Freedom Riders - wikipedia Freedom Riders This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 11 December 2017. This article is about the 1961 activists in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement. For other uses, see Freedom Riders ( disambiguation ). Freedom Riders Part of the Civil Rights Movement Date May 4 -- December 10, 1961 ( 7 months and 6 days ) Location Southern United States, First Baptist Church, Parchman Farm and Jackson, Mississippi Caused by Plessy v. Ferguson ( 1896 ) Racial segregation in interstate and intrastate transportation and public accommodations Failed compliance with ruling Morgan v. Virginia ( 1946 ) Journey of Reconciliation in 1947 Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company ( 1955 ) Ongoing boycott and sit - in demonstrations in the south Boynton v. Virginia ( 1960 ) Resulted in 436 individuals participated in at least 60 separate Freedom Rides First time `` jail, no bail '' tactic employed on large scale since the Nashville sit - ins Desegregation order from Interstate Commerce Commission ( ICC ) Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) recognized as a serious civil rights organization Creation of Route 40 campaign, Eastern Shore project, and Freedom Highways campaign Voter Education Project established Parties to the civil conflict Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) Nashville Student Movement National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) Governor of Mississippi Governor of Alabama Birmingham Police Commissioner Ku Klux Klan ( KKK ) Lead figures CORE members James Farmer Gordon Carey SNCC and Nashville Student Movement members Diane Nash John Lewis Bernard Lafayette James Bevel Governors Ross Barnett John M. Patterson City of Birmingham Eugene `` Bull '' Connor Tom Cook Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States, in 1961 and subsequent years, in order to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Morgan v. Virginia ( 1946 ) and Boynton v. Virginia ( 1960 ), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. Boynton outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines. Five years prior to the Boynton ruling, the Interstate Commerce Commission ( ICC ) had issued a ruling in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company ( 1955 ) that had explicitly denounced the Plessy v. Ferguson ( 1896 ) doctrine of separate but equal in interstate bus travel. The ICC failed to enforce its ruling, and Jim Crow travel laws remained in force throughout the South. The Freedom Riders challenged this status quo by riding interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation in seating. The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement. They called national attention to the disregard for the federal law and the local violence used to enforce segregation in the southern United States. Police arrested riders for trespassing, unlawful assembly, and violating state and local Jim Crow laws, along with other alleged offenses, but they often first let white mobs attack them without intervention. The Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) sponsored most of the subsequent Freedom Rides, but some were also organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ). The Freedom Rides followed dramatic sit - ins against segregated lunch counters, conducted by students and youth throughout the South, and boycotts of retail establishments that maintained segregated facilities, beginning in 1960. The Supreme Court 's decision in Boynton supported the right of interstate travelers to disregard local segregation ordinances. Southern local and state police considered the actions of the Freedom Riders to be criminal and arrested them in some locations. In some localities, such as Birmingham, Alabama, the police cooperated with Ku Klux Klan chapters and other white people opposing the actions and allowed mobs to attack the riders. Contents 1 History 1.1 Prelude 1.2 Mob violence in Anniston and Birmingham 1.3 Nashville Student Movement continuation 1.4 Mob violence in Montgomery 1.5 Into Mississippi 1.6 Kennedy urges `` cooling off period '' 1.7 Summer escalation 1.8 Monroe and Robert F. Williams 1.9 Resolution and legacy 2 List of Freedom Rides 2.1 Precursors to Freedom Rides 2.2 Original and subsequent Freedom Rides 2.3 Mississippi Freedom Rides 3 Commemorations and monument 4 Notable Freedom Riders 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 Bibliography 9 Further reading 9.1 Scholarly works 9.2 Autobiographies and memoirs 9.3 Other works 10 External links History Prelude The Freedom Riders were inspired by the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, led by Bayard Rustin and George Houser and co-sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the then - fledgling Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ). Like the Freedom Rides of 1961, the Journey of Reconciliation was intended to test an earlier Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. Rustin, Igal Roodenko, Joe Felmet and Andrew Johnnson, were arrested and sentenced to serve on a chain gang in North Carolina for violating local Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation. The first Freedom Ride began on May 4, 1961. Led by CORE Director James Farmer, 13 riders ( seven black, six white, including Genevieve Hughes, William E. Harbour, and Ed Blankenheim ) left Washington, DC, on Greyhound and Trailways buses. Their plan was to ride through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, ending in New Orleans, Louisiana, where a civil rights rally was planned. Most of the Riders were from CORE, and two were from SNCC. Many were in their 40s and 50s. Some were as young as 18. The Freedom Riders ' tactics for their journey were to have at least one interracial pair sitting in adjoining seats, and at least one black rider sitting up front, where seats under segregation had been reserved for white customers by local custom throughout the South. The rest of the team would sit scattered throughout the rest of the bus. One rider would abide by the South 's segregation rules in order to avoid arrest and to contact CORE and arrange bail for those who were arrested. Only minor trouble was encountered in Virginia and North Carolina, but John Lewis was attacked in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Some of the Riders were arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina ; Winnsboro, South Carolina ; and Jackson, Mississippi. Mob violence in Anniston and Birmingham The Birmingham, Alabama, Police Commissioner, Bull Connor, together with Police Sergeant Tom Cook ( an avid Ku Klux Klan supporter ), organized violence against the Freedom Riders with local Klan chapters. The pair made plans to bring the Ride to an end in Alabama. They assured Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informer and member of Eastview Klavern # 13 ( the most violent Klan group in Alabama ), that the mob would have fifteen minutes to attack the Freedom Riders without any arrests being made. The plan was to allow an initial assault in Anniston with a final assault taking place in Birmingham. On May 14, Mother 's Day, in Anniston, a mob of Klansmen, some still in church attire, attacked the first of the two buses ( the Greyhound ). The driver tried to leave the station, but was blocked until KKK members slashed its tires. The mob forced the crippled bus to stop several miles outside of town and then firebombed it. As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intending to burn the riders to death. Sources disagree, but either an exploding fuel tank or an undercover state investigator brandishing a revolver caused the mob to retreat, and the riders escaped the bus. The mob beat the riders after they got out. Only warning shots fired into the air by highway patrolmen prevented the riders from being lynched. That night, the hospitalized Freedom Riders, most of whom had been refused care, were removed from the hospital at 2 AM, because the staff feared the mob outside the hospital. The local civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth organized several cars of black citizens to rescue the injured Freedom Riders in defiance of the white supremacists. The black people were under the leadership of Colonel Stone Johnson and were openly armed as they arrived at the hospital, protecting the Freedom Riders from the mob. When the Trailways bus reached Anniston and pulled in at the terminal an hour after the Greyhound bus was burned, it was boarded by eight Klansmen. They beat the Freedom Riders and left them semi-conscious in the back of the bus. 