Freedom Riders#Notable Freedom Riders

The Freedom Riders were inspired by the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, led by Bayard Rustin and George Houser and co-sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the then-fledgling Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Like the Freedom Rides of 1961, the Journey of Reconciliation was intended to test an earlier Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. Rustin, Igal Roodenko, Joe Felmet and Andrew Johnnson, were arrested and sentenced to serve on a chain gang in North Carolina for violating local Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation.{{cite web|url=http://spartacus-educational.com/USAjor.htm|title=Journey of Reconciliation|publisher=Spartacus Educational|access-date=June 26, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170715102808/http://spartacus-educational.com/USAjor.htm|archive-date=July 15, 2017}}

The first Freedom Ride began on May 4, 1961. Led by CORE Director James Farmer, 13 young riders (seven black, six white, including but not limited to John Lewis (21), Genevieve Hughes (28), Mae Frances Moultrie, Joseph Perkins, Charles Person (18), Ivor Moore,{{Cite web|title=Meet the Players: Freedom Riders {{!}} American Experience {{!}} PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/meet-players-freedom-riders/|access-date=2020-07-30|website=www.pbs.org|language=en}} William E. Harbour (19), Joan Trumpauer Mullholland (19), and Ed Blankenheim),[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/genevieve-hughes-houghton Freedom Riders] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161209234855/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/genevieve-hughes-houghton |date=2016-12-09 }} Freedom Rider, PBS. left Washington, DC, on Greyhound (from the Greyhound Terminal) and Trailways buses. Their plan was to ride through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, ending in New Orleans, Louisiana, where a civil rights rally was planned. Many of the Riders were sponsored by CORE and SNCC with 75% of the Riders between 18 and 30 years old.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} A diverse group of volunteers came from 39 states, and were from different economic classes and racial backgrounds.{{Cite news|last=Berger|first=Maurice|date=2018-05-15|title=50 Years After Their Mug Shots, Portraits of Mississippi's Freedom Riders|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/lens/50-years-after-mug-shots-portraits-of-mississippi-freedom-riders.html|access-date=2020-07-30|issn=0362-4331}} Most were college students and received training in nonviolent tactics.{{Cite web|title=The Freedom Riders, Then and Now|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-freedom-riders-then-and-now-45351758/|access-date=2020-07-30|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}

The Freedom Riders' tactics for their journey were to have at least one interracial pair sitting in adjoining seats, and at least one black rider sitting up front, where seats under segregation had been reserved for white customers by local custom throughout the South. The rest of the team would sit scattered throughout the rest of the bus. One rider would abide by the South's segregation rules in order to avoid arrest and to contact CORE and arrange bail for those who were arrested.

Only minor trouble was encountered in Virginia and North Carolina, but John Lewis was attacked in Rock Hill, South Carolina. More than 300 Riders were arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina; Winnsboro, South Carolina; and Jackson, Mississippi.

The Freedom Rides were mostly focused on events that occurred during the spring and summer of 1961. However, the idea of an interracial bus ride through the South, at a time when racial segregation was mandated in public transportation, originated in 1947. Bayard Rustin and George Houser, who were part of a civil rights organization called the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), came up with a plan to test whether southern long-distance buses were following a 1946 Supreme Court ruling that prohibited segregation on interstate travel.{{Cite journal |last=Garrow |first=David J. |date=2006 |editor-last=Arsenault |editor-first=Raymond |title=Down the Highway to Freedom |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40261085 |journal=The Wilson Quarterly |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=103–104 |jstor=40261085 |issn=0363-3276}}

"Yet the Freedom Rides, in plural, was just the beginning. The Alabama attacks, coupled with the Mississippi arrests, inspired multiple small bands of civil rights supporters from all over the continental United States to head southward too," explains Arsenault.

The riders in 1961 successfully completed their journey through Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. However, they encountered violent and horrific situations in Alabama. A white segregationist mob attacked and burned one of the two buses they were traveling in outside Anniston. The second group of riders faced violence from Ku Klux Klansmen in Birmingham, while the city police deliberately held back.

The Freedom Rides had two important outcomes. Firstly, due to the pressure from Robert Kennedy's Justice Department, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which had regulatory power over interstate buses and terminals, declared an end to racial segregation in all waiting rooms and lunch counters, effective from November 1, 1961. Although not everyone immediately followed this rule, Arsenault points out that this directive sent a clear message to southern whites that desegregation of other institutions was likely to happen soon.{{Cite journal |last=Martin |first=Michael T. |date=2011 |title='Buses Are a Comin'. Oh Yeah!': Stanley Nelson on Freedom Riders |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/453485 |journal=Black Camera |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=96–122 |doi=10.2979/blackcamera.3.1.96 |s2cid=144287581 |issn=1947-4237|url-access=subscription }}

{{Main|Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks}}

File:Freedom Riders state historic marker, field of bus burning in distance behind.jpg (2017 photo)]]

File:249 The Other Bus.jpg

The Birmingham, Alabama, Police Commissioner, Bull Connor, together with Police Sergeant Tom Cook (an avid Ku Klux Klan supporter), organized violence against the Freedom Riders with local Klan chapters. The pair made plans to bring the Ride to an end in Alabama. They assured Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informer{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_8ksAAAAIBAJ&pg=6956,6893063&dq=james-peck+civil+rights&hl=en|title=Civil Rights Rider Keeps Fight Alive|date=June 30, 1983|work=Star-News|page=4A|access-date=April 10, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and member of Eastview Klavern #13 (the most violent Klan group in Alabama), that the mob would have fifteen minutes to attack the Freedom Riders without any arrests being made. The plan was to allow an initial assault in Anniston with a final assault taking place in Birmingham.

On Sunday, May 14, 1961, Mother's Day, in Anniston, Alabama, a mob of Klansmen, some still in church attire, attacked the first of the two Greyhound buses. The driver tried to leave the station, but he was blocked until KKK members slashed its tires.{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch |title='Freedom Riders,' WGBH American Experience |publisher=PBS |access-date=December 12, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111224181750/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch |archive-date=December 24, 2011 }} The mob forced the crippled bus to stop several miles outside town and then threw a firebomb into it.[http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Society/freedom_rides/freedom_ride_jpegs/14_slide0001_image029.jpg Photo of a Greyhound bus firebombed by a mob in Anniston, Alabama] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615163744/http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Society/freedom_rides/freedom_ride_jpegs/14_slide0001_image029.jpg |date=June 15, 2007 }}. Retrieved February 1, 2010. As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intending to burn the riders to death. Sources disagree, but either an exploding fuel tank or an undercover state investigator who was brandishing a revolver caused the mob to retreat, and the riders escaped the bus.{{sfn|Branch|pp=412–450}} The mob beat the riders after they got out. Warning shots which were fired into the air by highway patrolmen were the only thing which prevented the riders from being lynched.{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5149667 |title=Get On the Bus: The Freedom Riders of 1961 |newspaper=NPR|first=Terry|last= Gross|date=January 12, 2006 |access-date=July 30, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417221849/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5149667 |archive-date=April 17, 2008 }} The roadside site in Anniston and the downtown Greyhound station were preserved as part of the Freedom Riders National Monument in 2017.

