Progress In Civil Rights 1969/62 (freedom Riders) Flashcards
In 1956 the Supreme Court ruled that
State transport must be desegregated.However bus station toilets and waiting rooms were still segregated.
In December 1960 the Supreme Court ordered
The desegregation of bus station facilitie.
In 1961 CORE activists still knew that
Segregation still existed
In 1961 CORE activists organised
Bus journey’s from the North to the deep South., to test whether desegregation was really hapening.
The CORE activists aim was to
Create negative media coverage of segregation so that the federal government would act to force states to desegregate.
4 May 1961
Thirtten Freedom Riders ( group of black and white americans) started out from Washington DC on two buses.The campaign organisers were CORE and SCLC.Their aim was to show that desegregation of bus station facilities was not happening
15 May 1961
The first bus reaxhed Alabama and was attacked by over 100 KKK members.Someone threw a firebomb in the bus, but luckily the passengers got out in time.The riders on the second bus were attacked and beaten.But rescued
17 MAY 1961
SNCC organised ten riders to bus from Nashville to Birmingham, Alabama.No driver agreed to continue the journey , so the Riders stopped in Birmingham where a threatening crowd of segretarians confronted them.
20 May 1961
Police escorted the freedom rider’s buses to just outside Montgomery, then left the the Riders to defend themselves against a whte mob at a bus station.They attacked and beat the riders
24 May 1961
A police escort accompanied a mew geoup of Freedom Riders from Montgomery to Jackson.When they arrived in Jackson, the police arrested them and the federal states did not protect them.
Throughout the summer of 1961
There were 60 freedom riders.Over 300 riders were jailed.Many were assaulted by police while in custody.
1 November 1961
The federal government threatened to use federal officers to enforce states to desegregate if states refused to desegregate bus facilities.The government wanted to end the violence and the Freedom Riders.So southern states began to desegregate bus facilities so the Freedom Riders stopped.
