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starting point
The Freedom Riders were inspired by the Voyage of Reconciliation led by civil rights activists Bayard Rustin and George Houser. Their plan was to travel through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, ending in New Orleans, Louisiana, where a civil rights rally was planned. -
violent protests in Birmingham
In Birghinman, attacks against freedom riders by the KKK began in an operation led by a high-ranking Alabama police officer, a fanatic of the KKK.On May 14, Mother's Day, in Anniston, a gang of Ku Klux Klansmen try to set it on fire, while the bus burned, the mob kept the doors closed, trying to incinerate the passengers. -
violent protests in Montgomery
On the morning of May 20, the Freedom Rides continued, with a bus driving travelers toward Montgomery at ninety miles per hour, protected by a contingent of the Alabama State Highway Patrol. The Highway Patrol abandoned the bus and the travelers upon reaching the Montgomery city limits. At the South Court Street bus station, a white mob awaited. They beat the Freedom Riders with baseball bats and iron pipes. The local police allowed the beating to go on without interrupting it. -
Road to Mississippi
On May 22, they arrived in Montgomery. Behind the scenes, the Kennedy presidency made an agreement with the governors of Alabama and Mississippi. They agreed that state police and the National Guard would protect travelers from violent mobs. In return, the federal government would not intervene to stop local police from arresting Freedom Riders for violating segregation ordinances when buses arrived at stations. -
Kennedy calls for a "cooling off period
The Kennedys called for a "cooling off period" and condemned the Trips as unpatriotic because they embarrassed the nation on the world stage on the cusp of the Cold War. The Soviet Union criticized the United States for its racism and its attacks on the Travelers.1028 Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the country's chief law enforcement officer, stated that he "does not feel that the Department of Justice can align itself with one group or another in disputes over constitutional rights. -
Summer escalation
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) rejected any "cooling off period". They formed the Freedom Riders Coordinating Committee to keep the Rides going throughout June, July, August, and September. An undetermined number of travelers were arrested in other southern towns. It is estimated that about four hundred and fifty travelers participated in one or more Freedom Rides. -
Resolution and legacy
The widespread violence provoked by the Freedom Rides sent a shock wave throughout American society. People were concerned that the tours were causing widespread social disorder and racial divergence, a view supported and strengthened in many communities by the press. -
Conclusions
The Freedom Riders helped inspire participation in other subsequent civil rights campaigns, including voter registration around the South, freedom schools. At the time, many blacks in southern states could not register to vote, given constitutions, laws, and practices that disenfranchised nearly all of them since the early 20th century. For example, white administrators supervised reading comprehension and literacy tests that highly educated African Americans could not pass.