History Lab: Were the Freedom Riders dedicated to bringing equality to African Americans or
were they simply instigators seeking attention and notoriety?
Background for Teacher:
On May 4, 1961, an interracial group of student activists under the auspices of the Congress of Racial
Equality departed Washington D.C. by bus to test local compliance throughout the Deep South with
two Supreme Court rulings banning segregated accommodations on interstate buses and in bus
terminals that served interstate routes. The "Freedom Riders" traveled with limited difficulty through
North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina, but encountered violent resistance in Alabama. A mob
of angry whites firebombed one of their buses outside the city of Anniston, and riders were severely
beaten in Birmingham and Montgomery.
Although injuries prevented many of the original participants from continuing, activists from the
Student Nonviolent Committee volunteered to ride in their place, and the reconstituted freedom riders
traveled under federal protection to Mississippi where they were arrested and jailed. At the behest of
the Kennedy Administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued an order on November 1,
1961 banning segregation in all facilities under its jurisdiction.
The following December, a group of freedom riders traveled by train from Atlanta to Albany, Georgia
to test the ruling. Their arrest by local authorities helped to invigorate the Albany Movement, which
would later be regarded as one of the most significant developments of the civil rights era.
Source: The Civil Rights Digital Library http://crdl.usg.edu/events/freedom_rides/?Welcome
SS Standards
8.H.1.3 Use primary and secondary sources to interpret various historical perspectives.
8.H.1.4 Use historical inquiry to evaluate the validity of sources used to construct historical narratives
(e.g. formulate historical questions, gather data from a variety of sources, evaluate and interpret data
and support interpretations with historical evidence).
8.H.1.5 Analyze the relationship between historical context and decision-making.
8.H.3.3 Explain how individuals and groups have influenced economic, political and social change in
North Carolina and the United States.
8.G.1.3 Explain how human and environmental interaction affected quality of life and settlement
patterns in North Carolina and the United States (e.g. environmental disasters, infrastructure
development, coastal restoration and alternative sources of energy).
8.E.1.1 Explain how conflict, cooperation, and competition influenced periods of economic growth and
decline (e.g. economic depressions and recessions).
8.C&G.2.2 Analyze issues pursued through active citizen campaigns for change (e.g. voting rights
and access to education, housing and employment).
8.C.1.1 Explain how influences from Africa, Europe, and the Americas impacted North Carolina and
the United States (e.g. Columbian Exchange, slavery and the decline of the American Indian
populations).
8.C.1.3 Summarize the contributions of particular groups to the development of North Carolina and
the United States (e.g. women, religious groups, and ethnic sectors such as American Indians,
African Americans, and European immigrants).
ELA Common Core Standards
RI 8.1: Cite textual evidence to support analysis of text, both inferential and explicit.
RI 8.4: Analyze impact of word choice, including analogies/allusions, on meaning and tone in text.
RI 8.6: Determine author’s point of view and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to
conflicting evidence/viewpoints. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.
RI 8.8: Trace/Evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing reasoning and relevance
of evidence to support claims; recognize irrelevant evidence.
RI 8.9: Analyze two or more texts that provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify
where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation. Range of Reading Level and Text
Complexity.
RI 8.10: By end of year, independently read and comprehend nonfiction in 6-8
Source 1: - 1961 – Library of Congress
Source 2: Video Clip: In this video segment adapted from American Experience: "Freedom Riders,"
watch newsreel footage, archival photos, and interviews to explore how Freedom Riders made efforts
to end the segregation of African Americans in the Southern United States.
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/fr11.soc.civil.tactics.frgoals/freedom-riders-freedom-riders-challengesegregation/
Source 3: Letter written by a father to his son John Dolan. Dolan was a student at the University of California at Berkley
and was involved in the Freedom Rides.
Source: John Dolan, August 2006. Also online at: http://www.freedomridersfoundation.com/photos.articles.and.artifacts.html
John,
It is now 1:30 a.m., but I have been unable to sleep so will kill the time by writing you.
Upon my return home this evening I found your note, together with your drums and other items. I will
put your things in the front room and take good care of them for you in the hope that someday your
sanity will return.
Your group has received excellent publicity in all bay area newspapers, so any attempt to keep this
episode quiet is utterly impossible. The men in the band were all studiously polite to me today, but I
learned that nearly all of them had read the account in one paper or another.
It seems incredible that a man with a brilliant mind and all the opportunities that you have had should
choose to pursue such a ridiculous course. One of the men in the band who is a student at Cal told
Bob Hanson that you had the reputation of being "a crazy mixed-up kid." I wonder if psychiatric help
would be of any value, and I write this in all seriousness. I wish you would give the matter serious
though.
If I had any religious convictions I could pray, but without faith of any kind in the supernatural I can
only hope, and at present it doesn't seem that hope is of any great value.
In the years ahead your actions will prove a severe handicap in many fields, particularly in any
government positions and also in teaching if you decide to make that your career.
