Freedom Rides, USA, 1961
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Contents
Depth Study Description
Outline of Lessons, Civil Rights definition
Lesson Activities
Activity Page
Assessment (essay)
Essay Key Words
Supporting Documents for essay
Bibliography
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President Lyndon .B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act 1964
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Depth Study Two (2)
The U.S Civil Rights Movement and its influence on Australia
Outlining the Freedom Rides in the U.S, how they inspired civil
rights campaigners in Australia, and how they became a turning
point in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ struggle
for rights and freedoms.
Outline of Lessons
The focus of the next three (3) lessons will be The U.S Civil
Rights movement and its influence on Australia.
The planning for these three lessons are:
Lesson 1: documentary (30 min) and supporting activities
Lesson 2: documentary (30 min) and supporting activities
Lesson 3: Influence outside The United States; Freedom Rides
Australia
Resources: Booklet, Freedom Rides (DVC)
Freedom Rides and Civil Rights
This protest took place in The United States of America in 1961 where
African American people were fighting for their civil rights. One definition
of ‘civil rights’ that is particularly relevant to Americans is:
“The rights belonging to an individual by virtue of citizenship, especially
the fundamental freedoms and privileges guaranteed by the 13th and
14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and by subsequent acts of
Congress, including civil liberties, due process, equal protection of the
laws, and freedom from discrimination”.
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Documentary support and class activities
Bus Bombed
In 1961 the U.S. civil rights movement was in its infancy. The federal government had declared it
illegal to segregate public interstate travel facilities, but the law was widely ignored. Throughout the
south bus and train stations remained segregated.
Requests for federal government enforcement of its own laws were ignored. President John Kennedy
and Attorney-General Robert Kennedy failed to act.
In May 1961, The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) decided to tackle the issue head on. They
planned to travel by bus from Washington DC to New Orleans. Riding through the heart of the south
on Greyhound and Trailways buses an integrated group of civil rights activists would confront
segregation. This would in fact be a way to ‘Challenge’ the government to do what was right.
Typically blacks would enter white only sections and whites would enter "coloured" areas. Initially
there was only minor resistance, but on 15 May 1961a white mob forced the first of two buses
carrying Freedom Riders off the road in a remote area of Alabama. The bus was fire bombed, the
Freedom Riders pulled of the bus and beaten.
Baseball bats and bicycle chains
The second bus headed for Birmingham where they were beaten with baseball bats, iron pipes and
bicycle chains. James Peck required more than fifty stitches in his head. The local police let the
beatings continue, but when they were over they arrested the Freedom Riders.
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The photograph shows members of the KKK beating a black bystander George Webb in the
Birmingham Trailways bus station, May 14, 1961. The man with his back to the camera (centre right)
is FBI undercover agent Gary Thomas Rowe.
Public safety commissioner Bull Conner claimed that he posted no officers at the bus depot because
of the holiday. It later emerged that the FBI knew of the planned attack and that the local police
stayed away on purpose.
Alabama governor John Patterson offered no apologies, explaining, "When you go somewhere
looking for trouble, you usually find it . . . . You just can't guarantee the safety of a fool and that's what
these folks are, just fools."
The bus company, however, did not want to risk losing another bus to a bombing, and its drivers, who
were all white, did not want to risk their lives.
In Australia four year later the driver of the Freedom Riders' bus resigned for similar reasons.
Lesson 1-Questions from Part 1 of this documentary:
1. In what ways could the Freedom Rides be seen as being ‘non-violent’?
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2. In what way could the Freedom Rides be said to be ‘courting violence’?
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3. The suggestion was made, prior to the ‘Rides’, that if violence did occur,
this could be to the benefit of the Freedom Ride movement. How would
you account for this suggestion? Explain.
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4. This movement challenged the government, but it also challenged the
people of the South. Explain what you believe this means using example
from the documentary.
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Lesson 2-Questions from Part 2 of this documentary:
1. What were the Freedom Riders trying to accomplish?
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2. What were opponents' responses to the Freedom Rides?
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3. What was the sequence of responses by the federal government?
Why did Robert Kennedy want the Freedom Rides to stop?
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4. “Don’t start something you can’t finish”, explain this with-in the context of
this protest.
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Lesson 3
In groups, students should do the reading below, discuss and note their
feelings on this with regard to: What impact did the American Freedom Rides
have on the Australian Freedom Rides? What are the similarities and differences?