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. When the bus arrived in Birmingham, it was attacked by a mob of KKK members aided and abetted by police under the orders of Commissioner Bull Connor. As the riders exited the bus, they were beaten by the mob with baseball bats, iron pipes and bicycle chains. Among the attacking Klansmen was Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informant. White Freedom Riders were singled out for especially frenzied beatings ; James Peck required more than 50 stitches to the wounds in his head. Peck was taken to Carraway Methodist Medical Center, which refused to treat him ; he was later treated at Jefferson Hillman Hospital. When reports of the bus burning and beatings reached US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he urged restraint on the part of Freedom Riders and sent an assistant, John Seigenthaler, to Alabama to try to calm the situation. Despite the violence suffered and the threat of more to come, the Freedom Riders intended to continue their journey. Kennedy had arranged an escort for the Riders in order to get them to Montgomery, Alabama, safely. However, radio reports told of a mob awaiting the riders at the bus terminal, as well as on the route to Montgomery. The Greyhound clerks told the Riders that their drivers were refusing to drive any Freedom Riders anywhere. Recognizing that their efforts had already called national attention to the civil rights cause and wanting to get to the rally in New Orleans, the Riders decided to abandon the rest of the bus ride and fly directly to New Orleans from Birmingham. When they first boarded the plane, all passengers had to exit because of a bomb threat. Nashville Student Movement continuation Diane Nash, a Nashville college student who was a leader of the Nashville Student Movement and SNCC, believed that if Southern violence were allowed to halt the Freedom Rides the movement would be set back years. She pushed to find replacements to resume the rides. On May 17, a new set of riders, 10 students from Nashville who were active in the Nashville Student Movement, took a bus to Birmingham, where they were arrested by Bull Connor and jailed. The students kept their spirits up in jail by singing freedom songs. Out of frustration, Connor drove them back up to the Tennessee line and dropped them off, saying, `` I just could n't stand their singing. '' They immediately returned to Birmingham. Mob violence in Montgomery In answer to SNCC 's call, Freedom Riders from across the Eastern US joined John Lewis and Hank Thomas, the two young SNCC members of the original Ride, who had remained in Birmingham. On May 19, they attempted to resume the ride, but, terrified by the howling mob surrounding the bus depot, the drivers refused. Harassed and besieged by the mob, the riders waited all night for a bus. Under intense public pressure from the Kennedy administration, Greyhound was forced to provide a driver. After direct intervention by Byron White of the Attorney General 's office, Alabama Governor John Patterson reluctantly promised to protect the bus from KKK mobs and snipers on the road between Birmingham and Montgomery. On the morning of May 20, the Freedom Ride resumed, with the bus carrying the riders traveling toward Montgomery at 90 miles an hour, protected by a contingent of the Alabama State Highway Patrol. The Highway Patrol abandoned the bus and riders at the Montgomery city limits. At the bus station on South Court Street, a white mob awaited. They beat the Freedom Riders with baseball bats and iron pipes. The local police allowed the beatings to go on uninterrupted. Again, white Freedom Riders were singled out for particularly brutal beatings. Reporters and news photographers were attacked first and their cameras destroyed, but one reporter took a photo later of Jim Zwerg in the hospital, showing how he was beaten and bruised. Seigenthaler, a Justice Department official, was beaten and left unconscious lying in the street. Ambulances refused to take the wounded to the hospital. Local black residents rescued them, and a number of the Freedom Riders were hospitalized. On the following night, Sunday, May 21, more than 1500 people packed into Reverend Ralph Abernathy 's First Baptist Church to honor the Freedom Riders. Among the speakers were Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was newly based in Montgomery, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and James Farmer. Outside, a mob of more than 3,000 white people attacked the black attendees, with a handful of the United States Marshals Service protecting the church from assault and fire bombs. With city and state police making no effort to restore order, the civil rights leaders appealed to the President for protection. President Kennedy threatened the governor to intervene with federal troops if he would not protect the people. Governor Patterson forestalled that by finally ordering the Alabama National Guard to disperse the mob, and the Guard reached the church in the early morning. In a commemorative Op - Ed piece in 2011, Bernard Lafayette remembered the mob breaking windows of the church with rocks and setting off tear gas canisters. He recounted heroic action by King. After learning that black taxi drivers were arming and forming a group to rescue the people inside, he worried that more violence would result. He selected ten volunteers, who promised non-violence, to escort him through the white mob, which parted to let King and his escorts pass as they marched two by two. King went out to the black drivers and asked them to disperse, to prevent more violence. King and his escorts formally made their way back inside the church, unmolested. Lafayette also was interviewed by the BBC in 2011 and told about these events in an episode broadcast on the radio on August 31, 2011, in commemoration of the Freedom Rides. The Alabama National Guard finally arrived in the early morning to disperse the mob and safely escorted all the people from the church. Into Mississippi George Raymond Jr. was a CORE activist arrested in the Trailways bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi on August 14, 1961. Some freedom riders were incarcerated in the Mississippi State Penitentiary The next day, Monday, May 22, more Freedom Riders from CORE and SNCC arrived in Montgomery to continue the rides through the South and replace the wounded riders still in the hospital. Behind the scenes, the Kennedy administration arranged a deal with the governors of Alabama and Mississippi, where the governors agreed that state police and the National Guard would protect the Riders from mob violence. In return, the federal government would not intervene to stop local police from arresting Freedom Riders for violating segregation ordinances when the buses arrived at the depots. On Wednesday morning, May 24, Freedom Riders boarded buses for the journey to Jackson, Mississippi. Surrounded by Highway Patrol and the National Guard, the buses arrived in Jackson without incident, but the riders were immediately arrested when they tried to use the white - only facilities at the depot. In Montgomery, the next round of Freedom Riders, including the Yale University chaplain William Sloane Coffin, Gaylord Brewster Noyce, and southern ministers Shuttlesworth, Abernathy, Wyatt Tee Walker, and others were similarly arrested for violating local segregation ordinances. This established a pattern followed by subsequent Freedom Rides, most of which traveled to Jackson, where the Riders were arrested and jailed. Their strategy became one of trying to fill the jails. Once the Jackson and Hinds County jails were filled to overflowing, the state transferred the Freedom Riders to the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary ( known as Parchman Farm ). Abusive treatment there included placement of Riders in the Maximum Security Unit ( Death Row ), issuance of only underwear, no exercise, and no mail privileges. When the Freedom Riders refused to stop singing freedom songs, prison officials took away their mattresses, sheets, and toothbrushes. More Freedom Riders arrived from across the country, and at one time, more than 300 were held in Parchman Farm. While in Jackson, Freedom Riders received support from local grassroots civil rights organization Womanpower Unlimited, which raised money and collected toiletries, soap, candy and magazines for the imprisoned protesters. Upon Freedom Riders ' release, Womanpower members would provide places for them to bathe while offering them clothes and food. Freedom Rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland said the Womanpower members `` were like angels supplying us with just little simple necessities. '' Kennedy urges `` cooling off period '' The Kennedys called for a `` cooling off period '' and condemned the Rides as unpatriotic because they embarrassed the nation on the world stage at the height of the Cold War. The Soviet Union criticized the United States for its racism and the attacks on the Riders. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the chief law - enforcement officer of the land, was quoted as saying that he `` does not feel that the Department of Justice can side with one group or the other in disputes over Constitutional rights. '' His comment angered civil rights supporters, who considered the Justice Department duty - bound to enforce Supreme Court rulings and defend citizens exercising their Constitutional rights from mob violence. Nonetheless, international outrage about the widely covered events and racial violence created pressure on American political leaders. On May 29, 1961, Attorney General Kennedy sent a petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission ( ICC ) asking it to comply with the bus - desegregation ruling it had issued in November 1955, in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. That ruling had explicitly repudiated the concept of `` separate but equal '' in the realm of interstate bus travel. Chaired by the South Carolina Democrat J. Monroe Johnson the ICC had failed to implement its own ruling. James Farmer, head of CORE, responded to Kennedy saying, `` We have been cooling off for 350 years, and if we cooled off any more, we 'd be in a deep freeze. '' Summer escalation Activists Patricia Stephens and Reverend Petty D. McKinney arrested in Tallahassee, Florida on June 16, 1961 CORE, SNCC, and the SCLC rejected any `` cooling off period ''. They formed a Freedom Riders Coordinating Committee to keep the Rides rolling through June, July, August, and September. During those months, more than 60 different Freedom Rides criss - crossed the South, most of them converging on Jackson, where every Rider was arrested, more than 300 in total. An unknown number were arrested in other Southern towns. It is estimated that almost 450 people participated in one or more Freedom Rides. About 75 % were male, and the same percentage were under the age of 30, with about equal participation from black and white citizens. During the summer of 1961, Freedom Riders also campaigned against other forms of racial discrimination. They sat together in segregated restaurants, lunch counters and hotels. This was especially effective when they targeted large companies, such as hotel chains. Fearing boycotts in the North, the hotels began to desegregate their businesses. In mid-June, a group of Freedom Riders had scheduled to end their ride in Tallahassee, Florida, with plans to fly home from the Tallahassee airport. They were provided a police escort to the airport from the city 's bus facilities. At the airport, they decided to eat at a restaurant that was marked `` For Whites Only ''. The owners decided to close rather than serve the mixed group of Freedom Riders. Although the restaurant was privately owned, it was leased from the county government. Canceling their plane reservations, the Riders decided to wait until the restaurant re-opened so they could be served. They waited until 11 : 00 pm that night and returned the following day. During this time, hostile crowds gathered, threatening violence. On June 16, 1961, the Freedom Riders were arrested in Tallahassee for unlawful assembly. That arrest and subsequent trial became known as Dresner v. City of Tallahassee. Convictions of the Riders were appealed to the US Supreme Court in 1963, which refused to hear the case based on technical reasons. Monroe and Robert F. Williams In early August, SNCC staff members James Forman and Paul Brooks, with the support of Ella Baker, began planning a Freedom Ride in solidarity with Robert F. Williams. Williams was an extremely militant and controversial NAACP chapter president for Monroe, North Carolina. After making the public statement that he would `` meet violence with violence, '' ( since the federal government would not protect his community from racial attacks ) he had been suspended by the NAACP national board over the objections of Williams ' local membership. Williams continued his work against segregation however, and was facing repeated attempts on his life because of it. Some SNCC staff members sympathized with the local community 's proclivity for armed self - defense, although many on the ride to Monroe saw this as an opportunity to prove the superiority of Gandhian nonviolence over the use of force. The Freedom Riders in Monroe were brutally attacked by white supremacists with the approval of local police. On August 27, James Forman - SNCC 's Executive Secretary - was struck unconscious with the butt of a rifle and taken to jail with numerous other demonstrators. Police and civilian white supremacists roamed the town shooting at black people, who returned the gunfire. Robert F. Williams fortified the black neighborhood against attack and in the process briefly detained a white couple who had gotten lost there. The police accused Williams of kidnapping and called in the state militia and FBI to arrest him, in spite of the couple being quickly released. Certain he would be lynched, Williams fled and eventually found refuge in Cuba. Movement lawyers, eager to disengage from the situation, successfully urged the Freedom Riders not to practice the normal `` jail - no bail '' strategy in Monroe. Local officials, also apparently eager to de-escalate, found demonstrators guilty but immediately suspended their sentences. One Freedom Rider however, John Lowry, went on trial for the kidnapping case, along with several associates of Robert F. Williams, including Mae Mallory. Monroe legal defense committees were popular around the country, but ultimately Lowry and Mallory served prison sentences. In 1965, their convictions were vacated due to the exclusion of black citizens from the jury selection. Resolution and legacy This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( May 2017 ) By September it had been over three months since the filing of the petition by Robert Kennedy. CORE and SNCC leaders made tentative plans for a mass demonstration known as the `` Washington Project ''. This would mobilize hundreds, perhaps thousands, of nonviolent demonstrators to the capital city to apply pressure on the ICC and the Kennedy administration. The idea was pre-empted when the ICC finally issued the necessary orders just before the end of the month. The new policies went into effect on November 1, 1961, six years after the ruling in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. After the new ICC rule took effect, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they pleased on interstate buses and trains ; `` white '' and `` colored '' signs were removed from the terminals ; racially segregated drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms serving interstate customers were consolidated ; and the lunch counters began serving all customers, regardless of race. The widespread violence provoked by the Freedom Rides sent shock waves through American society. People worried that the Rides were evoking widespread social disorder and racial divergence, an opinion supported and strengthened in many communities by the press. The press in white communities condemned the direct action approach that CORE was taking, while some of the national press negatively portrayed the Riders as provoking unrest. At the same time, the Freedom Rides established great credibility with black and white people throughout the United States and inspired many to engage in direct action for civil rights. Perhaps most significantly, the actions of the Freedom Riders from the North, who faced danger on behalf of southern black citizens, impressed and inspired the many black people living in rural areas throughout the South. They formed the backbone of the wider civil rights movement, who engaged in voter registration and other activities. Southern black activists generally organized around their churches, the center of their communities and a base of moral strength. The Freedom Riders helped inspire participation in other subsequent civil rights campaigns, including voter registration throughout the South, freedom schools, and the Black Power movement. At the time, most black Southerners had been unable to register to vote, due to state constitutions, laws and practices that had effectively disfranchised most of them since the turn of the 20th century. For instance, white administrators supervised reading comprehension and literacy tests that highly educated black people could not pass. List of Freedom Rides Precursors to Freedom Rides Ride Date Carrier Point of departure Destination Ref. Note Journey of Reconciliation April 9 -- 23, 1947 Trailways Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Little Freedom Ride April 22, 1961 East St. Louis, Illinois Sikeston, Missouri Original and subsequent Freedom Rides Denotes location a Freedom Rider tested the compliance of the Boynton v. Virginia ( 1960 ) decision at a terminal facility only Ride Date Carrier or terminal Point of departure Destination Ref. Note Original CORE Freedom Ride May 4 -- 17, 1961 Trailways Washington, D.C. New Orleans, Louisiana Greyhound Washington, D.C. New Orleans, Louisiana Nashville Student Movement Freedom Ride May 17 -- 21, 1961 Birmingham, Alabama New Orleans, Louisiana Connecticut Freedom Ride May 24 -- 25, 1961 Greyhound Atlanta, Georgia Montgomery, Alabama Interfaith Freedom Ride June 13 -- 16, 1961 Greyhound Washington, D.C. Tallahassee, Florida Organized Labor -- Professional Freedom Ride June 13 -- 16, 1961 Washington, D.C. St. Petersburg, Florida Missouri to Louisiana CORE Freedom Ride July 8 -- 15, 1961 St. Louis, Missouri New Orleans, Louisiana New Jersey to Arkansas CORE Freedom Ride July 13 -- 24, 1961 Newark, New Jersey Little Rock, Arkansas Los Angeles to Houston Freedom Ride August 9 -- 11, 1961 Union Railway Station Los Angeles, California Houston, Texas Monroe Freedom Ride August 17 -- September 1, 1961 Monroe, North Carolina Prayer Pilgrimage Freedom Ride September 13, 1961 Trailways New Orleans, Louisiana Jackson, Mississippi Albany Freedom Rides November 1, 1961 Trailways ( terminal only ) Atlanta, Georgia Trailways Atlanta, Georgia