ipl-logo

Freedom Riders: 1961 And The Struggle For Racial Justice

1157 Words5 Pages

Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice Raymond Arsenault Mr. Murray 374003 Raymond Arsenault had written a good book about the Freedom Riders and how it had all started to where it all ended. After reading the Abridged edition of the Freedom Riders, it provided myself an idea of what the main reason of the book was written for. In my readings, the book’s reason was to show how a small group with a big plan went beyond dangerous accusations to show the world how unconstitutional it was for interstate bus terminals to be color separated that needed to be addressed and drastic measures had to be taken for people, even the Kennedy administration, to make a change once and for all. It had all began when a group of thirteen …show more content…

International attention was now upon the Freedom Riders, following the widespread violence, CORE couldn’t find a bus driver to transport the group, then later decided to abandon the Freedom Riders. Arsenault gave hope when writing how Diane Nash, an activist of Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC), had organized a group of ten students from Nashville, Tennessee to continue the ride, as the US Attorney General and brother of President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy had spoken with Governor John Patterson of Alabama and bus companies to secure a driver and state protection for the continuing Freedom Riders; the ride had continued with the police escort from Birmingham on May 20. Arsenault showed inspiration in his book when Attorney General Kennedy had sent in six hundred federal marshals to the city of Montgomery, Alabama, where police had left the station before the riders arrived, as the riders were being beaten with bats and clubs. Arsenault was giving the readers hope for the Freedom

Show More
Related

  • The Significance Of The Freedom Rides

    216 Words  | 1 Pages

    The event that I have chosen is the Freedom Rides, which started May 4, 1961 and ended December 10, 1961. The Freedom Rides were inspired by the Greensboro Sit-ins, and started with 13 African American and Caucasian protestors riding buses into the segregated south to challenge the lack of enforcement to the Supreme Court ruling that segregated buses were unconstitutional. While the activists were peaceful the local law enforcement and people against their message were not. The activists were beaten at several stops along their journey from Anniston to Birmingham with chains, bricks, and bats by Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members in Alabama, and activists that were injured would be refused hospital treatment. Bull Connor, Commissioner of Public Safety

    Read More

  • How Did Charles Perkins Influence Australian History

    1001 Words  | 5 Pages

    The original 'Freedom Rides' in the American South were a series of student political protests that took the form of bus journeys through the southern states. Student volunteers, both African American and white, rode interstate into the pro-segregationist south, to bring awareness to and fight for person of colours rights. This eventually led to violent protest and hostility that additionally increased public awareness of racism in society through this intensive media coverage. Due to international coverage, protests in support of the Civil Rights movement occurred in Australia as well, supporting the Civil Rights Bill that was being considered by the United States

    Read More

  • Summary Of Why Busing Forced By Matthew Delmont

    309 Words  | 2 Pages

    During week 12 of class, we were assigned to read three sections of Matthew Delmont's Why Busing Filed. This reading focuses on "busing," which meant that students would be transported to other schools and school districts in order to desegregate schools. This book discusses how "busing" failed due to many white parents opposing it; their values were seen as more important than the rights of black students (Delmont 25). Despite Brown v. Board of Education deeming school segregation unconstitutional in 1954, many schools remained segregated for years. The attention on segregation normally focused on the South.

    Read More

  • The March Trilogy, Creation By Congressman John Lewis

    416 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout March Book Two John Lewis tells how he was directly involved in both public demonstrations and behind-the-scenes meetings with government officials and African-American leaders. He recalls with unflinching honesty his account from the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church to his eventual break with Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) increasingly radical elements. Alternating stomach-turning incidents of violence including his own vicious clubbing on the Selma to Montgomery march with passages of impassioned rhetoric from many voices, he chronicles the growing fissures within the movement. In the stunning conclusion to the March trilogy. Congressman John Lewis tells how by the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American nation, and as chairman of the SNCC, John Lewis is guiding the tip of the spear.

    Read More

  • The March Trilogy By John Lewis And Andrew Aydin

    1132 Words  | 5 Pages

    The freedom riders bus bombing, police brutality in 1963, and Mr. Lewis’s speech on Washington were the most monumental events which shaped Mr. Lewis’s character and career. The Freedom Riders

    Read More

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott Dbq Essay

    902 Words  | 4 Pages

    “For months, the buses were almost empty because most of the riders had been black.” (Doc. A) Do to the fact that there was full participation, meaning that no African Americans continued to ride the bus, it made the bus ride a successful protest. “I think it is the first time that a whole Negro community has come together this way and for so long

    Read More

  • Review Of March By Congressman John Lewis

    548 Words  | 3 Pages

    The freedom riders were protesters who boycotted the city buses, they did this by buying tickets and staying on the buses for as long as possible by either reaching the “end of the line” or were kicked off to make room for white passengers. These boycotts slowed bus traffic to a near halt. This angered white passengers which led to the bus bombings of two full buses of blacks were bombed in the middle of the road. There was no police or fire interaction and the buses were just left there burning for hours with zero help. This was one of John Lewis’s darkest days, he was not on or near the buses at the time but when the news was heard he was with a group of people, the entire room went silent.