Follow up with class discussion.
Australian Freedom Rides
In 1964 a huge university student demonstration was held outside the US
Consulate in Sydney supporting the Civil Rights Bill which was before
Congress in America. This demonstration was publicised by the
newspapers and the TV. However the demonstration was heavily criticised.
Many people thought that the students should be focusing on the
discrimination within Australia. In response to this criticism a new
organisation was formed, Student Action for Aborigines - SAFA. Charles
Perkins, one of the first Aboriginal students at Sydney University and an
Aboriginal activist who became the president of this organisation. The
students, inspired by the United States freedom rides of 1961, planned the
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Australian freedom rides. The aim was to draw attention to the racial
discrimination suffered by Aboriginal Australians. They were routinely
denied access to pools, picture theatres and RSL clubs and were forced to
live in appalling conditions know as shanty towns or fringe dwellings. The
students successfully publicised the upcoming trip in newspapers such as
The Australian and The Sun. About 30 students set out from Sydney in The
first towns visited were Wellington and Gulargambone. Here the freedom
riders met with the Aboriginal people of the towns and conducted surveys.
It was clear to the freedom riders that discrimination in the towns was rife;
the Aboriginal population was not allowed into pubs and cafes. However,
lacking support from the Aboriginal people of the town due to fears of
stirring up trouble and making life even more difficult for the Aboriginal
peoples of the town, the students moved on. At the next stop, Walgett, a
huge demonstration was held outside the RSL. The RSL refused to admit
Aboriginal ex-servicemen. A Herald reporter who by chance was in town on
the day was able to report on the events. Students made banners such as
‘good enough for Tobruk why not Walgett RSL?’. The peaceful
demonstration received a fierce reaction from the town. Upon leaving the
town a local farmer used his truck to run the bus off the road. This became
the headline story for the Sydney papers the next day.At the next town,
Moree, six more members of the press joined the riders. One of the issues
at Moree was that Aboriginal people were denied access to the local pool.
Protests were held outside the Council Chambers and at the pool, where
attempts were made to admit Aboriginal children. After some time of heated
exchanges the pool manager gave in and allowed entry to the Aboriginal
children. The students left the town on a high thinking the ban had been
broken. Further along the journey the students heard news that this was
not the case. Upon returning to Moree press interest was growing and the
second protest was covered by from television crews such as Seven Days
and the BBC. The second demonstration at Moree turned violent, Gerry
Stone, a reporter for The Australian covered the story.
MOREE, Saturday. - Mob violence exploded here today as student freedom riders were attacked by
a crowd crazed with race hate.
White women spat on girl students and screamed filthy words as the students tried to win Aboriginal
children admission to the town baths.
Several people were arrested and the town's mayor, Alderman William Lloyd, pitched into the battle,
grabbing students by the scruff of their necks and hurling them out of the way.
Throughout the fighting a barrage of eggs and rotten fruit rained on the students.
Mr Jim Spigelman, a 19-year-old student from Maroubra, was smacked to the ground while the 500
strong crowd roared its approval.
Sunday Mirror, 21 February, 1965
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Similarities
Differences
Additional Comments:
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Assessment-Essay
“I can assure you that every degree of mind and spirit that I possess
will be devoted to the long-range interests of the United States and to
the cause of freedom around the world”. John F. Kennedy, Acceptance
Speech; Hyannis Armory, Hyannis, Massachusetts, November 9, 1960
The 'Freedom Rides' were part of campaign by both African American and nonAfrican American people, who sought to gain for all American citizens, what was
rightfully theirs: their full rights as citizens of The United States of America; they
sought to be treated in the same was as every other citizen of that country.
These people were testing laws and the resolve of their recently elected
president; John Fitzgerald 'Jack' Kennedy to confirm his promise of 'Freedom'
Essay Question
With reference to the documents provided, your own research and
personal knowledge, EXAMINE, EVALUATE, and TRACE the motivation,
execution and impact of the civil rights movement and more specifically,
the 1961Freedom Rides. Word Count-1000 words
Introduction:
The introduction should state your main idea, contention or answer in an
interesting way, answering the question as well as providing an indication of
where the essay will develop from here. Listing the main arguments that are to
follow in the order that you intent to make them.
