Freedom riders

Gavin Stockton
Period 1
4/8/18

Freedom Riders

During the 1960's when Black rights were on the rise and major activists such as Maclom X and Martin Luther King Jr were gaining more and more followers, there was a group of activists known as Freedom Riders. Freedom Riders first emerged when the Congress of Racial Equality founded it based off of the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, after the Morgan v Virginia trial where it was found that segregation was an unconstitutional act. Freedom Riders existed not only blacks but whites as well, they prompted for black rights by traveling to states, cities, and town that were anti-blacks and protested major rules against blacks such as Alabama. Such as segregated bathrooms, schools and only white people being able to sit on the front of the bus. 

The very first group of Freedom Riders to ever take the streets were organized by John Lewis in 1961. Their plan was to leave on a bus from Washington DC and travel to New Orleans, Lousiana. The group consisted of seven blacks and six whites, they were protesting the Brown v Board of Education trial which found that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. When the group traveled through Virginia and South Carolina they attracted unwanted attention when a riot broke out with angry whites who didn't agree with their cause. On May 12 in Rock Hill, South Carolina John Lewis was seriously injured and departed from the rest of the group on a different bus.