    Read More

  • Creating Black Americans: African-American History By Nell Irvin Painter

    871 Words  | 4 Pages

    In chapter 13, Painter displays the new laws that came out of African American activism as well as the negative effects of the Vietnam War on actual change. The passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 got rid of legal segregation, and was a huge success for African Americans everywhere. These two acts were hat the activists had been working so hard for all this time. The issue though was that, “This enormous achievement triggered immediate opposition” (Painter 304). This always came with any success for African Americans, but they could not downplay what a huge moment this was in history.

    Read More

  • How Did General Kennedy Help The Freedom Riders

    329 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the Freedom Rides, the authorities never really helped the riders. They would begin to protect them and wind up abandoning the group when the whites would come to attack. These attacks wouldn’t be stopped until Attorney General Kennedy sent large amounts of marshals to stop the violence. Kennedy seemed to be one of the only ones who wanted to help protect the riders, so when they were under attack they would call him and ask for his help. He would send federal marshals, who actually at one riot, filled the white mob with tear gas.

    Read More

  • Martin Luther King Quotes From Birmingham Jail

    663 Words  | 3 Pages

    During 1961, they experienced a dangerous fight against civil rights on the Freedom Ride as organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) when the US Court declared another interstate segregation of the Black, but the activists boarded more buses going to the Southern States to gain the attention of the government and as expected they experience resistance among the operators, some of them are attacked and sent to jail by white riders. When the

    Read More

  • History Of The Freedom Riders

    94 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Freedom Riders left Birmingham that Saturday on, May 20, they had been promised police protection, but after ninety miles from the city limits the police disappeared. When they reached Montgomery, angry white mobs was everywhere. Floyd Mann, Director of Public Safety for the state of Alabama, tried to stop the mob, but they continued to beat the Riders and those who came to their aid. Mann finally had to order in state troopers. When news of the Montgomery attack reached the White House, Robert Kennedy decided to send federal marshals to the

    Read More

  • Jim Crow Strategies

    132 Words  | 1 Pages

    Some of the strategies from the grass root level that the activists of the civil rights movement used in order to overturn the segregation practice of “Jim Crow” was very effective in leading to the downfall of the practice of legalized segregation. One of the strategies was the Montgomery bus boycott. Even the public transportation in the “Jim Crow” south wasn’t immune from the sickness of segregation. Anyone who has studied the practice of the racism knows that on public transportation in the south during the “Jim Crow” era black people’s money was good enough to be in the front of the bus, but the people themselves weren’t and therefore had to come in through the back of the bus and they confined to the back unless someone white wanted

    Read More

  • Freedom Riders Film Analysis

    795 Words  | 4 Pages

    The filmmaker Stanley Nelson has a stunning accomplishment in “Freedom Riders,” a documentary that chronicles a crucial, devastating episode of the civil rights movement, an episode whose gruesome visuals impinged on the perception of American liberty around the world. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the freedom rides, the film (to be shown Monday on PBS) is a story of ennobled youth and noxious hatred, of decided courage and inexplicable brutality. In May 1961 the Congress of Racial Equality sought to challenge the segregation of interstate travel on public transport and sent forth activists, both black and white, and many of them students, on a bus journey through the South, where they were received with violence that law enforcers

    Read More

  • Philosophical Differences Between Martin Luther King And Malcolm X

    1512 Words  | 7 Pages

    The freedom riders proved a point to show the strength of the black race, but caused a divide as the white race became threatened and ---more

    Read More

  • Analysis: The Montgomery Bus Boycott

    689 Words  | 3 Pages

    With thousands attending the first gathering of the MIA, it became clear that there was a growing demand within the black community to enforce their rights as American citizens. Determined to overcome the intimidation, humiliation, and oppression imposed upon them, they realized that working together was what they must use in order to instigate change. The Montgomery Bus Boycott gave rise to many influential individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr. who was a prominent national leader of the civil rights movement. He helped unite the African American community by leading the MIA. As stated in one of his speeches, “There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression,” revealing the evolving mindset of the black community that they have the right to equality.

    Read More

More about Freedom Riders: 1961 And The Struggle For Racial Justice

Open Document