Paragraph 1: Motivation (what were the motivating factors for the Freedom
Ride of 1961? Consider the legal aspects and the documents you have been
supplied with)
This is the first major argument in support of your answer or contention,
including evidence in the form of quotes and examples from the text to support
your arguments. Make sure that the paragraph uses the key words and concepts
from the essay question and that they topic sentence or main idea of this
paragraph is clearly supporting your contention.
Paragraph 2: Execution (This paragraph looks at the Civil Rights Movement and
the way in which it sought to achieve its purpose, specifically in this case, The
Freedom Rides)
Structure as above.
Paragraph 3: Impact (what was the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and
specifically, The Freedom Rides on both The United States and other countries?
Structure as above.
Conclusion:
The conclusion should draw together your arguments in and interesting way,
reiterating your arguments and referring again to the question and
demonstrating just how you have answered it.
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Essay key words
EXAMINE:
Present in depth and investigate the implications.
EVALUATE:
Make an appraisal or the worth of something, in the light of its apparent truth; include your
personal opinion.
TRACE:
Identify the connection between one thing and another either in a developmental sense
over a period of time, or else in a cause-and-effect sense.
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Supporting Documents-Essay
1961: The Freedom Riders
Fifty years ago, 13 people began a journey through the Deep South—and forever changed the nation
By Merrill Perlman
On May 4, 1961, 13 people bound for New Orleans boarded
two public buses in Washington, D.C.
Calling themselves the Freedom Riders, the interracial group—
southern and northern men and women, many of them in their
20s—sought to test federal laws intended to help desegregate
the Deep South.
For the next few weeks, the Freedom Riders travelled from one
southern city to the next, trying to integrate "whites only" waiting
rooms and lunch counters—and enduring arrests, beatings, and
fire bombings along the way. By the time they headed home,
some with black eyes and broken bones, the attention they had
brought to just how widespread segregation still was in the South had energized the civil rights movement. And
their actions culminated in landmark civil rights laws a few years later.
The Freedom Rides were "a key step in a whole chain of events that led to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting
Rights Bill," says Brian Daugherity, who teaches history at Virginia Commonwealth University. They were "a
motivating influence on a whole generation of young people."
In 1961, almost a century after the Civil War, segregation was still a way of life in the South. Changes had come
steadily, but slowly: President Harry S. Truman integrated the armed forces after World War II, in 1948. And in
the 1954 landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" schools
for blacks and whites were inherently unequal and unconstitutional.
But despite two Supreme Court rulings outlawing segregation in interstate rail and bus terminals as far back as
1946, many stations in the South maintained separate lunch counters, restrooms, and water fountains. States
and cities in the South found ways to flout federal rulings through local custom and "Jim Crow" segregation laws.
The idea behind the Freedom Rides, sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a civil rights group,
was simple: At each segregated bus terminal, the interracial group would seek service in the whites-only area. If
served, they would consider that place in compliance with federal law. If they were arrested for violating local law,
they would go to jail without resisting. "And if there is violence, we are willing to accept that violence without
responding in kind," said CORE's leader, James Farmer.
But they expected—even hoped—that things wouldn't go smoothly: As Farmer put it, they were counting on "the
racists of the South to create a crisis, so that the federal government would be compelled to enforce federal law."
Ku Klux Klan
As the Freedom Riders traveled through Virginia and North and South Carolina, they were served at most bus
stations—even if the white waitresses sneered while pouring coffee or the black waitresses whispered to just let
things be to avoid trouble. And if the counters and restrooms were again segregated once the Freedom Riders
left, at least they had broken the taboos.
The real trouble started on day 11 as the buses arrived in Alabama, where the white-supremacist group the Ku
Klux Klan had deep roots. The Freedom Riders could expect little help from police or other officials, since many
were themselves K.K.K. members.
Outside Anniston, Alabama, racial slurs and rocks rained on one of the buses before someone threw a firebomb
into it, with the Freedom Riders were beaten as they fled the bus.
"When I got off the bus, a man came up to me, and I'm coughing and strangling," Hank Thomas recalled years
later. "He said, 'Boy, you all right?' And I nodded my head. And the next thing I knew, I was on the ground. He
had hit me with part of a baseball bat."
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On their way to Birmingham, Alabama, whose police commissioner, Eugene "Bull" Connor, was an avowed
segregationist, the Freedom Riders on the second bus were beaten by a K.K.K. mob. After being beaten again by
a white mob in Birmingham, the Freedom Riders were accused of inciting the violence. Few whites in the mob
were arrested.