Some injured riders were taken to Anniston Memorial Hospital.{{cite web |title=Anniston Memorial Hospital Marker – Historic Markers Across Alabama |url=http://www.lat34north.com/historicmarkersal/MarkerDetail.cfm?KeyID=08-58&MarkerTitle=Anniston%20Memorial%20Hospital |website=www.lat34north.com |access-date=17 October 2018 |archive-date=October 17, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017203133/http://www.lat34north.com/historicmarkersal/MarkerDetail.cfm?KeyID=08-58&MarkerTitle=Anniston%20Memorial%20Hospital |url-status=dead }} That night, the hospitalized Freedom Riders, most of whom had been refused care, were removed from the hospital at 2 am, because the staff feared the mob outside the hospital. The local civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth organized several cars of black citizens to rescue the injured Freedom Riders in defiance of the white supremacists. The black people were under the leadership of Colonel Stone Johnson and were openly armed as they arrived at the hospital, protecting the Freedom Riders from the mob."With the police holding back the jeering crowd, and with the deacons openly displaying their weapons, the weary but relieved Riders piled into the cars, which promptly drove off into the gathering dusk. 'We walked right between those Ku Klux,' Buck Johnson later recalled. 'Some of them had clubs. There were some deputies too. You couldn't tell the deputies from the Ku Klux.'{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5149667 |title=Get On the Bus: The Freedom Riders of 1961 |newspaper=NPR |access-date=July 30, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417221849/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5149667 |archive-date=April 17, 2008 }}

When the Trailways bus reached Anniston and pulled in at the terminal an hour after the Greyhound bus was burned, it was boarded by eight Klansmen. They beat the Freedom Riders and left them semi-conscious in the back of the bus.

On Sunday morning, May 14, the Freedom Riders embarked on a journey from Atlanta in two buses that also accommodated regular passengers. However, the first bus was unable to reach Birmingham as it was attacked by a group of 200 men. The attackers hurled a firebomb through a rear window of the bus, and the Freedom Riders were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were mostly ignored until being instructed to leave. The bus was left completely destroyed, and this became the first memorable image of the Freedom Ride.{{Cite journal |last=McWhorter |first=Diane |date=2008 |title=The Enduring Courage of the Freedom Riders |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40407321 |journal=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education |issue=61 |pages=66–73 |jstor=40407321 |issn=1077-3711}}File:Freedom Riders attacked.jpg. This picture was reclaimed by the FBI from a local journalist who also was beaten and whose camera was smashed.]]

When the bus arrived in Birmingham, it was attacked by a mob of KKK members aided and abetted by police under the orders of Commissioner Connor.[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961frides Freedom Rides] {{webarchive|url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20100710102808/http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm |date=2010-07-10 }} ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive. As the riders exited the bus, they were beaten by the mob with baseball bats, iron pipes and bicycle chains. Among the attacking Klansmen was Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informant. White Freedom Riders were singled out for especially frenzied beatings; James Peck required more than 50 stitches to the wounds in his head.[http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Society/freedom_rides/freedom_ride_jpegs/17_slide0019_image035.jpg Photo of James Peck after being attacked in Birmingham, Alabama] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303165914/http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Society/freedom_rides/freedom_ride_jpegs/17_slide0019_image035.jpg |date=2016-03-03 }}, University of California. Retrieved February 1, 2010.{{primary source inline|needs context of the whole article, not just an isolated image with no publishing info|date=May 2013}} Peck was taken to Carraway Methodist Medical Center, which refused to treat him; he was later treated at Jefferson Hillman Hospital.{{sfn|Arsenault|2006|p=160}}{{sfn|Branch|p=423}}

On the afternoon of that same Sunday, the second bus arrived at Birmingham's Trailways station, with James Peck as the captain of this leg. Peck, a 46-year-old descendant of the Peck & Peck New York retail family and one of the two Harvard alums on the ride, had participated in CORE'S 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, where he was surprised by the level of tolerance towards integration among drivers and passengers. However, fourteen years later, he faced a hostile group of white men in sports shirts, who carried lead pipes hidden in paper bags. Peck challenged them, declaring that they would have to kill him before hurting his fellow Freedom Riders. Despite his brave words, he was attacked and severely beaten by five men in an alley. The attackers used a Coke bottle, which was a typical weapon for southern vigilantes. Peck lost consciousness within seconds and needed 53 stitches to close his exposed skull. Meanwhile, inside the station, the Klansmen violently assaulted the Freedom Riders and anyone else who tried to stop them, including a news photographer who arrived at the scene.

When reports of the bus burning and beatings reached the U.S. Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, he urged restraint on the part of Freedom Riders and sent an assistant, John Seigenthaler, to Alabama to try to calm the situation.{{cite magazine |last1=Meacham |first1=Jon |title=John Seigenthaler's Epic Sensibility |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/john-seigenthalers-epic-sensibility |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=22 August 2022 |date=15 July 2014}}

Despite the violence suffered and the threat of more to come, the Freedom Riders intended to continue their journey. Kennedy had arranged an escort for the Riders in order to get them to Montgomery, Alabama, safely. However, radio reports told of a mob awaiting the riders at the bus terminal, as well as on the route to Montgomery. The Greyhound clerks told the Riders that their drivers were refusing to drive any Freedom Riders anywhere.

Recognizing that their efforts had already called national attention to the civil rights cause and wanting to get to the rally in New Orleans, the Riders decided to abandon the rest of the bus ride and fly directly to New Orleans from Birmingham. When they first boarded the plane, all passengers had to exit because of a bomb threat.

Upon arriving in New Orleans, local tensions prevented normal accommodations—after which Norman C. Francis, president of Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA), decided to house them on campus in secret at St Michael's Hall, a dormitory.{{Cite web|last=Lipinski|first=Jed|title=On his last day at Xavier, Norman Francis is remembered for providing refuge to Freedom Riders|url=https://www.nola.com/news/education/article_373b537b-cac7-5094-b6b4-0caf77694840.html|access-date=2021-01-24|website=NOLA.com|date=June 30, 2015 |language=en}}

Diane Nash, a Nashville college student who was a leader of the Nashville Student Movement and SNCC, believed that if Southern violence were allowed to halt the Freedom Rides the movement would be set back years. She pushed to find replacements to resume the rides. On May 17, a new set of riders, 10 students from Nashville who were active in the Nashville Student Movement, took a bus to Birmingham, where they were arrested by Bull Connor and jailed.

The students kept their spirits up in jail by singing freedom songs. Out of frustration, Connor drove them back up to the Tennessee line and dropped them off, saying, "I just couldn't stand their singing."{{cite web|last=Fankhauser|first=David|title=SNCC Gets Involved in the Freedom Rides |url=http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/society/freedom_rides/freedom_ride_dbf.htm|work=Freedom Rides|publisher=David Fankhauser|access-date=21 October 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021230525/http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/society/freedom_rides/freedom_ride_dbf.htm|archive-date=21 October 2013}} They immediately returned to Birmingham.

In answer to SNCC's call, Freedom Riders from across the Eastern US joined John Lewis and Hank Thomas, the two young SNCC members of the original Ride, who had remained in Birmingham. On May 19, they attempted to resume the ride, but, terrified by the howling mob surrounding the bus depot, the drivers refused. Harassed and besieged by the mob, the riders waited all night for a bus.