Albany, Georgia November 22, 1961 Trailways ( terminal only ) Albany, Georgia December 10, 1961 Central Georgia Railroad Atlanta, Georgia Albany, Georgia McComb Freedom Rides November 29, 1961 Greyhound New Orleans, Louisiana McComb, Mississippi December 1, 1961 Greyhound Baton Rouge, Louisiana McComb, Mississippi December 2, 1961 Greyhound Jackson, Mississippi McComb, Mississippi Mississippi Freedom Rides Denotes location a Freedom Rider tested the compliance of the Boynton v. Virginia ( 1960 ) decision at a terminal facility only Date Carrier or terminal Point of departure Destination Ref. Note May 24, 1961 Trailways Montgomery, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi Greyhound Montgomery, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi May 28, 1961 Greyhound Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi Trailways Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi May 30, 1961 Illinois Central Railroad New Orleans, Louisiana Jackson, Mississippi June 2, 1961 Trailways ( # 1 ) Montgomery, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi Trailways ( # 2 ) Montgomery, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi June 6, 1961 Trailways New Orleans, Louisiana Jackson, Mississippi June 7, 1961 Trailways Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi Greyhound ( terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi Hawkins Field ( airport ) St. Louis, Missouri Jackson, Mississippi June 8, 1961 Illinois Central Railroad New Orleans, Louisiana Jackson, Mississippi Hawkins Field ( airport ) Montgomery, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi June 9, 1961 Illinois Central Railroad Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi June 10, 1961 Greyhound Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi June 11, 1961 Greyhound Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi June 16, 1961 Greyhound Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi June 19, 1961 Greyhound ( terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi June 20, 1961 Illinois Central Railroad New Orleans, Louisiana Jackson, Mississippi June 21, 1961 Trailways Montgomery, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi June 23, 1961 Trailways ( terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi June 25, 1961 Illinois Central Railroad New Orleans, Louisiana Jackson, Mississippi July 2, 1961 Trailways Montgomery, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi July 5, 1961 Trailways ( terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi July 6, 1961 Illinois Central Railroad ( terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi Greyhound ( terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi July 7, 1961 Illinois Central Railroad ( terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi Trailways Montgomery, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi July 9, 1961 Trailways Montgomery, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi Illinois Central Railroad New Orleans, Louisiana Jackson, Mississippi Trailways ( terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi July 15, 1961 Greyhound New Orleans, Louisiana Jackson, Mississippi July 16, 1961 Greyhound Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi July 21, 1961 Hawkins Field ( airport terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi Greyhound Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi July 23, 1961 Trailways Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi July 24, 1961 Hawkins Field ( airport ) Montgomery, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi July 29, 1961 Greyhound Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi July 30, 1961 Illinois Central Railroad New Orleans, Louisiana Jackson, Mississippi July 31, 1961 Greyhound ( terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi August 5, 1961 Trailways ( bus and terminal ) Nashville, Tennessee Jackson, Mississippi August 13, 1961 Trailways ( terminal only ) Jackson, Mississippi Commemorations and Monument Freedom Rider plaque in Birmingham In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, Oprah Winfrey invited all living Freedom Riders to join her TV program to celebrate their legacy. The episode aired on May 4, 2011. On May 6 -- 16, 2011, 40 college students from across the United States embarked on a bus ride from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, retracing the original route of the Freedom Riders. The 2011 Student Freedom Ride, which was sponsored by PBS and American Experience, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the original Freedom Rides. Students met with civil rights leaders along the way and traveled with original Freedom Riders such as Ernest `` Rip '' Patton, Joan Mulholland, Bob Singleton, Helen Singleton, Jim Zwerg, and Charles Person. On May 16, 2011, PBS aired a documentary called Freedom Riders. On May 19 -- 21, 2011, the Freedom Rides were commemorated in Montgomery, Alabama, at the new Freedom Ride museum in the old Greyhound Bus terminal, where some of the violence had taken place in 1961. On May 22 -- 26, 2011, the arrival of the Freedom Rides in Jackson, Mississippi was commemorated with a 50th Anniversary Reunion and Conference in the city. During commemorative events in February 2013 in Montgomery, Congressman John Lewis accepted the apologies of Chief Kevin Murphy of the Montgomery Police Department ; Murphy gave Lewis his own badge, off his uniform, moving Lewis to tears. In late 2011, Palestinian activists, inspired by the freedom riders, used the same methods in Israel by boarding a bus from which they were excluded. Dan Shore 's 2013 opera Freedom Ride, set in New Orleans, celebrates the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders : The Civil Rights Musical is a theater musical retelling the story of the Freedom Rides. The musical was created by Los Angeles screenwriter / director Richard Allen, and San Diego native music artist Taran Gray. Richard and Taran finalized the music in March 2016, and by April of the same year where asked to perform excerpts from their musical as a BETA Event at the New York Musical Festival ( NYMF ). The FREEDOM RIDERS musical received NYMF 's inaugural BETA Event Award, and is scheduled to return to New York, summer of 2017, for an Off - Broadway run as part of NYMF 's festival. In January, 2017, President Barack Obama declared the Anniston, Alabama bus station the Freedom Riders National Monument. Notable Freedom Riders This section contains embedded lists that may be poorly defined, unverified or indiscriminate. Please help to clean it up to meet Wikipedia 's quality standards. Where appropriate, incorporate items into the main body of the article. ( July 2015 ) Zev Aelony James Bevel Malcolm Boyd Amos C. Brown Stokely Carmichael William Sloane Coffin James Farmer Bob Filner James Forman Mary Hamilton William E. Harbour Genevieve Hughes Bernard Lafayette James Lawson John Lewis Robert Martinson Salynn McCollum Charles McDew Diane Nash Charles Neblett Wally Nelson James Peck Charles Person Robert Laughlin Pierson John Curtis Raines Cordell Reagon Winonah Myers Charles Sherrod Fred Shuttlesworth Carol Ruth Silver Helen Singleton George Bundy Smith Ruby Doris Smith - Robinson Daniel N. Stern John Charles Taylor Hank Thomas Joan Trumpauer Mulholland C.T. Vivian Wyatt Tee Walker James Zwerg See also `` He Was My Brother '', a Simon & Garfunkel song about the Freedom Riders Breach of Peace, 2008 book Reverse freedom rides Freedom Ride ( Australia ) Notes Jump up ^ Included 16 participants - Louis Adams, Dennis Banks, Ernest Bromley, Joseph Felmet, George Houser, Homer A. Jack, Andrew S. Johnson, Conrad Lynn, Wally Nelson, James Peck, Worth Randle, Igal Roodenko, Bayard Rustin, Eugene Stanley, William Worthy and Nathan Wright. ^ Jump up to : Included 18 participants - Frances Bergman, Walter Bergman, Albert Bigelow, Ed Blankenheim, Benjamin Elton Cox, James Farmer, Robert G. ( Gus ) Griffin, Herman K. Harris, Genevieve Hughes, John Lewis, Jimmy McDonald, Ivor ( Jerry ) Moore, Mae Frances Moultrie, James Peck, Joseph Perkins, Charles Person, Isaac ( Ike ) Reynolds and Hank Thomas. Jump up ^ Included 23 participants - William Barbee, James Bevel, Paul Brooks, Catherine Burks - Brooks, Carl Bush, Charles Butler, Joseph Carter, Allen Cason Jr., Lucretia Collins, Rudolph Graham, William E. Harbour, Susan Hermann, Patricia Jenkins, Bernard Lafayette, Frederick Leonard, John Lewis, Salynn McCollum, William B. Mitchell Jr., Etta Simpson, Ruby Doris Smith - Robinson, Susan Wilbur, Clarence M. Wright and James Zwerg. Jump up ^ Included 7 participants - Clyde Carter, William Sloane Coffin, Joseph Charles Jones, John Maguire, Gaylord Noyce, George B. Smith and David E. Smith. Jump up ^ Included 18 participants - C. Donald Alstork, Robert McAfee Brown, John Collier, Israel S. Dresner, Malcolm Evans, Martin Freedman, Arthur L. Hardge, Wayne `` Chris '' Clyde Hartmire Jr., George Leake, Allan Levine, Petty McKinney, Walter Plaut, Henry Proctor, Ralph Lord Roy, Perry A. Smith III, Robert J. Stone, A. McRaven ( Mack ) Warner and Edward White. Jump up ^ Included 14 participants - Jerald Bobrow, Herbert Callender, Ralph Diamond, Joyce Lebowitz, Sheree Massaquoi, Edward Morton, Gordon Negen, James