Why do we act? Lessons from the Freedom Rides

Fifty years ago, in May 1961, a small group of civil rights activists embarked on a journey that would change them and change America. Boarding buses headed south for what they termed a “Freedom Ride,” these young black and white activists challenged segregation by sitting together on the bus and in the waiting rooms of bus stations.

Though the Supreme Court had already declared segregation in interstate travel illegal, the Federal Government was not enforcing the law, so the Freedom Riders engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience to call attention to this injustice. They were met with violent mobs throughout Alabama and Mississippi, often brutally beaten in the presence of police and FBI agents who did nothing to stop their attackers.

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