Under intense public pressure from the Kennedy administration, Greyhound was forced to provide a driver. After direct intervention by Byron White of the Attorney General's office, Alabama Governor John Patterson reluctantly promised to protect the bus from KKK mobs and snipers on the road between Birmingham and Montgomery.{{Cite web |last=Biskupic |first=Joan |author-link=Joan Biskupic |date=April 15, 2002 |title=Ex-Supreme Court Justice Byron White dies |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/04/15/white-obit.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212023359/http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/04/15/white-obit.htm |archive-date=February 12, 2009 |access-date=October 20, 2008 |website=USA Today}} On the morning of May 20, the Freedom Ride resumed, with the bus carrying the riders traveling toward Montgomery at 90 miles an hour, protected by a contingent of the Alabama State Highway Patrol.

File:Old Montgomery Greyhound Station May2009.jpg, site of the May 20, 1961 violence, is preserved as the Freedom Rides Museum (2011 photo)]]

The Highway Patrol abandoned the bus and riders at the Montgomery city limits. At the Montgomery Greyhound station on South Court Street, a white mob awaited. They beat the Freedom Riders with baseball bats and iron pipes. The local police allowed the beatings to go on uninterrupted. Again, white Freedom Riders were singled out for particularly brutal beatings. Reporters and news photographers were attacked first and their cameras destroyed, but one reporter took a photo later of Jim Zwerg in the hospital, showing how he was beaten and bruised.[https://web.archive.org/web/20020311223159/http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Society/freedom_rides/freedom_ride_jpegs/19_slide0027_image039.jpg Photo of Jim Zwerg in the hospital, beaten and bruised.] Retrieved February 1, 2010. Seigenthaler, a Justice Department official, was beaten and left unconscious lying in the street. Ambulances refused to take the wounded to the hospital. Local black residents rescued them, and a number of the Freedom Riders were hospitalized.

On the following night, Sunday, May 21, more than 1,500 people packed into Reverend Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church to honor the Freedom Riders. Among the speakers were Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who had led the 1955–1956 Montgomery bus boycott, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and James Farmer. Outside, a mob of more than 3,000 white people attacked the black attendees, with a handful of the United States Marshals Service protecting the church from assault and fire bombs. With city and state police making no effort to restore order, the civil rights leaders appealed to the President for protection. President Kennedy threatened to intervene with federal troops if the governor would not protect the people. Governor Patterson forestalled that by finally ordering the Alabama National Guard to disperse the mob, and the Guard reached the church in the early morning.

File:Miller Green mug.jpg of Miller G. Green when arrested for being a part of The Freedom Rides]]

In a commemorative Op-Ed piece in 2011, Bernard Lafayette remembered the mob breaking windows of the church with rocks and setting off tear gas canisters. He recounted heroic action by King. After learning that black taxi drivers were arming and forming a group to rescue the people inside, he worried that more violence would result. He selected ten volunteers, who promised non-violence, to escort him through the white mob, which parted to let King and his escorts pass as they marched two by two. King went out to the black drivers and asked them to disperse, to prevent more violence. King and his escorts formally made their way back inside the church, unmolested.Bernard Lafayette Jr., [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/opinion/20Lafayette.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212 "The Siege of the Freedom Riders"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627211819/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/opinion/20Lafayette.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212 |date=2017-06-27 }}, Opinion page, New York Times, May 19, 2011, carried at blog for Baltimore Nonviolence Center, accessed February 24, 2012. Lafayette also was interviewed by the BBC in 2011 and told about these events in an episode broadcast on the radio on August 31, 2011, in commemoration of the Freedom Rides. The Alabama National Guard finally arrived in the early morning to disperse the mob and safely escorted all the people from the church.[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00jq0d6 "Witness: Freedom Riders"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131007015102/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00jq0d6 |date=2013-10-07 }}, BBC, broadcast August 31, 2011, accessed February 24, 2012.

{{cite web |url=https://www.justice.gov/crt/opa/pr/speeches/2011/crt-speech-110524.html |title=Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez Speaks at the All People's Program Honoring the Freedom Riders |publisher=US Department of Justice |date= 2011-05-24|access-date=December 12, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113052231/http://www.justice.gov/crt/opa/pr/speeches/2011/crt-speech-110524.html |archive-date=November 13, 2014 }}

File:George Raymond Mug.jpg was a CORE activist arrested in the Trailways bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi, on August 14, 1961.]]

File:ParchmanGateNewPhoto.JPG]]

The next day, Monday, May 22, more Freedom Riders arrived in Montgomery to continue the rides through the South and replace the wounded riders still in the hospital. Behind the scenes, the Kennedy administration arranged a deal with the governors of Alabama and Mississippi, where the governors agreed that state police and the National Guard would protect the Riders from mob violence. In return, the federal government would not intervene to stop local police from arresting Freedom Riders for violating segregation ordinances when the buses arrived at the depots.

On Wednesday morning, May 24, Freedom Riders boarded buses for the journey to Jackson, Mississippi.{{cite news |title=Freedom Riders Head for Mississippi |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=The Miami News |date=May 24, 1961 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mZAyAAAAIBAJ&pg=6019,4306437&dq=freedom+riders&hl=en |access-date=November 27, 2010 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Surrounded by Highway Patrol and the National Guard, the buses arrived in Jackson without incident, but the riders were immediately arrested when they tried to use the white-only facilities at the Tri-State Trailways depot.{{cite news |title=Mississippi Arrests 12 Freedom Riders |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=The Miami News |date=May 24, 1961 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mZAyAAAAIBAJ&pg=3694,4725127&dq=freedom+riders&hl=en |access-date=November 27, 2010 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} The third bus arrived at the Jackson Greyhound station early on May 28, and its Freedom Riders were arrested.{{cite web|publisher=The Briscoe Center for American History|title=Cover pamphlet pictured: 'Freedom Riders' who were arrested at a bus station in Jackson, Mississippi, early on May 28, 1961, walk to the patrol wagon after their arrest.|url=http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=di_03148|access-date=4 April 2018|language=en|date=28 May 1961|archive-date=April 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425151710/http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=di_03148|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Etheridge |first1=Eric|title=New Footage of the Freedom Riders in Jackson|url=https://breachofpeace.com/blog/?p=701|website=Breach of Peace|access-date=4 April 2018|date=27 May 2016}}

In Montgomery, the next round of Freedom Riders, including the Yale University chaplain William Sloane Coffin, Gaylord Brewster Noyce,{{cite web|title =Obituary of Gaylord Brewster Noyce|year =2009|url =http://www.yale.edu/divinity/news/090813_news_noyce.shtml|access-date =October 28, 2009|url-status =dead|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090818155859/http://www.yale.edu/divinity/news/090813_news_noyce.shtml|archive-date =August 18, 2009}} and southern ministers Shuttlesworth, Abernathy, Wyatt Tee Walker, and others were similarly arrested for violating local segregation ordinances.