O'Connor, Francis Randall, Laura Randall, Leslie Smith, Daniel N. Stern, Dupree White and Benny Winston. Jump up ^ Included 5 participants - Benjamin Elton Cox, Annie Lumpkin, Bliss Anne Malone, John Curtis Raines and Janet Reinitz. Jump up ^ Included 5 participants - John C. Harvard, Sidney Shanken, Woollcott Smith, Herman ( Chaim ) S. Stern and Hank Thomas. Jump up ^ Included 18 participants - Charles Berrard, Marjorie Dunson, Robert Farrell, Herbert Hamilton, Willie Handy, Holly Hogrobrooks, John Hutchins, Eddie Jones, Robert E. Jones, Robert Paul Kaufman, Ellen Kleinman, Pat Kovner, Ronald La Bostrie, Steven McNichols, Marian Moody, Beverly Radcliffe, Steven Sanfield and Joseph McClendon Stevenson. Jump up ^ Included 19 participants - Robert M. Baum, Edward J. Bromberg, Paul Brooks, Charles Butler, Price Chatham, Paul David Dietrich, James Forman, Richard P. Griswold, Larry Fred Hunter, Edward W. Kale, Frederick Leonard, John Lowry, William Carl Mahoney, Joseph John Michael McDonald, David Kerr Morton, Heath Cliff Rush, Kenneth Martin Shilman, Daniel Ray Thompson and LeRoy Glenn Wright. Jump up ^ Included 15 participants - Gilbert S. Avery III, Myron B. Bloy Jr., James Pleasant Breeden, John Crocker Jr., James Walker Evans, John Marvin Evans, Quinland Reeves Gordon, James Garrard Jones, John Burnett Morris, Robert Laughlin Pierson, Geoffrey Sedgewick Simpson, Robert Page Taylor, William Adrew Wendt, Vernon P. Woodward and Merrill Orne Young. Jump up ^ Included 4 participants - James Bevel, James Forman, Joseph Charles Jones and Bernard Lafayette Jump up ^ Included 3 participants - Salynn McCollum, Cordell Reagon and Charles Sherrod. Jump up ^ Included 5 participants - Julian Carswell, Bertha Gober, Blanton Hall, Evelyn Toney and Eddie Wilson. Jump up ^ Included 9 participants - Joan Browning, Norma F. Collins, James Forman, Sandra Cason `` Casey '' Hayden, Tom Hayden, Per Laursen, Bernard Lee, Lenora Taitt and Robert Zellner. Jump up ^ Included 5 participants - George Raymond Jr., Doratha Smith, Jerome H. Smith, Alice Thompson and Thomas Valentine. Jump up ^ Included 6 participants - Willie Bradford, Thomas Peete, George Raymond Jr., Claude Reese, Patricia Tate and Jean Thompson. Jump up ^ Included 5 participants - James Burnham, Jerome Byrd, MacArthur Cotton, Thomas Gaither and Joe Lewis. Jump up ^ Included 12 participants - Julia Aaron, Alexander M. Anderson, Harold Andrews, James Bevel, Joseph Carter, Dave Dennis, Paul David Dietrich, Bernard Lafayette, James Lawson, Jean Catherine Thompson, C.T. Vivian, Matthew Walker Jr. Jump up ^ Included 15 participants - Peter M. Ackerberg, Doris Castle, Lucretia R. Collins, John Lee Copeland, Dion Tyrone Diamond, Grady H. Donald, James Farmer, Frank George Holloway, John Lewis, John H. Moody Jr., Ernest ( Rip ) Patton Jr., Jerome H. Smith, Clarence Lloyd Thomas, Hank Thomas and LeRoy Glenn Wright. Jump up ^ Included 9 participants - Catherine Burks - Brooks, William E. Harbour, Frederick Leonard, Lester G. McKinnie, William B. Mitchell Jr., Etta Simpson, Mary J. Smith, Fances L. Wilson and Clarence M. Wright. Jump up ^ Included 8 participants - Allen Cason Jr., Albert Lee Dunn, David B. Fankhauser, Franklin W. Hunt, Larry Fred Hunter, Pauline Edythe Knight, William Carl Mahoney and Charles David Myers. Jump up ^ Included 8 participants - James Keet Davis Jr., Glenda Jean Gaither, Paul S. Green, Joe Henry Griffith, Charles Haynie, Robert Lawrence Heller, Sandra Marie Nixon and Peter Sterling. Jump up ^ Included 6 participants - Charles Butler, Price Chatham, Joseph John Michael McDonald, Meryle Joy Reagon, Kenneth Martin Shilman and Ruby Doris Smith - Robinson. Jump up ^ Included 8 participants - Ralph Fertig, Richard LeRoy Gleason, Jesse J. Harris, Cordell Reagon, Carolyn Yvonne Reed, Felix Jacques Singer, Leslie Word and Elizabeth Porter Wyckoff. Jump up ^ Included 7 participants - Johnny Frank Ashford, Abraham Bassfordt, James Thomas McDonough, Terry John Sullivan, Shirley Thompson, James Robert Wahlstrom and Ernest Newell Weber. Jump up ^ Included 6 participants - John Gager, Reginald Malcolm Green, Edward W. Kale, Raymond B. Randolph Jr., Carol Ruth Silver and Obadiah Lee Simms. Jump up ^ Included 1 participant - Michael Audain. Jump up ^ Included 3 participants - Gwendolyn C. Jenkins, Robert L. Jenkins and Ralph Edward Washington. Jump up ^ Included 9 participants - Travis O. Britt, Stokely Carmichael, Gwendolyn T. Greene, Teri Susan Perlman, Jane Ellen Rosett, Jan Leighton Triggs, Joan Harris Trumpauer, Robert Wesby and Helene Dorothy Wilson. Jump up ^ Included 2 participants - Mark Lane and Percy Sutton. Jump up ^ Included 5 participants - Margaret Winonah Beamer, Edward J. Bromberg, Patricia Elaine Bryant, Del Greenblatt and Heath Cliff Rush. Jump up ^ Included 6 participants - Leora Berman, Stephen John Green, Richard P. Giswold, Leon Daniel Horne, Katherine Pleune and Lowell A. Woods Jr. Jump up ^ Included 7 participants - Zev Aelony, Robert M. Baum, Marvin Allen Davidov, David Kerr Morton, Claire O'Connor, Daniel Ray Thompson and Eugine John Uphoff. Jump up ^ Included 5 participants - Elizabeth S. Adler, Bob Filner, Elizabeth Slade Hirschfeld, Karen Elizabeth Kytle and Leon N. Rice. Jump up ^ Included 1 participant - Eugene Levine. Jump up ^ Included 13 participants - Rita J. Carter, Margaret Ann Kerr, Robert Martinson, Paul Duncan McConnell, Frederick Dean Muntean, Grant Harland Muse Jr., Lestra Alene Peterson, Joan Pleune, Joseph Marion Pratt, Jorgia B. Yvonne Siegel, Buren Lewis Teale, Lawrence Triss Jr. and Thomas Van Roland. Jump up ^ Included 9 participants - Miriam ( Mimi ) Feingold, Judith Ann Frieze, Margaret Burr Leonard, Samuel Timothy Nash, Henry Schwarzschild, Leon Felton Smith Jr., Theresa Edwards Walker, Wyatt Tee Walker and Melvin Lorenzo White. Jump up ^ Included 4 participants - Thomas Madison Armstrong III, Mary Magdalene Harrison, Elnora R. Price and Joseph Lee Ross. Jump up ^ Included 20 participants - George Marion Blevins, Gloria Leevare - Dee Bouknight, Arthur Brooks Jr., John Luther Dolan, Mary Lucille Hamilton, Gordon Lau Harris, Louise Jean Inghram, Frank Johnson, Marian Alice Kendall, Norma Libson, Claude Albert Liggins, Eddora Mae Manning, Robert William Mason, Fank Arthur Nelson, Janice Louise Rogers, John Copeland Rogers, Marica Arlene Rosenbaum, Wayne Leslie Taylor, Richard Thorne and Claire Drew Toombs. Jump up ^ Included 5 participants - Barbara Jane Kay, Robert Allen Miller, Michael Leon Pritchard, Peter Harry Stoner and Leotis Thornton. Jump up ^ Included 9 participants - Robert Earl Bass, Ralph Floyd, Eugene Lee, Marshall Bennett, Miller G. Green Jr., Robert Lee Green, Jesse L. Harris, Percy Lee Johnson and James Wilson Jones. Jump up ^ Included 6 participants - Frank Caston, Frankie Lee Griffin, Alpha Zara Palmer, West Davis Phillips, Tommie Watts Jr. and Mack Charles Wells. Jump up ^ Included 6 participants - Alfonzo Denson Jr., Samuel Givens, Landy McNair Jr., Earl Vance Jr., Hezekiah Watkins and Paul Edward Young. Jump up ^ Included 1 participant - Morton Bruce Slater. Jump up ^ Included 8 participants - Charles Biggers, Elmer L. Brown, William Walter Hansen Jr., John Lowry, Norma Matzkin, Isaac ( Ike ) Reynolds Jr., Daniel Stevens and Willie James Thomas. Jump up ^ Included 8 participants - Daniel E. Bukholder, Lionel Goldbart, Albert Forrest Gordon, Stephen Greenstein, Jeanne H. Herrick, Saul Bernard Manfield, Ralph Robert Rogers and Lula Mae White. Jump up ^ Included 9 participants - Patricia Dale Baskerville, Larry Bell, Tommie Eldridge Brashear, Edmond Dalbert Jr., Reginald Jackson, Edward B. Johnson, Philip Jonathan Perkins, Roena Rand and John Charles Taylor Jr. Jump up ^ Included 11 participants - Leo Vone Blue, Mildred Juanita Blue, Fred Douglas Clark, Jessie James Davis, Gainnel Hayes, Andrew Horne Jr., Erma Lee Horne, Delores Williams Lynch, Henry Rosell, Oneal Vance and Joe Watts Jr. Jump up ^ Included 12 participants - Carroll Gary Barber, Charles Henry Booth, Ray Allen Cooper, Marilyn Irene Eisenberg, Robert Lewis Owens, Jean Estil Kidwell Pestana, David Lering Richards, Rose Schorr Rosenberg, Leon Russ Jr., Leo Vernon Washington, Douglas Albert Williams and Jack Mikhail Wolfson. Jump up ^ Included 8 participants - James Emerson Dennis, Mary Freelon, Phillip Jay Havey, Rudolph Mitaritonna, Shirley B. Smith, Willard Hooker Svanoe, James Edward Warren and Lewis Richard Zuchman. Jump up ^ Included 9 participants - James T. Carey, Francis L. Geddes, Joseph Henry Gumbiner, Mary Jorgensen, Russell F. Jorgensen, Allan Levine, Orville B. Luster, Charles G. Sellers and John R. Washington. Jump up ^ Included 4 participants - Paul Breines, Donna Sage Garde, Joel Ben Greenberg and Ruth Esther Moskowitz. Jump up ^ Included 7 participants - Albert Roy Huddleston, Margaret Ihra, Candida Lall, Morton G. Linder, Michael Harry Powell, Alexander Weiss and Ralph Alan Williams. Jump up ^ Included 4 participants - Alphonso Kelly Petway, Kredelle Petway, Matthew Petway and Cecil A. Thomas. Jump up ^ Included 10 participants - Byron Baer, Hilmar Ehrenfreid Pabel, Catherine Jo Prensky, Sally Jane Rowley, Judith Norene Scroggins, Rick Stanley Sheviakov, Woollcott Smith, Widijonaiko Tjokroadisunatto, Norma Wagner and Ellen Lee Ziskind. Jump up ^ Included 