Freedom+Rides

__**Link to Interactive Map**__ __**[|Interactive Map] Click on Map to see the routes taken by the Freedom Rides.**__

What were the Freedom Riders?

The Freedom Riders were a group of black and white people who drove a Greyhound and Trailways bus into the deep south through Alabama and Mississippi protesting bus and train segregation.

When did this happen?

The Freedom Rides took place on May 16, 1961. They were part of the Civil Rights Movement.

Why did they decide to do this?

These people decided to start the Freedom Rides so that they could be a part of the Civil Right Movement. They also wanted to do this to end all bus segregation. They wanted all black people to be able to sit where they wanted to on the bus instead of only being able to sit in the back of the bus. At the time blacks could only sit at their bus stops and they could not sit in the front of a bus. So these men and women were protesting against this.

How does this effect our lives now?

It was a building block to all the freedoms that African Americans have today.

The people in the picture areJjohn Lewis and Jim Zwerg

Who was involved in the Freedom Rides?

The people that were involved in the rides were a group of black and white people of diffrent age groups. the most important people that were involved in the Freedom Rides are John Lewis and Jim Zwerg they were the starters of the rides.

About the Rides: They were many people that were involved in the freedom rides including black and white people of all ages starting from college and going up into the sixty's. There were two people that are very important in the freedom rides and their names are John Lewis and Jim Zwerg. These guys are very important because they were the founders of the freedom rides. They were two people that were very different one black and one white but they crossed paths and stood together to fight segregation. out the re were two buses called The Greyhound and Trailways. When they went to Aniston there were 200 men waiting to kill them, they broke windows and slashed their tires. The bus driver left the riders with no one to drive the bus when the tires were slashed, they ended up gasing the bus and seting it on fire. At the Montgomery bus riot the white people beat up the photographers filming the riot. The policemen just watched the people being beaten, there were only 21 freedom riders and 300 white people fighting them. For safety reasons the governor shiped out 400 U.S. marshalls to where the riders were gonna stop next. The freedom riders asked Martin Luther King to join them but he refused. Some of the riders were sent to Parchmen Penitentairy a prison. They taunted the guards by sing songs and when the guards threatened to take there privileges away they kept singing. Through out the ride they arrested over 200 riders. The riders never fought back and never had weaponds they just had the cloths on their back which proved they were stronger than the white people. The ride lasted about 20 days and in the end segregation was ended in bus and train stations.

Farmer, John. __Bantam Books.__ New York : 1961. Print.

Bausum, Ana. __National Geographics__. U.S: 2006. Print

On The Bus. The Freedom Riders 1961. npr.org Gross, Terry 1.feb, 1961. Web. 1.feb.1996

Freedom Riders. Dir. Stanley Nelson. 2011. Film