This established a pattern followed by subsequent Freedom Rides, most of which traveled to Jackson, where the Riders were arrested and jailed. Their strategy became one of trying to fill the jails. Once the Jackson and Hinds County jails were filled to overflowing, the state transferred the Freedom Riders to the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary (known as Parchman Farm). Abusive treatment there included placement of Riders in the Maximum Security Unit (Death Row), issuance of only underwear, no exercise, and no mail privileges. When the Freedom Riders refused to stop singing freedom songs, prison officials took away their mattresses, sheets, and toothbrushes. More Freedom Riders arrived from across the country, and at one time, more than 300 were held in Parchman Farm.{{cite web |title=Freedom Riders |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/roster |date=2011 |publisher=American Experience, PBS |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107073734/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/roster/ |archive-date=2017-01-07 }}

Riders arrested in Jackson included Stokeley Carmichael (19), Catherine Burks (21), Gloria Bouknight (20), Luvahgn Brown (16), Margaret Leonard (19), Helen O'Neal (20), Hank Thomas (20), Carol Silver (22), Hezekiah Watkins (13), Peter Stoner (22), Byron Baer (31), and LeRoy Glenn Wright (19) in addition to many more {{Cite web|date=2020-07-29|title=Freedom Rider Byron Baer spent 34 years in the NJ legislature – and 45 days in a Mississippi prison|url=https://newjerseyglobe.com/fr/freedom-rider-byron-baer-spent-34-years-in-the-nj-legislature-and-45-days-in-a-mississippi-prison-2/|first=David |last=Wildstein|access-date=2020-07-30|website=New Jersey Globe|language=en-US}} Nashville Student Movement leader James Lawson, who played a prominent role in coordinating the Freedom Rides, was among the first to be arrested in Jackson.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/06/10/james-lawson-civil-rights-dead/|title=James Lawson, an architect of civil rights nonviolence, dies at 95|first=Paul W.|last=Valentine|newspaper=Washington Post|date=June 10, 2024|accessdate=June 10, 2024}}

While in Jackson, Freedom Riders received support from local grassroots civil rights organization Womanpower Unlimited, which raised money and collected toiletries, soap, candy and magazines for the imprisoned protesters. Upon Freedom Riders' release, Womanpower members would provide places for them to bathe while offering them clothes and food. Founded by Clarie Collins Harvey, the group was considered instrumental in the success of the Freedom Riders.{{Cite book|author=Morris, Tiyi Makeda|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/903118488|title=Womanpower Unlimited and the Black freedom struggle in Mississippi|year=2015 |isbn=978-0-8203-4793-6|oclc=903118488}} Freedom Rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland said the Womanpower members "were like angels supplying us with just little simple necessities."

The Kennedys called for a "cooling off period" and condemned the Rides as unpatriotic because they embarrassed the nation on the world stage at the height of the Cold War. James Farmer, head of CORE, responded to Kennedy saying, "We have been cooling off for 350 years, and if we cooled off any more, we'd be in a deep freeze."Mort, Dave, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ar3ANWIQsfMC&dq=We+have+been+cooling+off+for+350+years%2C+and+if+we+cooled+off+any+more%2C+we%27d+be+in+a+deep+freeze.%22&pg=PT50 Bye Bye Miss American Pie] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610111502/https://books.google.com/books?id=ar3ANWIQsfMC&pg=PT50&lpg=PT50&dq=We+have+been+cooling+off+for+350+years,+and+if+we+cooled+off+any+more,+we'd+be+in+a+deep+freeze.%22&source=bl&ots=kQHoBLJO3z&sig=c2GHoKNUbhHomlV-ABy4BFw5EeE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cHyjUqO8BeXO2gWZjoCoCA&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAQ |date=2016-06-10 }} (2008). {{ISBN|9789780956950}} The Soviet Union criticized the United States for its racism and the attacks on the Riders.{{cite journal |first1=Neil R. |last1=McMillen |title=Black Enfranchisement in Mississippi: Federal Enforcement and Black Protest in the 1960s |journal=The Journal of Southern History |volume=43 |issue=3 |date=August 1977 |pages=351–372 |jstor=2207646|doi=10.2307/2207646 }}

Nonetheless, international outrage about the widely covered events and racial violence created pressure on American political leaders. On May 29, 1961, Attorney General Kennedy sent a petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) asking it to comply with the bus-desegregation ruling it had issued in November 1955, in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. That ruling had explicitly repudiated the concept of "separate but equal" in the realm of interstate bus travel. Chaired by South Carolina Democrat J. Monroe Johnson, the ICC had failed to implement its own ruling.

File:Civil rights activists arrested - Tallahassee (14516862961).jpg and Reverend Petty D. McKinney arrested in Tallahassee, Florida, on June 16, 1961.]]

CORE, SNCC, and the SCLC rejected any "cooling off period". They formed a Freedom Riders Coordinating Committee to keep the Rides rolling through June, July, August, and September. During those months, more than 60 different Freedom Rides criss-crossed the South,[http://www.crmvet.org/riders/frmap.htm Freedom Ride Map] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205112129/http://www.crmvet.org/riders/frmap.htm |date=2008-02-05 }}. Retrieved February 1, 2010. most of them converging on Jackson, where every Rider was arrested, more than 300 in total. An unknown number were arrested in other Southern towns. It is estimated that almost 450 people participated in one or more Freedom Rides. About 75% were male, and the same percentage were under the age of 30, with about equal participation from black and white citizens.

During the summer of 1961, Freedom Riders also campaigned against other forms of racial discrimination. They sat together in segregated restaurants, lunch counters and hotels. This was especially effective when they targeted large companies, such as hotel chains. Fearing boycotts in the North, the hotels began to desegregate their businesses.

In mid-June, a group of Freedom Riders had scheduled to end their ride in Tallahassee, Florida, with plans to fly home from the Tallahassee Municipal Airport. They were provided a police escort to the airport from the city's bus facilities. At the airport, they decided to eat at the Savarin restaurant that was marked "For Whites Only".{{cite web |title=Freedom Ride Stops in Tallahassee |url=https://myfloridahistory.org/date-in-history/june-15-1961/freedom-ride-stops-tallahassee |website=Florida Historical Society |access-date=25 August 2020 |language=en |date=1 April 2015}} The owners decided to close rather than serve the mixed group of Freedom Riders. Although the restaurant was privately owned, it was leased from the county government. Canceling their plane reservations, the Riders decided to wait until the restaurant re-opened so they could be served. They waited until 11:00 pm that night and returned the following day. During this time, hostile crowds gathered, threatening violence. On June 16, 1961, the Freedom Riders were arrested in Tallahassee for unlawful assembly.{{sfn|Morgenroth|pp=102–103}} That arrest and subsequent trial became known as Dresner v. City of Tallahassee, named for Israel S. Dresner, a rabbi among the group arrested.{{cite news |title=Rabbi Israel 'Si' Dresner to Speak at Tarrytown's Temple Beth Abraham |url=https://dailyvoice.com/new-york/tarrytown/events/rabbi-israel-si-dresner-to-speak-at-tarrytowns-temple-beth-abraham/448533/ |access-date=25 August 2020 |work=Tarrytown-SleepyHollow Daily Voice |date=9 May 2014 |language=en}} The Riders were convicted of unlawful assembly by the Municipal Court of Tallahassee, and the convictions were affirmed in the Florida Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District.{{cite web

|url = https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dresner_v._City_of_Tallahassee_%28375_U.S._136%29/Opinion_of_the_Court

|title = Dresner v. City of Tallahassee, 375 U.S. 136, 11L ed 2d 208, 84 S.CT. 235 (1963)

|year = 1963

|access-date = May 1, 2011

|url-status = live

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402101405/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dresner_v._City_of_Tallahassee_%28375_U.S._136%29/Opinion_of_the_Court

|archive-date = April 2, 2015

}}

The convictions were appealed to the US Supreme Court in 1963, which refused to hear the case based on jurisdictional reasons.{{cite web

|url = https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/378/539/

|title = Dresner v. City of Tallahassee, 378 U.S. 539 (1964)

|year = 1964

|access-date = October 8, 2021

}} In 1964, the Tallahassee 10 protesters returned to the city to serve brief jail sentences.

