Freedom Riders, 1961

Freedom Riders on a Greyhound bus sponsored by the Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE), sit on the ground outside the bus after it was set afire by a group of whites who met the Black and white group on arrival here, Anniston, Ala., May 14, 1961. Underwood Archives

On 4 May 1961, Freedom Riders began using direct action to fight segregation of interstate bus travel in the Southern United States. Despite segregation being illegal, the law was not enforced, and police collaborated with the Ku Klux Klan and violent racist white mobs who attacked the Black and white Freedom Riders. But the riders kept fighting, with some taking up arms to protect themselves, and by November segregation on the bus system was ended.

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