Start of Freedom Rides
A group of African American and white activists left Washington, DC, for New Orleans in the first Freedom Ride. Freedom Riders intended to test the enforcement of the ban on segregation in interstate bus travel. The riders faced violent attacks and arrest. Local police forces did nothing to protect them from angry white mobs. Eventually the National Guard was called in for the riders’ protection. On May 29, Robert F. Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce the interstate travel segregation ban.
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Related Site Content
Essays
- The Civil Rights Movement: Major Events and Legacies
- A Local and National Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Postwar Washington, DC
- Before Jackie: How Strikeout King Satchel Paige Struck Down Jim Crow
- Patriotism Crosses the Color Line: African Americans in World War II
- Postwar Politics and the Cold War
Recommended Resources
- A Fire You Can’t Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham’s Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth
- American High: The Years of Confidence, 1945-1960
- An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America
- Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity
- Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution
Collection Objects
- Arkansas. General Assembly. House of Representatives, [”AN ACT: To Protect all Persons in Their Civil Rights, in the State of Arkansas and to Furnish Means for Their Vindication” with endorsements by Charles Sumner and John H. Johnson]
- Bagby, George William (1828-1883), Southern literary messenger. [Vol. 33, no. 1 (July)]
- Barwood, James (fl. 1863-1870), [Collection of Barwood James]
- Beauregard, G. T. (Gustave Toutant) (1818-1893), to Mrs. O. W. Lebert
- Bennett, James Gordon (1795-1872), New York herald. [No. 8917 (February 7, 1861)]