15 participants - Albert Barough, Winston Fuller, Joseph Edward Gerbac, Michael Grubbs, Alan Kaufman, William Leons, Herbert S. Mann, Max Gregory Pavesic, Philip M. Posner, Helen Singleton, Robert Singleton, Richard C. Steward, Lonnie Thurman, Sam Joe Townsend and Tanya Wren. Jump up ^ Included 1 participant - James Robert Wahlstrom. Jump up ^ Included 2 participants - Earl C. Bohannon and Norma Wagner. Jump up ^ Included 2 participants - George Raymond Jr. and Pauline K. Sims. References Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 533 -- 587. Jump up ^ Upchurch, p. 14. Jump up ^ 364 U.S. Jump up ^ 328 U.S. 373 ( 1946 ) ; also Morgan v. Virginia. Law.cornell.edu. Retrieved December 12, 2011. Jump up ^ `` The Freedom Rides ''. Congress of Racial Equality. Retrieved March 20, 2011. Jump up ^ `` 1961 Freedom Rides Map '', Library of Congress Jump up ^ Catsam. Jump up ^ `` Journey of Reconciliation ''. Spartacus Educational. Archived from the original on May 4, 2008. Retrieved April 29, 2008. Jump up ^ Freedom Riders Freedom Rider, PBS. Jump up ^ `` Civil Rights Rider Keeps Fight Alive ''. Star - News. June 30, 1983. p. 4A. Retrieved April 10, 2010. ^ Jump up to : `` '' Freedom Riders, '' WGBH American Experience ``. PBS. Retrieved December 12, 2011. ^ Jump up to : `` Get On the Bus : The Freedom Riders of 1961 ''. NPR. Retrieved July 30, 2008. Jump up ^ Photo of a Greyhound bus firebombed by a mob in Anniston, Alabama Archived June 15, 2007, at the Wayback Machine... Retrieved February 1, 2010. Jump up ^ Branch, pp. 412 -- 450. Jump up ^. `` With the police holding back the jeering crowd, and with the deacons openly displaying their weapons, the weary but relieved Riders piled into the cars, which promptly drove off into the gathering dusk. ' We walked right between those Ku Klux, ' Buck Johnson later recalled. ' Some of them had clubs. There were some deputies too. You could n't tell the deputies from the Ku Klux. ' `` Get On the Bus : The Freedom Riders of 1961 ''. NPR. Retrieved July 30, 2008. ^ Jump up to : Freedom Rides ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans. Jump up ^ Photo of James Peck after being attacked in Birmingham, Alabama Archived 2016 - 03 - 03 at the Wayback Machine., University of California. Retrieved February 1, 2010. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 160. Jump up ^ Branch, p. 423. Jump up ^ Fankhauser, David. `` SNCC GETS INVOLVED IN THE FREEDOM RIDES ''. Freedom Rides. David Fankhauser. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2013. Jump up ^ Joan Biskupic ( April 15, 2002 ). Ex-Supreme Court Justice Byron White dies. USA Today. Retrieved October 20, 2008. Jump up ^ Photo of Jim Zwerg in the hospital, beaten and bruised. Retrieved February 1, 2010. Jump up ^ Bernard Lafayette Jr., `` The Siege of the Freedom Riders '', Opinion page, New York Times, May 19, 2011, carried at blog for Baltimore Nonviolence Center, accessed February 24, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Witness : Freedom Riders '', BBC, broadcast August 31, 2011, accessed February 24, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez Speaks at the All People 's Program Honoring the Freedom Riders ''. US Department of Justice. Retrieved December 12, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Freedom Riders Head for Mississippi ''. The Miami News. Associated Press. May 24, 1961. Retrieved November 27, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Mississippi Arrests 12 Freedom Riders ''. The Miami News. Associated Press. May 24, 1961. Retrieved November 27, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Obituary of Gaylord Brewster Noyce ''. 2009. Archived from the original on August 18, 2009. Retrieved October 28, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Freedom Riders ''. American Experience, PBS. 2011. Jump up ^ Morris, pp. 22 - 23. Jump up ^ McMillen, Neil R. ( August 1977 ). `` Black Enfranchisement in Mississippi : Federal Enforcement and Black Protest in the 1960s ''. The Journal of Southern History. 43 ( 3 ) : 351 -- 72. JSTOR 2207646. Jump up ^ Mort, Dave, Bye Bye Miss American Pie ( 2008 ). ISBN 9789780956950 Jump up ^ Freedom Ride Map. Retrieved February 1, 2010. Jump up ^ Morgenroth, pp. 102 -- 103. Jump up ^ `` Dresner v. City of Tallahassee, 375 U.S. 136, 11L ed 2d 208, 84 S. CT. 235 ( 1963 ) ''. 1963. Retrieved May 1, 2011. Jump up ^ Tyson, pp. 262 -- 264. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 403 -- 417. Jump up ^ `` Lowry Sees ' Threat of Violence ' Necessary to Fight Segregation '', The Harvard Crimson, February 13, 1962 ; `` Letter from Benjamin Mays to MLK Regarding Monroe Defense Committee - December 14, 1961 '' Jump up ^ Forman, p. 207. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 438. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 42, 533 -- 534. Jump up ^ Thurber, Jon ( March 4, 2005 ). `` Nathan Wright Jr., 81 ; Minister Was Figure in 1960s Black Power Debate ''. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 November 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 319. Jump up ^ Martin, Douglas ( October 10, 1999 ). `` Walter Bergman, Champion Of Civil Liberties, Dies at 100 ''. New York Times. Retrieved 30 November 2016. Jump up ^ Wood, Paul ( June 16, 2011 ). `` Life Remembered : Ben Cox, One of Freedom Riders ''. News - Gazette. Retrieved 30 November 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 113, 535 -- 536. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 537 -- 538. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 542. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 552 -- 554. Jump up ^ `` Rabbi Walter Plaut, 44, Dead ''. New York Times. January 4, 1964. Retrieved 5 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 555 -- 556. Jump up ^ Sullivan, Ronald ( September 29, 1993 ). `` Makaza Kumanyika, 60, Leader Of Civil Rights Protests in 1960 's ''. New York Times. Retrieved 5 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 566 -- 567. Jump up ^ Rogers, Alexis ( February 23, 2016 ). `` Freedom Riders : The 5 Who Forever Changed Arkansas ''. KATV ABC 7. Retrieved 8 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 567 -- 568. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 577 -- 579. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 579 -- 581. ^ Jump up to : Alfonso, Fernando III ( May 2, 2011 ). `` Syracuse Minister Who Took Part in Civil Rights Freedom Rides Featured in WCNY Show ''. Syracuse.com. Retrieved 8 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 581 -- 582. Jump up ^ Marquard, Bryan ( January 6, 2012 ). `` Rev. John Crocker Jr., 88 ; Activist, College Chaplain ''. Boston Globe. Retrieved 8 December 2016. Jump up ^ Smith, J.Y. ( July 9, 2001 ). `` Rev. William Wendt Dies at 81 ''. Washington Post. Retrieved 8 December 2016. ^ Jump up to : Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 583. ^ Jump up to : Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 584. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 585 - 586. Jump up ^ Ortiz, Keldy ( January 20, 2013 ). `` Segregated Victoria Shaped Civil Rights Leader 's Life ''. Victoria Advocate. Retrieved 9 December 2016. Jump up ^ Webster, Richard A. ( September 14, 2015 ). `` Alice Thompson, 75, Remembered as Civil Rights ' Warrior ' ''. NOLA.com. Retrieved 9 December 2016. Jump up ^ Webster, Richard A. ( July 1, 2014 ). `` New Orleans Freedom Riders and the Fight for Civil Rights ''. NOLA.com. Retrieved 9 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 584 -- 585. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 585. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 539 -- 540. Jump up ^ Tamburin, Adam. `` Civil Rights Activist Matthew Walker Jr. Dead at 74 ''. Tennessean. Retrieved 30 November 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 540 -- 541. Jump up ^ Thomas - Lester, Avis ( May 31, 2011 ). `` Local Freedom Riders Remember the Movement ''. Washington Post. Retrieved 7 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 543 -- 544. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 544. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 545. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 546. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 546 -- 547. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 547 -- 548. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 548 -- 549. Jump up ^ Paulson, Kaitlin ( October 29, 2008 ). `` Former Freedom Rider Addresses Yalies ''. Yale Daily News. Retrieved 7 December 2016. ^ Jump up to : Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 549. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 550. Jump up ^ Barnum, Art ; Biddle, Fred Marc ( July 23, 1988 ). `` Activist Pastor Slain, Suspect Held ''. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 1 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 551. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 551 -- 552. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 552. Jump up ^ Tevlin, Jon ( May 10, 2011 ). `` Minnesota Freedom Rider has Remained True to the Cause ''. StarTribune. Retrieved 5 December 2016. ^ Jump up to : Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 556. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 557. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 557 -- 558. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 559. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 559 -- 561. Jump up ^ `` Mary Hamilton Wesley, 67 ; Civil Rights Activist Challenged Segregation ''. Los Angeles Times. December 12, 2002. Retrieved 7 December 2016. Jump up ^ Yeager, Andrew ( July 12, 2013 ). `` Mary Hamilton, The Woman Who Put The ' Miss ' In Court ''. NPR. Retrieved 7 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 561. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 561 -- 562. Jump up ^ Mitchell, Jerry ( January 29, 2015 ). `` Longtime Civil Rights Activist Jessie Harris Dies ''. Clarion - Ledger. Retrieved 1 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 562. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 562 -- 563. Jump up ^ Watson, Dylan ( January 17, 2011 ). `` Hezekiah Watkins ''. Jackson Free Press. Retrieved 7 December 2016. ^ Jump up to : Luster, Marla ( February 16, 2002 ). `` Freedom Riders Urge Students to Keep Fighting ''. Tuscaloosa News. Retrieved 8 December 2016. ^ Jump up to : Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 564. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 563. ^ Jump up to : Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 565. Jump up ^ Adams, Ann - Marie ( October 28, 2013 ). `` Freedom Rider Lula Mae White Comes to Hartford Public Library ''. Hartford Guardian. Retrieved 7 December 2016. Jump up ^ McLoughlin, Pamela ( February 26, 2012 ). `` Retired New Haven Teacher Taught, Lived History as Member of Freedom Riders ''. New Haven Register. Retrieved 7 December 2016. Jump up ^ Treadway, Chris ( April 1, 2014 ). `` John Taylor, a 1961 Freedom Rider, dies at 78 ''. Mercury News. Retrieved 27 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 568 -- 569. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 569 -- 570. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 570 -- 571. Jump up ^ `` Rabbi Joseph H. Gumbiner ; Civil Rights Activist ''. Los Angeles Times. March 27, 1993. Retrieved 8 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 571. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 572. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 573. Jump up ^ `` The Petways - Kredelle Petway Dendy and Rev. Alfonso K. Petway ''. Vimeo. Winter Institute. Retrieved 8 December 2016. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 573 -- 574. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 574 -- 576. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 576. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 577. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), p. 579. Jump up ^ `` A Tribute to Freedom Riders ''. The Oprah Winfrey Show. Retrieved March 3, 2013. Jump up ^ American Experience - Student Freedom Ride 2011 PBS.org Jump up ^ Kelly, Brooke. `` ' 61 Freedom Riders Recount Fear, Pride at Mississippi Commemoration. '' Washington Informer, May 26, 2011 : 1 +. Newspaper Source Plus. Web. May 30, 2013. Jump up ^ Okarmus, Matt ( March 3, 2013 ). `` MPD Apologizes to Freedom Riders ''. Montgomery Advertiser. pp. 1 -- 2. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved March 3, 2013. Jump up ^ Greenberg, Joel ( November 15, 2011 ). `` Palestinian Freedom Riders Arrested on Bus to Jerusalem ''. Washington Post. Jump up ^ Collard, Rebecca ( November 15, 2011 ). `` Palestinian freedom riders board Israeli buses in protest ''. Christian Science Monitor. Jump up ^ `` Palestinian ' freedom riders ' board settlers ' bus ''. BBC News. November 15, 2011. Jump up ^ Waddington, Chris ( October 15, 2011 ). `` Xavier Prof Pens Opera Set in New Orleans during Civil Rights Struggles ''. New Orleans Times - Picayune. Retrieved 23 October 2011. Jump up ^ Desk, BWW News. `` FREEDOM RIDERS to Play NYMF ''. BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2017 - 03 - 16. Jump up ^ Hebert, James. `` Civil - rights musical rolling to NYC ''. sandiegouniontribune.com. Retrieved 2017 - 03 - 16. Jump up ^ Desk, BWW News. `` FREEDOM RIDERS Among NYMF 's 2016 Gala Award Winners ''. BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2017 - 03 - 16. Jump up ^ `` The Body Politic Is Part of Initial NYMF Lineup Playbill ''. Playbill. Retrieved 2017 - 03 - 16. Jump up ^ Mcfadden, Robert D. ( 2015 - 03 - 02 ). `` Rev. Malcolm Boyd, an Author, Activist and Counterculture Rebel, Dies at 91 ''. The New York Times. ISSN 0362 - 4331. Retrieved 2017 - 02 - 05. Jump up ^ Yerkey, Gary G. ( 2013 - 05 - 10 ). `` Malcolm Boyd brought Christianity into the streets to promote civil rights ''. Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882 - 7729. Retrieved 2017 - 02 - 05. Jump up ^ Christensen, Jen ( November 3, 2012 ). `` Civil Rights Icon Fighting for Change One Registered Voter at a Time ''. CNN. Jump up ^ Charney, Marc D. ( 2006 - 04 - 13 ). `` Rev. William Sloane Coffin Dies at 81 ; Fought for Civil Rights and Against a War ''. The New York Times. ISSN 0362 - 4331. Retrieved 2017 - 02 - 12. Jump up ^ `` USF 's Ray Arsenault watches ' Freedom Riders ' book gain steam ''. Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2017 - 02 - 13. Jump up ^ Arsenault & ( 2006 ), pp. 543. Bibliography Arsenault, Raymond ( 2006 ). Freedom Riders : 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199755813. Branch, Taylor ( 2007 ). Parting the Waters : America in the King Years 1954 - 63. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781416558682. Forman, James ( 1972 ). The Making of Black Revolutionaries. University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295976594. Morgenroth, Florence ( 1966 ). Organization and Activities of the American Civil Liberties Union in Miami, 1955 -- 1966 ( M.A. thesis ). University of Miami. OCLC 15796239. Morris, Tiyi ( 2015 ). Womanpower Unlimited and the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi. Athens, Georgia : The University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8203 - 4731 - 8. Tyson, Timothy B. ( 2001 ). Radio Free Dixie : Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807849231. Upchurch, Thomas Adams ( 2008 ). Race Relations in the United States, 1960 - 1980. Westport, Connecticut : Greenwood Press. p. 14. ISBN 9780313341717. Further reading Scholarly works Barnes, Catherine A. ( 1983 ). Journey from Jim Crow : The Desegregation of Southern Transit. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231053808. Catsam, Derek ( 2009 ). Freedom 's Main Line : The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813173108. Etheridge, Eric ; Wilkins, Roger ; McWhorter, Diane ( 2008 ). Breach of Peace : Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders. Atlas & Company. ISBN 9780977743391. Garrow, David J. ( 1989 ). Birmingham, Alabama, 1956 - 1963 : The Black Struggle for Civil Rights. Carlson Publisher. ISBN 9780926019041. Halberstam, David ( 1999 ). The Children. Fawcett Books. ISBN 9780449004395. McWhorter, Diane ( 2001 ). Carry Me Home : Birmingham, Alabama : The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780743217729. Niven, David ( 2003 ). The Politics of Injustice : The Kennedys, the Freedom Rides, and the Electoral Consequences of a Moral Compromise. University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 9781572332126. Autobiographies and memoirs Armstrong, Thomas M. ; Bell, Natalie R. ( 2011 ). Autobiography of a Freedom Rider : My Life as a Foot Soldier for Civil Rights. Health Communications. ISBN 9780757316036. Carmichael, Stokely ; Thelwell, Michael ( 2003 ). Ready for Revolution : The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael ( Kwame Ture ). New York : Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780684850030. Farmer, James ( 1985 ). Lay Bare the Heart : An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement. Texas Christian University Press. ISBN 9780875651880. Lewis, John ; D'Orso, Michael ( 1998 ). Walking with the Wind : A Memoir of the Movement. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780156007085. Peck, James ( 1962 ). Freedom Ride. Simon and Schuster. OCLC 890013. Silver, Carol Ruth ( 2014 ). Freedom Rider Diary : Smuggled Notes from Parchman Prison. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781617038877. Zellner, Bob ( 2011 ). The Wrong Side of Murder Creek : A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement. NewSouth Books. ISBN 9781603061049. Other works Carawan, Guy ; Carawan, Candie, eds. ( 2008 ). `` 1961 : Freedom Rides ''. Sing for Freedom : The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs. NewSouth Books. ISBN 9781588381934. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Freedom Rides. `` Freedom Rides : Recollections by David Fankhauser '' Freedom Rides of 1961 ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans Get On the Bus : The Freedom Riders of 1961, National Public Radio NEVER - SEEN : MLK & the Freedom Rides - slideshow by Life magazine You Do n't Have to Ride Jim Crow ! New Hampshire Public Television / American Public Television documentary of the Journey of Reconciliation Eyes on the Prize, Blackside, Inc. / PBS documentary of the Civil Rights Movement ( Episode 3 is the Freedom Rides ) `` JFK, Freedom Riders, and the Civil Rights Movement '' EDSITEment lesson plan `` The Freedom Riders and the Popular Music of the Civil Rights '' EDSITEment lesson plan Civil Rights Era Mug Shots, Montgomery County Sheriff 's Office, Alabama Department of Archives & History Spears, Ellen ( June 29, 2009 ). `` Memorializing the Freedom Riders ''. Southern Spaces. Interview with Jim Zwerg, Civil Rights Activist, United States. People 's Century television series. PBS and BBC The Freedom Riders - slideshow by Life magazine FBI files on the Freedom Riders Freedom Rider Articles. Online collection of Ride - related articles written by Freedom Riders ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans. Curated links to Freedom Riders archival material, Civil Rights Digital Library. Civil Rights Activist Bob Zellner interviewed on Conversations from Penn State Freedom Riders historical marker in Villa Rica, Georgia CORE 's Route 40 Project campaign for desegregation of Maryland highway, 1961 African - American civil rights movement ( 1954 -- 1968 ) Notable events ( timeline ) 1954 -- 1959 Brown v. Board of Education Bolling v. Sharpe Briggs v. Elliott Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County Gebhart v. Belton Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company Emmett Till Montgomery bus boycott Browder v. Gayle Tallahassee bus boycott Mansfield school desegregation 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom `` Give Us the Ballot '' Royal Ice Cream sit - in Little Rock Nine National Guard blockade Civil Rights Act of 1957 Kissing Case Biloxi wade - ins 1960 -- 1963 Greensboro sit - ins Nashville sit - ins Sit - in movement Civil Rights Act of 1960 Gomillion v. Lightfoot Boynton v. Virginia Rock Hill sit - ins Robert F. Kennedy 's Law Day Address Freedom Rides attacks Garner v. Louisiana Albany Movement University of Chicago sit - ins `` Second Emancipation Proclamation '' Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot `` Segregation now, segregation forever '' Stand in the Schoolhouse Door 1963 Birmingham campaign Letter from Birmingham Jail Children 's Crusade Birmingham riot 16th Street Baptist Church bombing John F. Kennedy 's Report to the American People on Civil Rights March on Washington `` I Have a Dream '' St. Augustine movement 1964 -- 1968 Twenty - fourth Amendment Bloody Tuesday Freedom Summer workers ' murders Civil Rights Act of 1964 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches `` How Long, Not Long '' Voting Rights Act of 1965 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections March Against Fear White House Conference on Civil Rights Chicago Freedom Movement / Chicago open housing movement Memphis sanitation strike King assassination funeral riots Poor People 's Campaign Civil Rights Act of 1968 Green v. County School Board of New Kent County Activist groups Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights Atlanta Student Movement Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Committee on Appeal for Human Rights Council for United Civil Rights Leadership Dallas County Voters League Deacons for Defense and Justice Georgia Council on Human Relations Highlander Folk School Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Montgomery Improvement Association Nashville Student Movement NAACP Youth Council Northern Student Movement National Council of Negro Women National Urban League Operation Breadbasket Regional Council of Negro Leadership Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Southern Regional Council Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) The Freedom Singers Wednesdays in Mississippi Women 's Political Council Activists Ralph Abernathy Victoria Gray Adams Zev Aelony Mathew Ahmann William G. Anderson Gwendolyn Armstrong Arnold Aronson Ella Baker Marion Barry Daisy Bates Harry Belafonte James Bevel Claude Black Gloria Blackwell Randolph Blackwell Unita Blackwell Ezell Blair Jr. Joanne Bland Julian Bond Joseph E. Boone William Holmes Borders Amelia Boynton Raylawni Branch Ruby Bridges Aurelia Browder H. Rap Brown Guy Carawan Stokely Carmichael Johnnie Carr James Chaney J.L. Chestnut Colia Lafayette Clark Ramsey Clark Septima Clark Xernona Clayton Eldridge Cleaver Kathleen Cleaver Charles E. Cobb Jr. Annie Lee Cooper Dorothy Cotton Claudette Colvin Vernon Dahmer Jonathan Daniels Joseph DeLaine Dave Dennis Annie Devine Patricia Stephens Due Charles Evers Medgar Evers Myrlie Evers - Williams Chuck Fager James Farmer Walter E. Fauntroy James Forman Marie Foster Golden Frinks Andrew Goodman Fred Gray Jack Greenberg Dick Gregory Lawrence Guyot Prathia Hall Fannie Lou Hamer William E. Harbour Vincent Harding Dorothy Height Lola Hendricks Aaron Henry Oliver Hill Donald L. Hollowell James Hood Myles Horton Zilphia Horton T.R.M. Howard Ruby Hurley Jesse Jackson Jimmie Lee Jackson Richie Jean Jackson T.J. Jemison Esau Jenkins Barbara Rose Johns Vernon Johns Frank Minis Johnson Clarence Jones Matthew Jones Vernon Jordan Tom Kahn Clyde Kennard A.D. King C.B. King Coretta Scott King Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Sr. Bernard Lafayette James Lawson Bernard Lee Sanford R. Leigh Jim Letherer Stanley Levison John Lewis Viola Liuzzo Z. Alexander Looby Joseph Lowery Clara Luper Malcolm X Mae Mallory Vivian Malone Thurgood Marshall Benjamin Mays Franklin McCain Charles McDew Ralph McGill Floyd McKissick Joseph McNeil James Meredith William Ming Jack Minnis Amzie Moore Douglas E. Moore William Lewis Moore Irene Morgan Bob Moses William Moyer Elijah Muhammad Diane Nash Charles Neblett Edgar Nixon Jack O'Dell James Orange Rosa Parks James Peck Charles Person Homer Plessy Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Fay Bellamy Powell Al Raby Lincoln Ragsdale A. Philip Randolph George Raymond Jr. Bernice Johnson Reagon Cordell Reagon James Reeb Frederick D. Reese Gloria Richardson David Richmond Bernice Robinson Jo Ann Robinson Bayard Rustin Bernie Sanders Michael Schwerner Cleveland Sellers Charles Sherrod Alexander D. Shimkin Fred Shuttlesworth Modjeska Monteith Simkins Glenn E. Smiley A. Maceo Smith Kelly Miller Smith Mary Louise Smith Maxine Smith Ruby Doris Smith - Robinson Charles Kenzie Steele Hank Thomas Dorothy Tillman A.P. Tureaud Hartman Turnbow Albert Turner C.T. Vivian Wyatt Tee Walker Hollis Watkins Walter Francis White Roy Wilkins Hosea Williams Kale Williams Robert F. Williams Andrew Young Whitney Young Sammy Younge Jr. James Zwerg Influences Nonviolence Padayatra Sermon on the Mount Mohandas K. Gandhi Ahimsa Satyagraha The Kingdom of God Is Within You Frederick Douglass W.E.B. Du Bois Related Jim Crow laws Plessy v. Ferguson Separate but equal Buchanan v. Warley Hocutt v. Wilson Sweatt v. Painter Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States Katzenbach v. McClung Loving v. Virginia Fifth Circuit Four Brown Chapel Holt Street Baptist Church Edmund Pettus Bridge March on Washington Movement African - American churches attacked Journey of Reconciliation Freedom Songs `` Kumbaya '' `` Keep Your Eyes on the Prize '' `` Oh, Freedom '' `` This Little Light of Mine '' `` We Shall Not Be Moved '' `` We Shall Overcome '' Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam `` Beyond Vietnam : A Time to Break Silence '' Watts riots Voter Education Project 1960s counterculture In popular culture King Memorial Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument Freedom Riders National Monument Civil Rights Memorial Noted historians Taylor Branch Clayborne Carson John Dittmer Michael Eric Dyson Chuck Fager Adam Fairclough David Garrow David Halberstam Vincent Harding Steven F. Lawson Doug McAdam Diane McWhorter Charles M. Payne Timothy Tyson Akinyele Umoja Movement photographers Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Freedom_Riders&oldid=814830178 '' Categories : 1961 in American politics African - American history of Alabama African - American history of Mississippi African - American history of South Carolina Bus transportation in the United States Civil rights protests in the United States Conflicts in 1961 Freedom Riders History of African - American civil rights History of the Southern United States Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links All pages needing factual verification Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from May 2013 Articles needing more detailed references Wikipedia pending changes protected pages ( level 1 ) Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from December 2016 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from May 2015 Articles needing additional references from May 2017 All articles needing additional references Articles needing cleanup from July 2015 All pages needing cleanup Wikipedia list cleanup from July 2015 Articles with unsourced statements from May 2017 All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from October 2017 Articles with permanently dead external links Talk Contents About Wikipedia Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Français Italiano Norsk Português Русский 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 11 December 2017, at 04 : 50. 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Question: when did the freedom riders start and end
Answer: May 4 – December 10, 1961