In early August, SNCC staff members James Forman and Paul Brooks, with the support of Ella Baker, began planning a Freedom Ride in solidarity with Robert F. Williams. Williams was an extremely militant and controversial NAACP chapter president for Monroe, North Carolina. After making the public statement that he would "meet violence with violence," (since the federal government would not protect his community from racial attacks) he had been suspended by the NAACP national board over the objections of Williams' local membership. Williams continued his work against segregation however, but now had massive opposition in both black and white communities.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} He was also facing repeated attempts on his life because of it. Some SNCC staff members sympathized with the idea of armed self-defense, although many on the ride to Monroe saw this as an opportunity to prove the superiority of Gandhian nonviolence over the use of force.{{sfn|Tyson|pp=262–264}} Forman was among those who were still supportive of Williams.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The Freedom Riders in Monroe were brutally attacked by white supremacists with the approval of local police. On August 27, James Forman – SNCC's Executive Secretary – was struck unconscious with the butt of a rifle and taken to jail with numerous other demonstrators. Police and white supremacists roamed the town shooting at black civilians, who returned the gunfire. Robert F. Williams fortified the black neighborhood against attack and in the process briefly detained a white couple who had gotten lost there. The police accused Williams of kidnapping and called in the state militia and FBI to arrest him, in spite of the couple being quickly released. Certain he would be lynched, Williams fled and eventually found refuge in Cuba. Movement lawyers, eager to disengage from the situation, successfully urged the Freedom Riders not to practice the normal "jail-no bail" strategy in Monroe. Local officials, also apparently eager to de-escalate, found demonstrators guilty but immediately suspended their sentences.{{sfn|Arsenault|2006|pp=403–417}} One Freedom Rider however, John Lowry, went on trial for the kidnapping case, along with several associates of Robert F. Williams, including Mae Mallory. Monroe legal defense committees were popular around the country, but ultimately Lowry and Mallory served prison sentences. In 1965, their convictions were vacated due to the exclusion of black citizens from the jury selection.[http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1962/2/13/lowry-sees-threat-of-violence-necessary/ "Lowry Sees 'Threat of Violence' Necessary to Fight Segregation"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205191929/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1962/2/13/lowry-sees-threat-of-violence-necessary/ |date=December 5, 2013 }}, The Harvard Crimson, February 13, 1962; [http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/letter-benjamin-e-mays-mlk-regarding-monroe-defense-committee "Letter from Benjamin Mays to MLK Regarding Monroe Defense Committee – December 14, 1961"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206014618/http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/letter-benjamin-e-mays-mlk-regarding-monroe-defense-committee |date=December 6, 2013 }}{{sfn|Forman|p=207}}

File:Tri-State Trailways Jackson MS Postcard.png

On September 13, 1961, a group of 15 Episcopal priests, including three black priests and twelve white priests, entered the Jackson, Mississippi Trailways bus terminal. Upon entering the coffee shop, they were stopped by two policemen, who asked them to leave. After refusing to leave, all 15 were arrested and jailed for breach of peace, under a now-repealed section of the Mississippi code § 2087.5 that "makes guilty of a misdemeanor anyone who congregates with others in a public place under circumstances such that a breach of the peace may be occasioned thereby, and refuses to move on when ordered to do so by a police officer."

The group included 35-year-old Reverend Robert L Pierson. After the case against the priests was dismissed on May 21, 1962, they sought damages against the police under the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Their claims were ultimately rejected in the United States Supreme Court case Pierson v. Ray (1967), which held that the police were protected by a new court-created legal doctrine, qualified immunity.{{cite journal |last1=Court |first1=United States Supreme |title=386 US 547 Pierson v. J L Ray J L Ray |url=https://openjurist.org/386/us/547 |access-date=30 June 2020 |pages=547 |language=en |date=11 January 1967 |volume=US |issue=386 |journal=Open Jurist}}

{{More citations needed|section|date=May 2017}}

By September it had been more than three months since the filing of the petition by Robert Kennedy. CORE and SNCC leaders made tentative plans for a mass demonstration known as the "Washington Project". This would mobilize hundreds, perhaps thousands, of nonviolent demonstrators to the capital city to apply pressure on the ICC and the Kennedy administration. The idea was pre-empted when the ICC finally issued the necessary orders just before the end of the month.{{sfn|Arsenault|2006|p=438}} The new policies went into effect on November 1, 1961, six years after the ruling in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. After the new ICC rule took effect, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they pleased on interstate buses and trains; "white" and "colored" signs were removed from the terminals; racially-segregated drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms serving interstate customers were consolidated; and the lunch counters began serving all customers, regardless of race.

The widespread violence in response to the Freedom Rides sent shock waves through American society. People were worried that the Rides were evoking widespread social disorder and racial divergence, an opinion supported and strengthened in many communities by the press. The press in white communities condemned the direct action approach that CORE was taking, while some of the national press negatively portrayed the Riders as provoking unrest.

At the same time, the Freedom Rides established great credibility with black and white people throughout the United States and inspired many to engage in direct action for civil rights. Perhaps most significantly, the actions of the Freedom Riders from the North, who faced danger on behalf of southern black citizens, impressed and inspired the many black people living in rural areas throughout the South. They formed the backbone of the wider civil rights movement, engaging in voter registration and other activities. Southern black activists generally organized around their churches, the center of their communities and a base of moral strength.

The Freedom Riders helped inspire participation in subsequent civil rights campaigns, including voter registration throughout the South, freedom schools, and the Black Power movement. At the time, most black Southerners had been unable to register to vote, due to state constitutions, laws and practices that had effectively disfranchised them since the turn of the 20th century. For instance, white administrators supervised reading comprehension and literacy tests that even highly educated black people could not pass.

In Australia, the American Freedom Riders inspired the 1965 Freedom Ride in New South Wales. This event brought attention to the significant social and legal discrimination against Aboriginal Australians in regional, rural and remote areas of New South Wales, including segregation from public facilities and private businesses.

File:Greyhound Bus Station and Restaurant, Atlanta Georgia, c. 1940 Postcard.png

File:B-57, Greyhound Bus Station (NBY 813).jpg

File:Atlanta_Terminal_Station_(c._1949).jpg.
(postcard view, c. 1949)]]

File:One Jackson Place and Greyhound station, Jackson, MS.jpg

File:Union Bus Terminal Nashville Tenn c1940.jpg

File:NOUnionTerminal2Jan08FrontA.jpg ]]

File:NEW_ORLEANS_GREAT_NORTHERN_RAILROAD_PASSENGER_DEPOT,_HINDS_COUNTY,_MS.jpg ]]

File:Freedom Rider plaque (4653382530).jpg

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, Oprah Winfrey invited all living Freedom Riders to join her TV program to celebrate their legacy. The episode aired on May 4, 2011.{{cite web |url=http://www.oprah.com/packages/freedom-riders.html |title=A Tribute to Freedom Riders |work=The Oprah Winfrey Show |access-date=March 3, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217074107/http://www.oprah.com/packages/freedom-riders.html |archive-date=February 17, 2013 }}

On May 6–16, 2011, 40 college students from across the United States embarked on a bus ride from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, retracing the original route of the Freedom Riders.[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/2011/about/ American Experience - Student Freedom Ride 2011]. American Experience, PBS. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313162539/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/2011/about/|date=March 13, 20173}}. The 2011 Student Freedom Ride, which was sponsored by PBS and American Experience, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the original Freedom Rides. Students met with civil rights leaders along the way and traveled with original Freedom Riders such as Ernest "Rip" Patton, Joan Mulholland, Bob Singleton, Helen Singleton, Jim Zwerg, and Charles Person. On May 16, 2011, PBS aired a documentary called Freedom Riders.

