Civil Rights MovementFreedom Rides 1961

BY: Abbey W. and Sequoia B.

“The Movement”

http://www.tripline.net/trip/Map_of_the_Freedom_Riders_Route-1657536071131003B660B6A5907EC2AD

Start of Freedom Rides

On May 4th 1961 a group of black and white students protested the segregation at bus terminals. The students were recruited by the Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E). Their mission was to ride through the deep south to speak out against segregation in buses. They would use “White Only” restrooms and other facilities to stand against the racial discrimination. They ran into lots of violence and backlash for their actions. The organization was modeled after the the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation. The only difference was that women were not included in 1947. Goals: May 4th-17th to reach New Orleans, Louisiana from Washington D.C.

“Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor (1897-1973) stated that, although he knew the Freedom Riders were arriving and violence awaited them, he posted no police protection at the station because it was Mother’s Day.”

--History.com

5/8/2016

The Start

The Freedom Rides took place to celebrate the decision of Brown v. Board in 1954. They wanted to remind people that segregation in schools was announced unconstitutional, and so other places should be as well. Two buses left from Washington D.C and split in Atlanta where one bus went down to Montgomery, while the other headed up towards Tennessee. One bus stayed on the railways while the other stuck to the roads. The buses took off on May 4th, 1961 and planned to arrive on May 17th, 1961.

Greyhound Buses

The first rides in May 4th, through 8th, went from Washington D.C. to Charlotte, North Carolina. Through May 9th-13th, the bus travelled from Charlotte to Atlanta, Georgia. Then on May 14th, the buses reach Birmingham where they are met by the Klu Klux Klan and local police where they are viciously beaten. However, under the Kennedy Administration, they are protected and able to finish their journey to New Orleans in Louisiana.

Rationale for the Freedom Rides

Blacks needed a way to get the attention of the government's beyond the state level. They needed to influence the federal governments in order for something to be done. Their goal was to get them to strictly enforce non-segregation on buses and in all other forms of transportation.

Washington, DC, New Orleans: passing through: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

These states represent their journey through the deep south where racism was the greatest.

Farmer (CORE’s director), “We put on pressure and create a crisis (for federal leaders) and then they react.”

Outcome of First Greyhound Freedom Ride

May 23rd, 1961

The First Attacks

How it started: Incendiary bomb was thrown into the bus, smashing the rear window and causing the bus to fill up with smoke. When passengers ran out of the burning bus they were attacked by gunfire, or fists. The other bus: The bus in Anniston was also attacked as a mob of 30 KKK members showed up with baseball bats, chains and pipes. They beat everyone in sight including cameramen, and news reporters. The KKK eventually faded out as police showed up.

Impact of the Cold War on Support

● At this time in light of the Cold War, America was struggling to deal with two big issues; thermonuclear weapons, and the idea of the ‘American Dream’ in America. Domestically people began to mold this idea of living the ‘suburban dream’ where whites would live side by side without blacks, and not have to think about other issues again.

● Another issue was that teachers now had to teach their kids how to “duck and cover” because of the space race, and Sputnik catalyzing the competition.

● The French had also left Vietnam and so tensions were rising and John F. Kennedy had a lot to worry about, on top of the Civil Rights Movement.

● Not much was being done on the federal government's part because they wanted to ignore the issue until the Cold War had calmed down. African Americans in the south only had the local and states governments to rely on, but they didn’t do anything.

"For the Kennedy brothers, domestic affairs were an afterthought, and the Civil Rights Movement was an afterthought beyond an afterthought," said activist and NAACP leader Julian Bond. "Now all of a sudden the whole world was watching."

Published in the Washington Post on June 16th, 1961.

Kennedy Administration Reaction

Kennedy Administration Reaction

-Already campaigned on a relatively pro-civil rights policy -Wanted to focus on cold war politics -In reference to the Freedom Rides, Kennedy tells Harris Wofford, “Can’t you get your Goddamned friends off those buses?...Stop them.” -John Patterson (Gov. of AL) avoided calls from the President -JFK + admin worked to ensure physical safety for all Freedom Riders -Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, situated U.S. Marshals in Montgomery, AL -May 21 “siege and firebombing” of Montgomery, AL First Baptist Church -mobilized National Guard -Admin allowed imprisonment of F.R.s in Mississippi -weak breach-of-peace-charges

