The idea for a Freedom Ride was 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.
The First Freedom Ride
This was not the first time that the desegregation of interstate buses was attempted. In 1947, activists challenged segregation in 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 were arrested. The Journey did not elicit much national attention, nor did it garner results.
Creating a Plan for the Freedom Rides
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 throughout the South. Whites would sit in the back of the bus while the blacks would sit in the front. In the terminals, the white riders would wait in black waiting rooms and the black riders would wait in 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, traveling through Alabama and Mississippi; their last stop was scheduled for New Orleans on May 17, 1961, for a celebratory rally.
The Freedom Riders Begin the Journey
As scheduled, the Freedom Riders left Washington on May 4. Things went smoothly until the Greyhound bus arrived in Rock Hill, South Carolina. When 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.
Violence Disrupts the Freedom Rides
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, difficulty began in Anniston, Alabama. When they arrived the Klan was waiting. The Klan boarded the bus, beat the blacks sitting in the front and forced them to the back of the bus. 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 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.
On May 15, due to the previous day’s violence, the riders were unable to find a willing bus driver. They decided to fly to New Orleans for the May 17 rally. The trouble, however, did not end. The riders were not only followed to the airport by an angry mob of whites but a bomb threat was made. Nonetheless, the riders safely flew out of Birmingham.