On May 19–21, 2011, the Freedom Rides were commemorated in Montgomery, Alabama, at the new Freedom Rides Museum in the old Greyhound Bus terminal, where some of the violence had taken place in 1961. On May 22–26, 2011, the arrival of the Freedom Rides in Jackson, Mississippi was commemorated with a 50th Anniversary Reunion and Conference in the city.Kelly, Brooke. "'61 Freedom Riders Recount Fear, Pride at Mississippi Commemoration." Washington Informer, May 26, 2011: 1+. Newspaper Source Plus. Web. May 30, 2013. During commemorative events in February 2013 in Montgomery, Congressman John Lewis accepted the apologies of Chief Kevin Murphy of the Montgomery Police Department; Murphy gave Lewis his own badge, off his uniform, moving Lewis to tears.{{cite news|url=http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20130303/NEWS01/303030025/Montgomery-Police-Department-apologizes-Freedom-Riders|title=MPD Apologizes to Freedom Riders|last=Okarmus|first=Matt|date=March 3, 2013|work=Montgomery Advertiser|pages=1–2|access-date=March 3, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113052844/http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20130303/NEWS01/303030025/Montgomery-Police-Department-apologizes-Freedom-Riders|archive-date=November 13, 2014}}

In late 2011, Palestinian activists, inspired by the Freedom Riders, used the same methods in Israel by boarding a bus from which they were excluded.{{cite news |first=Joel |last=Greenberg |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/palestinian-freedom-riders-arrested-on-bus-to-jerusalem/2011/11/15/gIQAQfkcPN_story.html |title=Palestinian Freedom Riders Arrested on Bus to Jerusalem |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=November 15, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170716173746/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/palestinian-freedom-riders-arrested-on-bus-to-jerusalem/2011/11/15/gIQAQfkcPN_story.html |archive-date=July 16, 2017 }}{{cite news |first=Rebecca |last=Collard |date=November 15, 2011 |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1115/Palestinian-freedom-riders-board-Israeli-buses-in-protest |title=Palestinian freedom riders board Israeli buses in protest |work=Christian Science Monitor |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120116224754/http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1115/Palestinian-freedom-riders-board-Israeli-buses-in-protest |archive-date=January 16, 2012 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15744576 |work=BBC News |title=Palestinian 'freedom riders' board settlers' bus |date=November 15, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105195201/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15744576 |archive-date=January 5, 2012 }}

In January, 2017, President Barack Obama declared the Anniston, Alabama bus station the Freedom Riders National Monument.

The 1980s PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize had an episode, "Ain't Scared of Your Jails: 1960-1961", that gave attention to the Freedom Riders. It included an interview with James Farmer.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0885809/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_7 "Eyes on the Prize" | "Ain't Scared of Your Jails: 1960-1961"], Episode aired February 4, 1988. IMDb.

The title of the 2007 film Freedom Writers is an explicit pun on the Freedom Riders, a fact made clear in the film itself, which references the campaign.

PBS in 2012 broadcast Freedom Riders as part of its American Experience series. It included interviews and news footage from the Freedom Riders movement.'American Experience,' "Freedom Riders" https://www.pbs.org/video/american-experience-freedom-riders/

Dan Shore's 2013 opera Freedom Ride, set in New Orleans, celebrates the Freedom Riders.{{cite news |last=Waddington |first=Chris |title=Xavier Prof Pens Opera Set in New Orleans during Civil Rights Struggles |url=http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2011/10/xavier_prof_pens_opera_set_in.html |access-date=23 October 2011 |newspaper=New Orleans Times-Picayune |date=October 15, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111025034229/http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2011/10/xavier_prof_pens_opera_set_in.html |archive-date=25 October 2011 }}

The Boondocks aired a 2014 episode about the Freedom Rides with the title "Freedom Ride or Die".

The Freedom Riders: The Civil Rights Musical is a theater musical retelling the story of the Freedom Rides.{{Cite news|url=http://www.broadwayworld.com/nymf/article/FREEDOM-RIDERS-to-Play-NYMF-20160602|title=FREEDOM RIDERS to Play NYMF|first=Tyler |last=Peterson|date=June 2, 2016|work=Broadway World|access-date=2017-03-16|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317054227/http://www.broadwayworld.com/nymf/article/FREEDOM-RIDERS-to-Play-NYMF-20160602|archive-date=2017-03-17}} The musical was created by Los Angeles screenwriter/director Richard Allen, and San Diego native music artist Taran Gray. Richard and Taran finalized the music in March 2016, and by April of the same year were asked to perform excerpts from their musical as a BETA Event at the New York Musical Festival (NYMF).{{Cite news|url=http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/theater/sdut-freedom-riders-musical-preview-2016jul16-story.html|title=Civil-rights musical rolling to NYC|last=Hebert|first=James|work=sandiegouniontribune.com|date=July 16, 2016|access-date=2017-03-16|language=en-US|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170316204054/http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/theater/sdut-freedom-riders-musical-preview-2016jul16-story.html|archive-date=2017-03-16}} The FREEDOM RIDERS musical received NYMF's inaugural BETA Event Award,{{Cite news|url=http://www.broadwayworld.com/nymf/article/FREEDOM-RIDERS-Among-NYMFs-2016-Gala-Award-Winners-20161130|title=FREEDOM RIDERS Among NYMF's 2016 Gala Award Winners|author=|work=Broadway World|date=November 30, 2016|access-date=2017-03-16|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202120419/http://www.broadwayworld.com/nymf/article/FREEDOM-RIDERS-Among-NYMFs-2016-Gala-Award-Winners-20161130|archive-date=2016-12-02}} and is scheduled to return to New York, summer of 2017, for an Off-Broadway run as part of NYMF's festival.{{Cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/the-body-politic-and-more-join-initial-nymf-lineup|title=The Body Politic Is Part of Initial NYMF Lineup {{!}} Playbill|website=Playbill|language=en|access-date=2017-03-16|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170316113735/http://www.playbill.com/article/the-body-politic-and-more-join-initial-nymf-lineup|archive-date=2017-03-16|date=2017-02-24}}

