Freedom Rides Lesson starter: Which protest of the Civil Rights movement do you believe was more...
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Transcript of Freedom Rides Lesson starter: Which protest of the Civil Rights movement do you believe was more...
Freedom RidesLesson starter:Which protest of the Civil Rights movement do you believe was more successful;• the Montgomery Bus Boycott?• the Sit Ins?
Provide reasons for your answer.
Today we will…
• Understand the events of the Freedom Rides in 1961
• Assess the importance of the protest
Background…
• A new law passed by the Supreme Court had banned segregation in public areas such as bathrooms, waiting rooms and restaurants for people travelling on inter-state buses
• A group called CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) wanted to see if segregation had really ended
What were Freedom Rides?
• 13 CORE members travelled from Washington to New Orleans in May 1961
• Along the way the Black riders would use ‘white only’ washrooms and waiting rooms
What happened?
• They were met by heavy resistance from whites along the way
• The Klan was waiting for the freedom riders in Anniston, Alabama
• The two ‘Freedom’ buses were stopped and burned
• Passengers were beaten up
• The same happened in Birmingham, Alabama
Martin Luther King was so worried about the students’ safety he urged them to stop the Freedom Rides
Government involvement
• JFK sent an advisor to investigate the freedom rides
• When he arrived, he was beaten unconscious
• Media coverage of the violence the Freedom Riders met was widespread
• Police escorts were sent for the riders (but this did not end violence)
• CORE and another group the SNCC refused to end the Freedom Rides even though they were urged to by MLK, government, authorities etc
• Eventually, an order was sent to all interstate bus companies to end segregation at bus stations
• By late 1961 this extended to airports and railway stations
• Freedom Rides Good
• Washrooms and waiting rooms in interstate bus stations were desegregated
• They showed that nonviolent protest could change the law
• White Americans in the North felt sympathy for the Civil Rights Movement
• They showed people the brutality of the KKK
• Freedom Rides Bad
• People were badly injured on the Freedom Rides
• Some people felt the Freedom Riders were foolish for not bringing an end to the protest after the violence
• Some people felt the Freedom Rides did not do very much to change the country as a whole