Kennedy Administration Reaction

-Pressured the Interstate Commerce Commission -wanted them to get rid of Jim Crow signs -end segregation of interstate bus travel facilities -Freedom Rides allowed his administration to be associated with the Civil Rights Movement -Was able to support other events fighting for equality -U of Mississippi ‘62 / U of Alabama ’63 -sent federal troops in order to protect African Americans when enrolling in the schools -June 11, 1963: delivered a speech to Congress

-asking them to pass a bill for Civil Rights -Said: “confronted primarily with a moral issue, not a legislative or political one”

Kennedy Administration Reaction Civil Rights Act of 1964

-Passed legislation was: Civil Rights Act of 1964 -brought an end to segregation in public places -banned employment segregation -race, color, religion, sex, national origin -Proposed by JFK -Received heavy opposition from Southern members of Congress -LBJ signed into law (Kennedy's successor-assassinated in ‘63) -Was the first of many additions to the Civil Rights Movement -One more popularly known was: Voting Rights Act ‘65 -”aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States”

US Marshals

Right: Kennedy meeting with the leaders of March on Washington

Outcome of the Second Freedom Ride and the SNCC

Outcome of the Second Freedom Ride

-Arrived in Anniston -Eight KKK members went aboard the bus -Beat the F.R.s very badly-some semi-conscience

in Birmingham on May 17 -Transported “fresh riders from Nashville” and John Lewis -Mob awaited them at their bus terminal

-Attacked with baseball bats, bike chains and iron pipes -Police arrested F.R.s (Protective Custody) -eight African Americans -two caucasians -Riders were driven back to Tennessee without their consent -It was either that or be released into the streets with KKK members and raging racists

SNCC: -Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee -Formed for youth involvement in the Civil Rights movement

-became a more radical movement -Born out of lunch counter sit-ins and a meeting with the SCLC - Southern Christian Leadership Conference (led by MLK, Jr. and were concerned that the youth wasn’t involved) -”encouraged those who formed SNCC to look beyond integration to broader social change and to view King’s principle of nonviolence more as a political tactic than as a way of life.” -huge part of Freedom Rides -led by James Forman, Bob Moses, and Marion Barry -directed most of black voter registration drivers -Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964: three members killed by KKK -Because of this, Dr. King and the SNCC did not get along

-SNCC refused the compromises made by the 1964 DNC (Democratic National Convention)

-Democratic Party refused to switch the fully caucasian Mississippi delegation with the integrated Freedom Democrats

-1966, Stokely Carmichael -elected head of SNCC -popularized term “Black Power” -characterized new tactics and goals

-goals included “black self-reliance and the use of violence as a legitimate means of self-defense

-H. Rap Brown- Carmichael’s successor -”Violence is as American as cherry pie” -Summer of 1967- “fires and disorders” -Led to his arrest for instigating riots -SNCC separated soon after his arrest

“I am sick and tired of being sick and tired” -Fannie Lou Hamer

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sncc

Continuing the rides...

Overall Achievement and the Shortfall of the Freedom Rides

Overall Achievement and the Shortfall of the Freedom Rides

-Kennedy -Shortfall: -Problems everywhere they went -More popular issues occurred in: -Montgomery -Anniston -Birmingham -Buses were firebombed, Riders were attacked -Riders wanted to stay peaceful and didn’t fight back -in the media they would look more helpless and it would turn “on-the-border” white people in their favor -Many were injured, many forced to take refuge in local churches, and some 300 were arrested and held in Southern jails

Outcomes of the many people who survived the freedom rides.

Because of the Civil RIghts Act of 1964, buses (and other public places) were finally desegregated

Presidential Facts

Franklin Pierce was arrested during his presidency for running a woman over with his horse

Teddy Roosevelt practiced a "the show must go on" mentality

Once while delivering a speech in Milwaukee, Roosevelt was shot in an assassination attempt. "I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot," he told the stunned audience. "I give you my word, I do not care a rap about being shot; not a rap." He went on to finish the hour and a half speech with a bullet lodged in his chest.

The first attempt to assassinate a president was on Andrew Jackson by Richard Lawrence, a house painter. Both of his guns misfired, however—an event that statisticians say could occur only once in 125,000 times. Andrew Jackson then chased Lawrence with his walking stick.

James Monroe once chased his Secretary of State out of the White House with a pair of fire tongs.

Sources

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/freedom-rides-1961 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/rides http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-rides http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/john-f-kennedy http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sncc http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/21/newsid_4350000/4350591.stm https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/freedom-riders-end-racial-segregation-southern-us-public-transit-1961 http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_freedom_rides/ http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/voting-rights-act http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Freedom_Riders.aspx#2 Free at Last? By Fred Powledge