{{div col|colwidth=15em}}

• Zev Aelony
• James Bevel
• Albert Bigelow
• Malcolm Boyd{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/us/rev-malcolm-boyd-episcopal-activist-and-writer-dies-at-91.html|title=Rev. Malcolm Boyd, an Author, Activist and Counterculture Rebel, Dies at 91|last=McFadden|first=Robert D.|date=2015-03-02|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2017-02-05|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118222449/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/us/rev-malcolm-boyd-episcopal-activist-and-writer-dies-at-91.html|archive-date=2017-11-18}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2013/0510/Malcolm-Boyd-brought-Christianity-into-the-streets-to-promote-civil-rights|title=Malcolm Boyd brought Christianity into the streets to promote civil rights|last=Yerkey|first=Gary G.|date=2013-05-10|newspaper=Christian Science Monitor|issn=0882-7729|access-date=2017-02-05|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205101419/http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2013/0510/Malcolm-Boyd-brought-Christianity-into-the-streets-to-promote-civil-rights|archive-date=2017-02-05}}
• Amos C. Brown{{Cite news|url=http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/03/civil-rights-icon-fighting-for-change-one-registered-voter-at-a-time/|title=Civil Rights Icon Fighting for Change One Registered Voter at a Time|last=Christensen|first=Jen|date=November 3, 2012|work=CNN|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202000649/http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/03/civil-rights-icon-fighting-for-change-one-registered-voter-at-a-time/|archive-date=February 2, 2017}}
• Gordon Carey{{Cite news|last=Seelye|first=Katharine Q.|date=2021-12-24|title=Gordon Carey, a Force in the Civil Rights Movement, Dies at 89|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/24/us/gordon-carey-dead.html|access-date=2021-12-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224231621/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/24/us/gordon-carey-dead.html|archive-date=2021-12-24|issn=0362-4331}}
• Stokely Carmichael
• William Sloane Coffin{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/13/us/rev-william-sloane-coffin-dies-at-81-fought-for-civil-rights-and-against.html|title=Rev. William Sloane Coffin Dies at 81; Fought for Civil Rights and Against a War|last=Charney|first=Marc D.|date=2006-04-13|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2017-02-12|issn=0362-4331|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213090954/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/13/us/rev-william-sloane-coffin-dies-at-81-fought-for-civil-rights-and-against.html|archive-date=2017-02-13}}
• Israel S. Dresner
• James Farmer
• Bob Filner
• James Forman
• Tom Hayden
• Mary Hamilton
• William E. Harbour
• Genevieve Hughes
• Bernard Lafayette
• James Lawson
• Frederick Leonard
• John Lewis{{cite web |title=Fred Shuttlesworth with Freedom Riders after their arrival at the Greyhound station in Birmingham, Alabama. :: Alabama Media Group Collection |url=http://digital.archives.alabama.gov/cdm/ref/collection/amg/id/16244 |website=digital.archives.alabama.gov |access-date=31 October 2019 |format=New Photo with Annotations |quote=John Lewis is walking behind him on the right.}}
• Robert Martinson
• Salynn McCollum
• Charles McDew{{Cite book|title=A circle of trust : remembering SNCC|date=1998|publisher=Rutgers University Press|author=Greenberg, Cheryl Lynn.|isbn=9780813524771|location=New Brunswick|oclc=37030901}}
• Winonah Myers{{Cite web|url=http://www.tampabay.com/features/media/usfs-ray-arsenault-watches-freedom-riders-book-gain-steam/1162080|title=USF's Ray Arsenault watches 'Freedom Riders' book gain steam|website=Tampa Bay Times|language=en-us|first=Eric |last=Deggans|date=April 8, 2011 |access-date=2017-02-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911183101/http://www.tampabay.com/features/media/usfs-ray-arsenault-watches-freedom-riders-book-gain-steam/1162080|archive-date=2016-09-11}}
• Diane Nash
• Wally Nelson
• James Peck
• Charles Person
• Robert Laughlin Pierson
• John Curtis Raines
• Cordell Reagon
• Meryle Joy Reagon
• Charles Grier Sellers{{Cite web|url=http://crdl.usg.edu/people/s/sellers_charles_grier/?Welcome|title = Sellers, Charles Grier}}
• Charles Sherrod
• Fred Shuttlesworth{{sfn|Arsenault|2006|pp=543}}
• Carol Ruth Silver
• Helen Singleton
• George Bundy Smith
• Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
• Peter Sterling{{cite web |title=Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission photograph of Peter Sterling following his arrest for his participation in the Freedom Rides, Jackson, Mississippi, 1961 May 30 |url=http://crdl.usg.edu/cgi/crdl?query=id%3Amus_sovcomph_2-55-4-27-1-1-1&_cc=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191029203533/http://crdl.usg.edu/cgi/crdl?query=id%3Amus_sovcomph_2-55-4-27-1-1-1&_cc=1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 29, 2019 |website=crdl.usg.edu |publisher=Civil Rights Digital Library |access-date=31 October 2019 |date=30 May 1961 }}
• Daniel N. Stern
• Hank Thomas
• Joan Trumpauer Mulholland
• C. T. Vivian
• Wyatt Tee Walker
• James Zwerg
• Janet Braun-Reinitz

{{div col end}}

• The Freedom Rider, a 1964 album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, named in honor of the Freedom Riders
• "He Was My Brother", a 1964 Simon & Garfunkel song about the Freedom Riders
• Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, a 2008 book by Eric Etheridge
• Redlining
• Reverse freedom rides
• Freedom Ride (Australia)

{{reflist|30em|group="note"}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|last1=Arsenault|first1=Raymond|author-link=Raymond Arsenault|title=Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice|date=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199755813|url=https://archive.org/details/freedomriders1960000arse|url-access=registration}} - Article on the book: Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice
• {{cite book|last1=Branch|first1=Taylor|author-link1=Taylor Branch|title=Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–63|date=2007|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781416558682|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3gQN-jK8JI0C|ref={{sfnRef|Branch}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Forman|first1=James|author-link=James Forman|title=The Making of Black Revolutionaries|date=1972|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=9780295976594|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2RIhBEy7dEC|ref={{sfnRef|Forman}}}}
• {{cite thesis|degree=M.A.|last1=Morgenroth|first1=Florence|title=Organization and Activities of the American Civil Liberties Union in Miami, 1955–1966|date=1966|publisher=University of Miami|oclc=15796239|ref={{sfnRef|Morgenroth}}}}
• {{Cite book|last=Morris|first=Tiyi|title=Womanpower Unlimited and the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi|date=2015|publisher=The University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-4731-8|location=Athens, Georgia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Km2EBgAAQBAJ|ref={{sfnRef|Morris}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Tyson|first1=Timothy B.|author-link=Timothy Tyson|title=Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power|date=2001|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=9780807849231|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kg_DEcj04ycC|ref={{sfnRef|Tyson}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Upchurch|first1=Thomas Adams|title=Race Relations in the United States, 1960–1980|date=2008|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=9780313341717|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ueX3ZSgI7KYC&q=436+freedom+ride%2A&pg=PA14|ref={{sfnRef|Upchurch}}}}