The press reports coming out of the South riveted the country. Television was still relatively young, and it
magnified the impact. "When the bus arrived, the toughs grabbed the passengers into alleys and corridors,
pounding them with pipes, with key rings, and with fists," Howard K. Smith of ABC reported from Birmingham.
Robert F. Kennedy, the U.S. Attorney General and brother of President John F. Kennedy, asked Governor John
Patterson of Alabama to assure the safety of the Freedom Riders. Patterson, a segregationist, refused.
The Kennedy administration was in an awkward position. The President said he supported civil rights, but he
needed the cooperation of Southern politicians. At the same time, he also needed to show that federal law
trumps local law. In addition, the U.S. was in the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and the President
wanted to showcase U.S. freedoms to the world. The violence in the South was embarrassing.
Kennedy's Response
As a sign of support, Robert Kennedy sent John Seigenthaler, a member of his staff, to accompany the Freedom
Riders from Birmingham to New Orleans, but the bus drivers there were not willing to take them. Delayed by
mobs and bomb threats, the CORE Freedom Riders ended their portion of the Rides on May 15, when they
boarded a plane to New Orleans—their original destination—with Seigenthaler.
The next day, an interracial group of Tennessee college students, fresh from a series of nonviolent sit-ins that
had desegregated lunch counters in Nashville, took over and Seigenthaler ordered Greyhound to find a driver.
Though younger than some of the CORE Freedom Riders (in addition to college students, the new group
included people as young as 13), the Nashville Student Movement shared their goals: "Some people were
involved in the movement because they wanted to make things better for their grandchildren," said Bernard
Lafayette, one of the first student Freedom Riders. "I wanted to make things better so my grandparents would be
able to enjoy this thing."
In Montgomery—the site of the bus boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr. six years earlier—whites armed with
chains, bats, and other weapons descended, seriously injuring several of the new Freedom Riders.
They beat reporters and smashed their cameras. Even Seigenthaler was knocked unconscious. "You could see
baseball bats; you could see hammers; you could see pieces of chain," Freedom Rider Jim Zwerg, who was
beaten nearly to death, recalled years later.
The Freedom Riders and their supporters—a group of 1,500, including Martin Luther King Jr.—took shelter in a
church, singing and praying as more than 3,000 whites outside threw rocks and firebombs. Governor Patterson
placed Montgomery under martial law and sent in Alabama National Guardsmen, who "protected" the people in
the church by blocking them from leaving at bayonet point. Finally, after a night of tense negotiations between
state and federal troops, the people safely evacuated the church.
Ahead lay Mississippi. Freedom Riders arriving in Jackson, which The Times called "the modern capital of
segregation," were arrested and charged with breaching the peace.
By the end of the summer, more than 300 Freedom Riders had been arrested in Mississippi. They were housed
in overcrowded jails, or at the notorious Parchman prison farm, where guards deliberately kept the windows shut
during the stifling Mississippi summer, when temperatures can reach 110°F. Some of them ended up spending
more than a month in jail.
Willing to Be Beaten & Jailed
The federal government was stymied by the activists' willingness to be beaten, arrested, and jailed, and their
unwillingness to pause for a "cooling-off" period. Federal attempts to enforce interstate desegregation dragged
on, caught between protesters' deep hatred of segregation and the deep hatred that many Southerners harbored
toward blacks.
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And so the Freedom Rides continued. One of the more tangible signs of progress came on June 1: At the
Montgomery Greyhound bus terminal, The Times reported, the signs for "colored" and "white" were removed,
leaving only "the dusty outlines of the metal letters and stubs of the rivets that held them in place."
The Freedom Rides began with just 13 well-trained people in May 1961, but by the time they ended in the fall,
they had attracted nearly 600 people, some of whom decided spontaneously to ride a bus or a train into the
South to protest segregation.
Others would be inspired to get involved in the Albany Movement, a student-led voting rights protest in Georgia in
the fall of 1961, and Freedom Summer, a similar movement in Mississippi in 1964 that was marked by the highprofile murders of three civil rights workers. By directly confronting discriminatory policies in the South, the
Freedom Riders and the civil rights activists who preceded and followed shook up a complacent nation and
forced Washington to respond.
Indeed, in 1964, the sweeping federal Civil Rights Act was passed, outlawing segregation and discrimination
against blacks nationwide. And the following year, the Voting Rights Act was passed, eliminating legal obstacles
to black voter registration.
