A Freedom Rider
De’Shunda L. Davis-Brown
HIS/145
The American Experience Since 1945
December 15, 2014
Instructor: James Green
Looking back to 1960 and 1961, I am reminded of a time of fear, despair, inequality as well as accomplishment. Being an African American was hard during those times, but, as an activist and active part of the change seen today in 2014, I am proud to say I was a tremendous part of the Civil Rights Movement. Patterned after a 1947 Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) project known as the Journey of Reconciliation, the Freedom Rides began in early May with a single group of thirteen Riders recruited and trained by CORE’s national staff. We were a diverse group of volunteers, black and white, young and old, male and female, secular and religious, Northerners and Southerners (Arsenault, 2006).
In 1960, the US Supreme Court expanded upon previous rulings and declared segregation in bus terminals, waiting rooms, restaurants, restrooms, and other interstate travel facilities unconstitutional. A year later, SNCC joined forces with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in an effort to test the will of local and federal officials to enforce the new legal decisions. Black and white “Freedom Riders” (as we called ourselves) traveled together on bus rides into the Deep South. During these rides, we challenged the government to protect participants from mobs of Klansmen (members of the Ku Klux Klan) and violent segregationists. In 1961 CORE undertook a new tactic aimed at desegregating public transportation throughout the south. These tactics became known as the "Freedom Rides".
The closest thing to a national civil rights crisis to the Freedom Rides that I can recall was the school desegregation fight following the Brown v. Board of Education implementation decision of 1955, but the refusal of the Eisenhower administration to press for anything more than token integration had seemingly defused the crisis by the end of the decade. Even in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Eisenhower had dispatched troops to enforce a court order in 1957, the spirit of intense confrontation had largely subsided by the time of the Freedom Rides.
The first Freedom Ride took place on May 4, 1961 from Washington, D. C., and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. Seven blacks and six whites left Washington, D.C., on two public buses bound for the Deep South. We intended to test or challenge the United States Supreme Court decisions, Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional.[2] The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. In the first few days, we encountered only minor hostility, but in the second week we were severely beaten and treated inhumane. Outside Anniston, Alabama, one of our buses was burned, and in Birmingham several dozen whites attacked us only two blocks from the sheriff's office. Finally, after minimal intervention of the U.S. Justice Department, most of CORE's Freedom Riders were evacuated from Birmingham, Alabama to New Orleans (The Freedom Rides, n.d.). “To most Americans, including the president himself, the rationale behind the Freedom Rides bordered that of madness”, (Arsenault, 2006).
The most memorable day was May 21, 1961. It was a Sunday night, on the New Frontier, and freedom was on the line in Montgomery, Alabama. Thousands of African Americans, Revered Martin Luther King, Jr and several other nationally prominent civil rights leaders had gathered at the First Baptist colored Church to show support for us, The Freedom Riders, Activists. As we prayed, sang, and spoke of hope, peace, justice and equality, the mood outside was of outrage. The church was surrounded and besieged by a swelling mob of white protesters determined to defend a time –honored system of racial segregation. They were screaming foul things, and throwing rocks and bottle bombs. This was in fact the scariest of Freedom Ride moments I’d encountered. The protesters even threatened to overtake the federal marshals and made it clear their intent was to burn down the church. Thankfully, the governor of Alabama deployed National Guardsmen to disperse the crowd and the tragedy was averted. After hours of waiting for the National Guard to clear the surrounding streets, we were loaded into convoy trucks and escorted back to our black communities wondering what other indignities and racial challenges and tragedies lay ahead. The Battle of May 21, as well called it was over, but the struggle for racial justice would continue (Arsenault, 2006).
References:
The Freedom Rides. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.core-online.org/History/freedom%20rides.htm
Arsenault, R. (2006). Freedom Riders . New York, New York: Oxford University Press. 