Freedom Rides May to May 21, 1961 Washington, DC to Jackson, MS

“ You can only be free if I am free. ”

To draw attention to illegal segregation in public facilities the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) launched the Freedom Rides.

The Freedom Riders  On May 4, 1961, seven black & six white volunteers boarded two interstate buses in Washington, DC, bound for New Orleans.  In the next thirteen days the buses would travel through the Deep South.  The goal: to make the federal government enforce its 1946 law that banned segregation of interstate transportation and facilities.  The journey through Virginia and North Carolina was marred by angry spectators along the bus route.  In South Carolina, John Lewis was beaten as he tried to enter a white rest room.  Intimidation followed in Georgia.

…the road ahead

Anniston, Alabama

ALABAMA  The Freedom Riders met with little resistance until they arrived in Alabama on May 14: Mother’s Day.  The two buses somehow separated at the state line.  The Greyhound bus arrived in Anniston. An angry mob of 200 stoned the bus, smashed windows & punctured the tires.  The bus escaped 6 miles out of town and stopped to fix its tires.  The mob followed. Someone threw a firebomb into the bus.  Attackers jammed the door to keep the riders trapped inside.  A highway patrolman rescued the riders.

Anniston  The angry mob converged on the escaping riders with clubs.  The bus suddenly exploded.

Anniston… Riders were beaten with lead pipes. The bus was destroyed.

Birmingham…  An FBI informant in the Klan learned of Police Chief Bull Conner’s agreement to give the Klan 15 minutes to beat the riders before local police would arrive.  The FBI took no action.  The Trailways bus station was filled with Klansmen when the Riders exited the bus.  Riders were beaten with baseball bats, iron pipes and chains.  Battered and bleeding, they were arrested.  White Freedom Riders were singled out for uncontrolled beatings.  Two riders were hospitalized, including Jim Peck who needed 52 stitches in his head.

Birmingham…

On to Montgomery…  SNCC organized a third bus to go to Montgomery from Tennessee on May 17. Highway patrol cars escorted it to prevent violence.  Attorney General Robert Kennedy urged the Freedom Riders to show restraint.  He sent Assistant Attorney General John Seigenthaler to Montgomery, to observe. Seigenthaler waited at the bus terminal.  On May 21 two buses arrived in Montgomery… the patrol cars mysteriously disappeared at the city line.

Montgomery: “Kill the n___-loving son-of-a-_____” “A bunch of men are beating them. There are no cops in sight. It’s terrible…People are yelling ‘Get’ em. Get ’em.’ It’s awful.” John Doar US Justice Dept. Seigenthaler, had his brains bashed in and was left to bleed to death in the street. John Lewis and James Zwerg (left) were beaten in the face and had their skulls smashed with bats.

President Kennedy responds The freedom riders are safe …or are they?  667 US Marshals descend on Alabama  800 National Guardsmen protect riders to Jackson, Mississippi

The End? May 21, 1961  In Jackson, Mississippi, the final 12 riders are arrested & sent to state prison where they are beaten and abused.  Riders from the North and West roll into the South.  More than 300 are arrested and jailed in Jackson alone.  Other southern cities arrest hundreds of other Riders.  Public outcry forces Kennedy to enforce the fifteen-year-old interstate commerce law on desegregation.