The Freedom Riders "made a decision that they were ready to die for the movement—and that was something
you hadn't seen before," says Clayborne Carson, a professor of history at Stanford University in California. "They
were able to force Kennedy to pay attention. He couldn't ignore it."
(The New York Times Upfront, Vol. 143, January 10, 2011)
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Transcript of 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868)
AMENDMENT XIV
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein
they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
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Civil Rights Act (1964)
In a nationally televised address on June 6, 1963, President John F. Kennedy
urged the nation to take action toward guaranteeing equal treatment of every
American regardless of race. Soon after, Kennedy proposed that Congress
consider civil rights legislation that would address voting rights, public
accommodations, school desegregation, non-discrimination in federally assisted
programs, and more.
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Despite Kennedy’s assassination in November of 1963, his proposal culminated
in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson just
a few hours after House approval on July 2, 1964. The act outlawed segregation
in businesses such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels. It banned discriminatory
practices in employment and ended segregation in public places such as
swimming pools, libraries, and public schools.
Transcript of Civil Rights Act (1964)
An Act
To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district
courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in
public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to
protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend
the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted
programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States
of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Civil
Rights Act of 1964".
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Boynton V’s Virginia 1960
Petitioner: Bruce Boynton
Respondent: Commonwealth of Virginia
Petitioner's Claim: That arresting a black interstate bus passenger for refusing to leave a whites-only
section of a bus station restaurant violated the Interstate Commerce Act and the Equal Protection
Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Chief Lawyer for Petitioner: Thurgood Marshall
Chief Lawyer for Respondent: Walter E. Rogers
Justices for the Court: William J. Brennan, Jr., Tom C. Clark, William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter,
John Marshall Harlan II, Potter Stewart, Chief Justice Earl Warren
Justices Dissenting: Hugo L. Black, Charles E. Whittaker
Date of Decision: December 5, 1960
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Decision: Ruled in favour of Boynton by finding that restaurant facilities in bus terminals that
primarily exist to serve interstate bus passengers cannot discriminate based on race according to the
Interstate Commerce Act.
Significance: The decision supporting federal government actions in desegregating certain public
facilities paved the way for further civil rights activism. Resistance to the ruling by many Southerners
led to the Freedom Rides on interstate buses by young activists the following summer. The Rides in
addition to other protest activities the next two years led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act banning racial
discrimination in all public facilities.
Businesses known as "common carriers" are transportation companies that advertise to the public to
carry passengers for a fee. States regulate carriers that operate solely within their borders, but the
federal government through authority in the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution regulate
carriers involved in interstate (traveling from one state to another) or foreign travel.
To regulate various aspects of business between states Congress passed the landmark Interstate
Commerce Act in 1887 and amended it through later years. As stated in Section 203, the act applied
to "all vehicles . . . together with all facilities and property operated or controlled by any such carrier
or carriers, and used in the transportation of passengers or property in interstate or foreign
commerce." Further, Section 216(d) of Part II of the act states,
It shall be unlawful for any common carrier [using a] motor vehicle engaged in interstate . . .
commerce to make, give, or cause any undue or unreasonable preference [favorite choice] or
advantage to any particular person . . . in any respect whatsoever; or to subject any particular
person . . . to any unjust discrimination [treating individuals in similar situations differently] or any
unjust or unreasonable prejudice [bias] or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever. . .
Based on the act, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mitchell v. United States (1941) that if a railroad
provides dining cars, then passengers must be treated equally by the dining car service. Later
in Henderson v. United States (1950) the Court further affirmed that service to passengers in railroad
dining cars could not be separated according to race (racial segregation) by curtains or even signs.
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Bibliography
(The New York Times Upfront, Vol. 143, January 10, 2011)
http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/upfront/features/index.asp?article=f011011_
riders
Transcript of the XIV Amendment of ‘The United States Constitution’,
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=43&page=transcript
The Civil Rights Act 1964, Ourdocuments.com
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=97
E-notes, Boynton V’s Virginia
http://www.enotes.com/boynton-v-virginia-reference/boynton-v-virginia
Making a Difference, Democracy, Citizenship and Law
http://lrrpublic.cli.det.nsw.edu.au/lrrSecure/Sites/LRRView/11633/documents/part2.pdf
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