Civil rights movement

=== Freedom Rides, 1961 ===
{{Main|Freedom Rider|Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks}}

Freedom Rides were journeys by civil rights activists on interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision ''[[Boynton v. Virginia]]'' (1960), which ruled that segregation was unconstitutional for passengers engaged in interstate travel. Organized by [[Congress of Racial Equality|CORE]], the first Freedom Ride of the 1960s left Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.<ref name="Freedom Rides">[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961frides Freedom Rides] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707051408/http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961frides |date=July 7, 2010 }}&nbsp;– Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref>

During the first and subsequent Freedom Rides, activists traveled through the [[Deep South]] to integrate seating patterns on buses and desegregate bus terminals, including restrooms and water fountains. That proved to be a dangerous mission. In [[Anniston, Alabama]], one bus [[Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks|was firebombed]], forcing its passengers to flee for their lives.<ref name="Arsenault">{{cite book |last=Arsenault |first=Raymond |title=Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice |url=https://archive.org/details/freedomriders1960000arse |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford Press |year=2006}}</ref>

[[File:Freedom Riders attacked.jpg|thumb|A mob beats Freedom Riders in Birmingham. This picture was reclaimed by the FBI from a local journalist who also was beaten and whose camera was smashed.]]

In [[Birmingham, Alabama]], an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] informant reported that Public Safety Commissioner [[Eugene "Bull" Connor]] gave Ku Klux Klan members fifteen minutes to attack an incoming group of freedom riders before having police "protect" them. The riders were severely beaten "until it looked like a bulldog had got a hold of them." [[James Peck (pacifist)|James Peck]], a white activist, was beaten so badly that he required fifty stitches to his head.<ref name="Arsenault" />

In a similar occurrence in Montgomery, Alabama, the Freedom Riders followed in the footsteps of Rosa Parks and rode an integrated Greyhound bus from Birmingham. Although they were protesting interstate bus segregation in peace, they were met with violence in Montgomery as a large, white mob attacked them for their activism. They caused an enormous, 2-hour long riot which resulted in 22 injuries, five of whom were hospitalized.<ref>Black Protest (1961)</ref>

Mob violence in Anniston and Birmingham temporarily halted the rides. SNCC activists from Nashville brought in new riders to continue the journey from Birmingham to New Orleans. In [[Montgomery, Alabama]], at the [[Greyhound Bus Station (Montgomery, Alabama)|Greyhound Bus Station]], a mob charged another busload of riders, knocking [[John Lewis]]<ref>{{Citation|title=American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with John Lewis, 1 of 3|url=http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-tx3513w36f|language=en|access-date=June 10, 2020}}</ref> unconscious with a crate and smashing ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' photographer [[Don Urbrock]] in the face with his own camera. A dozen men surrounded [[James Zwerg]],<ref>{{Citation|title=American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Jim Zwerg, 1 of 4|url=http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-x639z91k99|language=en|access-date=June 10, 2020}}</ref> a white student from [[Fisk University]], and beat him in the face with a suitcase, knocking out his teeth.<ref name="Arsenault" />

On May 24, 1961, the freedom riders continued their rides into [[Jackson, Mississippi]], where they were arrested for "breaching the peace" by using "white only" facilities. New Freedom Rides were organized by many different organizations and continued to flow into the South. As riders arrived in Jackson, they were arrested. By the end of summer, more than 300 had been jailed in Mississippi.<ref name="Freedom Rides" />

{{blockquote|quote=… When the weary Riders arrive in Jackson and attempt to use "white only" restrooms and lunch counters they are immediately arrested for Breach of Peace and Refusal to Obey an Officer. Says Mississippi Governor [[Ross Barnett]] in defense of segregation: "The Negro is different because God made him different to punish him." From lockup, the Riders announce "Jail No Bail"{{mdash}}they will not pay fines for unconstitutional arrests and illegal convictions{{mdash}}and by staying in jail they keep the issue alive. Each prisoner will remain in jail for 39 days, the maximum time they can serve without losing their right to appeal the unconstitutionality of their arrests, trials, and convictions. After 39 days, they file an appeal and post bond...<ref name=westwind>{{cite web |last=Hartford |first=Bruce Hartford |title=Arrests in Jackson MS |url=http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm |work=The Civil Rights Movement Archive|access-date=October 21, 2011}}</ref>}}

The jailed freedom riders were treated harshly, crammed into tiny, filthy cells and sporadically beaten. In Jackson, some male prisoners were forced to do hard labor in {{convert|100|°F|°C|abbr=on}} heat. Others were transferred to the [[Mississippi State Penitentiary]] at Parchman, where they were treated to harsh conditions. Sometimes the men were suspended by "wrist breakers" from the walls. Typically, the windows of their cells were shut tight on hot days, making it hard for them to breathe.

Public sympathy and support for the freedom riders led [[John F. Kennedy]]'s administration to order the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]] (ICC) to issue a new desegregation order. When the new ICC rule took effect on November 1, 1961, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they chose on the bus; "white" and "colored" signs came down in the terminals; separate drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms were consolidated; and lunch counters began serving people regardless of skin color.

The student movement involved such celebrated figures as John Lewis, a single-minded activist; [[James Lawson (American activist)|James Lawson]],<ref>{{Citation|title=American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with James Lawson, 1 of 4|url=http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-4746q1tc99|language=en|access-date=June 10, 2020}}</ref> the revered "guru" of nonviolent theory and tactics; [[Diane Nash]],<ref>{{Citation|title=American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Diane Nash, 1 of 3|url=http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-2f7jq0tn9b|language=en|access-date=June 10, 2020}}</ref> an articulate and intrepid public champion of justice; [[Bob Moses (activist)|Bob Moses]], pioneer of voting registration in Mississippi; and [[James Bevel]], a fiery preacher and charismatic organizer, strategist, and facilitator. Other prominent student activists included [[Dion Diamond]],<ref>{{Citation|title=American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Dion Diamond, 1 of 2|url=http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-4b2x34nj5n|language=en|access-date=June 10, 2020}}</ref> [[Charles McDew]], [[Bernard Lafayette]],<ref>{{Citation|title=American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Bernard Lafayette, Jr., 1 of 3|url=http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-dn3zs2m89m|language=en|access-date=June 10, 2020}}</ref> [[Charles Jones (activist)|Charles Jones]], [[Lonnie C. King Jr.|Lonnie King]], [[Julian Bond]],<ref>{{Citation|title=American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Julian Bond, 1 of 2|url=http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-0000000v8c|language=en|access-date=June 10, 2020}}</ref> [[Hosea Williams]], and [[Stokely Carmichael]].
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