• {{cite book|last1=Barnes|first1=Catherine A.|title=Journey from Jim Crow: The Desegregation of Southern Transit|date=1983|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231053808|ref={{sfnRef|Barnes}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Catsam|first1=Derek|title=Freedom's Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides|date=2009|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=9780813173108|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Is9_TopnEgQC|ref={{sfnRef|Catsam}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Etheridge|first1=Eric|title=Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders|date=2018|publisher=Vanderbilt University Press|isbn=9780826521903|ref={{sfnRef|Etheridge}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Garrow|first1=David J.|author-link1=David J. Garrow|title=Birmingham, Alabama, 1956–1963: The Black Struggle for Civil Rights|date=1989|publisher=Carlson Publisher|isbn=9780926019041|ref={{sfnRef|Garrow}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Halberstam|first1=David|title=The Children|date=1999|publisher=Fawcett Books|isbn=9780449004395|ref={{sfnRef|Halberstam}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Hollars|first1=B. J.|title=The Road South: Personal Stories of the Freedom Riders|date=2018|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=9780817319809|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4mFUDwAAQBAJ|ref={{sfnRef|Hollars}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=McWhorter|first1=Diane|title=Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution|date=2001|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=9780743217729|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780743217729|url-access=registration|ref={{sfnRef|McWhorter}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Niven|first1=David|title=The Politics of Injustice: The Kennedys, the Freedom Rides, and the Electoral Consequences of a Moral Compromise|date=2003|publisher=University of Tennessee Press|isbn=9781572332126|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5yAY77KlY1AC|ref={{sfnRef|Niven}}}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ortlepp|first1=Anke|title=Jim Crow Terminals: The Desegregation of American Airports |date=2017 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780820350943 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hZAwDwAAQBAJ|ref={{sfnRef|Ortlepp}}}}

• {{cite book|last1=Armstrong|first1=Thomas M.|last2=Bell|first2=Natalie R.|title=Autobiography of a Freedom Rider: My Life as a Foot Soldier for Civil Rights|date=2011|publisher=Health Communications|isbn=9780757316036|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ImjAgAAQBAJ|ref={{sfnRef|Armstrong and Bell}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Carmichael|first1=Stokely|author-link1=Stokely Carmichael|last2=Thelwell|first2=Michael|title=Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)|date=2003|publisher=Simon and Schuster|location=New York|isbn=9780684850030|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LpW9QV0MKC4C|ref={{sfnRef|Carmichael}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Farmer|first1=James|author-link=James Farmer|title=Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement|date=1985|publisher=Texas Christian University Press|isbn=9780875651880|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=it2RdgDxFMMC|ref={{sfnRef|Farmer}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1=John|author-link1=John Lewis|last2=D'Orso|first2=Michael|title=Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement|date=1998|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=9780156007085|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YydJHpMtL2kC|ref={{sfnRef|Lewis}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Peck|first1=James|author-link=James Peck (pacifist)|title=Freedom Ride|date=1962|publisher=Simon and Schuster|oclc=890013|ref={{sfnRef|Peck}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Silver|first1=Carol Ruth|title=Freedom Rider Diary: Smuggled Notes from Parchman Prison|date=2014|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=9781617038877|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCTBAgAAQBAJ|ref={{sfnRef|Silver}}}}
• {{cite book|last1=Zellner|first1=Bob|title=The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement|date=2011|publisher=NewSouth Books|isbn=9781603061049|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sHVk_01PBQQC|ref={{sfnRef|Zellner}}}}

• {{cite book|editor1-last=Carawan|editor1-first=Guy|editor2-last=Carawan|editor2-first=Candie|title=Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs|date=2008|publisher=NewSouth Books|isbn=9781588381934|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-uP-a_4v6H4C|chapter=1961: Freedom Rides|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-uP-a_4v6H4C&q=Hallelujah%2C+I%27m+a+travelin%27+%3A+the+story+of+the+first+Freedom+Rides.&pg=PA37}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hamilton |first1=Mary |last2=Inghram |first2=Louise |title=Freedom Riders Speak for Themselves |date=1961 |publisher=News & Letters |oclc=12011720}}
• {{cite book |last1=Matteson |first1=Noelle |title=The Freedom Rides and Alabama: A Guide to Key Events and Places, Context, and Impact |date=2011 |publisher=NewSouth Books |isbn=9781603061063 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DRR__S2QEVoC}}

{{Commons category|Freedom Rides}}

{{Wiktionary|freedom rider|freedom ride}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20131021230525/http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/society/freedom_rides/freedom_ride_dbf.htm "Freedom Rides: Recollections by David Fankhauser"]
• [http://www.crmvet.org/riders/freedom_rides.pdf Freedom Rides of 1961] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive
• [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5149667 Get On the Bus: The Freedom Riders of 1961], National Public Radio
• [http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/54381/never-seen-mlk--the-freedom-rides#index/0 Never-Seen: MLK & the Freedom Rides] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120154133/http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/54381/never-seen-mlk--the-freedom-rides#index/0 |date=January 20, 2011 }} – slideshow by Life magazine
• [http://www.robinwashington.com/jimcrow/ You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!] New Hampshire Public Television/American Public Television documentary of the Journey of Reconciliation
• [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize Eyes on the Prize], Blackside, Inc./PBS documentary of the Civil Rights Movement (Episode 3 is the Freedom Rides)
• [http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/kennedy-administration-and-civil-rights-movement "JFK, Freedom Riders, and the Civil Rights Movement"] EDSITEment lesson plan
• [http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/freedom-rides-and-role-popular-music-civil-rights-movement#sect-introduction "The Freedom Riders and the Popular Music of the Civil Rights"] EDSITEment lesson plan
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080616233206/http://www.archives.state.al.us/mugshots/mugshots.html Civil Rights Era Mug Shots], Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, Alabama Department of Archives & History
• {{cite journal |first=Ellen |last=Spears |url=http://southernspaces.org/2009/memorializing-freedom-riders |title=Memorializing the Freedom Riders |journal=Southern Spaces |volume=2009 |date=June 29, 2009|doi=10.18737/M7160X |doi-access=free }}
• [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/peoplescentury/episodes/skindeep/zwergtranscript.html Interview with Jim Zwerg, Civil Rights Activist, United States]. People's Century television series. PBS and BBC
• [http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/23102/civil-rights-the-freedom-riders The Freedom Riders] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100405223356/http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/23102/civil-rights-the-freedom-riders |date=April 5, 2010 }} – slideshow by Life magazine
• [http://vault.fbi.gov/freedom-riders FBI files on the Freedom Riders]
• [http://www.crmvet.org/riders/frhome.htm Freedom Rider Articles]. Online collection of Ride-related articles written by Freedom Riders – Civil Rights Movement Archive.
• [http://crdl.usg.edu/events/freedom_rides/ Curated links to Freedom Riders archival material], Civil Rights Digital Library.
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYC7Ivmk2oM/ Civil Rights Activist Bob Zellner interviewed] on Conversations from Penn State
• [http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/historical_markers/county/carroll/freedom-riders Freedom Riders] historical marker in Villa Rica, Georgia
• [http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/cores-route-40-project-maryland-campaign-desegregation-and-us-civil-rights-1961 CORE's Route 40 Project] campaign for desegregation of Maryland highway, 1961
• [https://americanarchive.org/special_collections/freedom-riders-interviews Freedom Riders interviews by American Experience] at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting

{{Civil rights movement}}

{{African American topics}}

Category:1961 in American politics

Category:1961 protests

Category:African-American history of Alabama

Category:African-American history of Mississippi

Category:African-American history of South Carolina

Category:Bus transportation in the United States

Category:Civil rights movement protests

Category:Conflicts in 1961

Category:History of African-American civil rights

Category:History of the Southern United States

Category:Nashville Student Movement

Category:John Lewis

Category:James Bevel