Freedom Riders were civil rights activists that rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the U.S. Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia (of 1960). The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.
Southern states continued to practice segregation despite the decision. The Freedom Riders set out to challenge this practice by riding various forms of public transportation in the South to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation. The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement and called national attention to the violent disregard for the law that was used to enforce segregation in the southern United States. Riders were arrested for trespassing, unlawful assembly, and violating state and local Jim Crow laws, along with other alleged offenses, and were even imprisoned.
As a human being, and a bi-racial woman THANK YOU!!!!
I know there is still racism that exists today but thank you for making it taboo.
XOXO
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