Racial segregation in the United States

===Transportation===
Local bus companies practiced segregation in city buses. This was challenged in [[Montgomery, Alabama]] by [[Rosa Parks]], who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, and by Rev. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], who organized the [[Montgomery bus boycott]] (1955–1956). A federal court suit in Alabama, ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'' (1955), was successful at the district court level, which ruled Alabama's bus segregation laws illegal. It was upheld at the Supreme Court level.

In 1961 [[Congress of Racial Equality]] director [[James Farmer]], other CORE members and some [[Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee]] members traveled as a mixed race group, [[Freedom Riders]], on Greyhound buses from Washington, D.C., headed toward [[New Orleans]]. In several states the travelers were subject to violence. In [[Anniston, Alabama]] the [[Ku Klux Klan]] attacked the buses, setting one bus on fire. After U.S. attorney general [[Robert F. Kennedy]] resisted taking action and urged restraint by the riders, Kennedy relented. He urged the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]] to issue an order directing that buses, trains, and their intermediate facilities, such as stations, restrooms and water fountains be desegregated.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/freedom-rides|title=Freedom Rides|date=June 29, 2017|website=The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/freedom-riders-end-racial-segregation-southern-us-public-transit-1961|title=Freedom Riders end racial segregation in Southern U.S. public transit, 1961 &#124; Global Nonviolent Action Database|website=nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu}}</ref>