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Freedom Riders facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Exhibit on Freedom Riders - Center for Civil and Human Rights - Atlanta - Georgia - USA (33468216774)
Some of the riders

Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and years 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.

Southern local and state police considered the actions of the Freedom Riders to be criminal and arrested them in some locations. In some places, such as Birmingham, Alabama, the police worked with the Ku Klux Klan and other white people against the actions of the riders, and allowed mobs to attack the riders.

Images for kids

  • Freedom Riders state historic marker, field of bus burning in distance behind

    The Greyhound bus attack site (center) is south of Anniston on Old Birmingham Highway (right). See Freedom Riders National Monument (2017 photo)

  • 249 The Other Bus

    Violence at the Anniston Trailways Terminal, at 901 Noble St., is commemorated with a mural (2012 photo)

  • Freedom Riders attacked

    A mob of white people beat Freedom Riders in Birmingham. This picture was reclaimed by the FBI from a local journalist who also was beaten and whose camera was smashed.

  • Old Montgomery Greyhound Station May2009

    The Old Montgomery Greyhound Station, site of the May 20, 1961, violence is preserved as the Freedom Rides Museum (2011 photo)

  • George Raymond Mug

    George Raymond Jr. was a CORE activist arrested in the Trailways bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi on August 14, 1961.

  • ParchmanGateNewPhoto

    Some freedom riders were incarcerated in the Mississippi State Penitentiary

  • Civil rights activists arrested - Tallahassee (14516862961)

    Activists Patricia Stephens and Reverend Petty D. McKinney arrested in Tallahassee, Florida on June 16, 1961

  • Tri-State Trailways Jackson MS Postcard

    Tri-State Trailways depot, Jackson, Miss. (1940s Postcard)

  • Greyhound Bus Station and Restaurant, Atlanta Georgia, c. 1940 Postcard

    Atlanta, GA, Greyhound Bus Station and Restaurant, c. 1940

  • B-57, Greyhound Bus Station (NBY 813)

    Birmingham, AL, Greyhound Bus Station, c. 1950

  • Atlanta Terminal Station (c. 1949)

    Atlanta's Terminal Station, origin of a Freedom Ride on the Central of Georgia Railway. (postcard view, c. 1949)

  • One Jackson Place and Greyhound station, Jackson, MS

    Preserved Greyhound Station, Jackson, Mississippi

  • Union Bus Terminal Nashville Tenn c1940

    Bus Depot, Nashville, Tennessee c. 1940

  • NOUnionTerminal2Jan08FrontA

    New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal

  • NEW ORLEANS GREAT NORTHERN RAILROAD PASSENGER DEPOT, HINDS COUNTY, MS

    Union Station (Jackson, Mississippi)

  • Freedom Rider plaque (4653382530)

    Freedom Rider plaque in Birmingham

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Viajeros de la libertad para niños

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