmen surrounded the bus, and began to beat the riders. The beating stopped after Floyd Mann, the director of Alabama public safety, fired a shot into the air. Among those seriously injured by the attacks were Jim Zwerg, John Lewis, William Barbee, and John Seigenthaler, Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s administrative assistant.

On May 21, on the evening that Martin Luther King and Fred Shuttlesworth were scheduled to speak at the First Baptist Church in support of the rides, a mob of angry whites surrounded the church. However, this time the activists had the protection of the Alabama National Guard. The rally proceeded without injury.

The Freedom Riders were not ready to give up. On May 24, twenty-seven Freedom Riders boarded a Montgomery bus bound for Jackson, Mississippi. The riders were protected by the National Guard and the U.S. marshals. When they arrived in Jackson, they walked into the white waiting room, where they were arrested for trespassing. They were sentenced to sixty days in jail. An additional 328 riders were arrested in Jackson by the end of the summer.

The Freedom Riders actions were not done in vain. In September 1961, after a petition from Robert Kennedy, the Interstate Commerce Commission enacted regulations that enabled the federal government to enforce the Supreme Court ruling that desegregated interstate travel.

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