The decision is made to send more groups, and to refuse immediate bail. The jails of Jackson, Mississippi are quickly filled with Freedom Riders. The State of Mississippi moves over a hundred of Freedom Riders from the two Jackson jails to the notorious Parchman Prison Farm in the Mississippi Delta, upstate rural Mississippi. Families of the arrestees, many of them college students at prestigious Northern schools, join the demand for federal protection and intervention. Labor Unions contribute to the bail fund.
Segregation is suddenly front page news across America, rather than the quiet shame of a nation.
Federal agents flock to Mississippi. President John F. Kennedy and the Attorney General, his brother, Robert Kennedy, promise an end to segregation in public places. After 40 days on the front pages of America, pursuant to plan, the Freedom Riders begin to post bail and return to their universities and other lives. Each will describe their experience as a Freedom Rider as one of the defining moments in their lives.