In the past three years I have tried every system that I could think of. Arguments, threats, cajolery,
humor and bribery with no effect whatsoever. Presumably as a parent I have been a miserable
failure.
When you first advised me of your decision, I characteristically blew my top, and was quite bitter. This
feeling is now modified into one of deep disappointment and an aching void.
I should type this, but I just do not have the ambition. Hope you will be able to decipher the major
portion of it.
Sorry I can't wish you "Bon Voyage," but with all my failings, no one has ever called me a hypocrite.
Your Father,
Dr. J.W. Dolan
Source 4: Image from Freedom Riders Bus - Anniston, AL
/ May 14, 1961
Birmingham Public Library, Freedom Bus. May 14, 1961.
Retrieved from: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Society/freedom_rides/Freedom_Ride_DBF.htm (Dr. David
Fankhauser)
Source 5: Interview with Hank Thomas – an African American Freedom Rider participant
October 20, 2014 Interview – WCYB Link; http://www.wcyb.com/news/freedom-rider-remembers-civilrights-movement/29247076
It's been 50 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. One of the
people who played a role in making that happen spoke at ETSU on Monday. When Hank Thomas
stood up to speak, he started singing songs of freedom.
"Things are wonderful in this country now that I can truly say 'My Country, 'Tis Of Thee' and 'God
Bless America'," he said. In May of 1961, however, there was a much different tone."I may be in this
university but I certainly would not be welcomed," said Thomas. "The law of the land as far as the
South was concerned, every time I got aboard a bus, whether a municipal bus or an interstate bus, I
was supposed to go to the back of the bus."
Thomas decided to board a bus in Washington D.C. that was headed to Louisiana to fight for
desegregation. He was only 19-years-old and a sophomore at Howard University. Thomas became
one of seven "Freedom Riders" on board that bus.
When the bus got to the Alabama border, a mob was waiting. Thomas told us the crowd disabled the
bus by slashing the tires. "The bus driver could not drive the bus any further and all the windows of
the bus were broken out," said Thomas. "The bus driver got off the bus and really ran for his life but
we were able to lock the door so they could not get in."
The mob decided to set the bus on fire. "When they set it afire, they held the door so we could not get
out," said Thomas. "The bus is burning, we're all trying to get out of the front door of the bus. Luckily
for us, as we were about to be overcome by the toxic smoke inside the bus, the fire reached the fuel
tank."
He told us the tank blew out and the men holding the doors fled, allowing Thomas and the others to
get off the bus. "The mob followed us to the hospital and threatened to burn the hospital down if the
personnel there did not set us out," said Thomas. "That's how blood thirsty that mob was."
Despite the threat to his life, Thomas re-joined a new bus continuing the ride to Louisiana. He was
arrested when they got to their destination and was sent to prison. The Freedom Riders were
released after 30 days following a Supreme Court decision. Thomas said he remained active in the
civil rights movement and ended up being arrested 22 times.
Now decades later, he is recognizing all that they were able to achieve. "The country today is light
years away in terms of changes to what it was yesterday," said Thomas. After the Freedom Rides,
Thomas went on to serve in Vietnam from 1965 to 1966, where he earned a Purple Heart.
Source 6: White Freedom Rider Jim Peck briefly interviews former United States President Harry S.
Truman From: The Crisis – June/July 1961
…I decided to approach former President Harry Truman during his early morning walk on
June 5 to take issue with a statement he had made on his walk a couple of days eal'lier that
"Northerners who go south as Freedom Riders are meddlesome intruders (who) ... should
stay at home and attend to their own business."
When I introduced myself as "a Freedom Rider from the north," Truman interrupted with:
"Better stay up north, then." I went on to express the view that "ending racial segregation in
the U.S. is the business of all conscientious citizens, north, south, east and west." I added
that: "Racial segregation- more than any other single factor-besmirches the U.S. in the world's
eyes and aids the Communist propaganda machine."
Truman then interrupted again with: "That's just what you're doing: helping the Communists!" I
tried to get in a final sentence, but Truman cut it short with: "I'm not going to say any more."
However, I continued to walk with him- along with eight reporters- and after they had asked
him some questions on other matters, I addressed him again to express regret that he would
not discuss the CORE Freedom Rides in a more serious manner in view of the fact that many
prominent Americans view them favorably. "Just trouble-making," was his final comment on
the Freedom Rides.
Reporters told me it was the first time that Truman on his walks had been confronted with a
key social issue of this kind. The confrontation, which received considerable publicity, was
worthwhile, I feel. Truman's unintelligent responses and his rudeness of attitude certainly lent
no dignity to his position. The nature of his remarks recalled to me his comment a year ago on
the sit-ins. Asked his opinion of them, he stated that if he had a business and an unwelcome
customer r efused to leave the premises, he would kick them out. Shortly thereafter, he tried
unsuccessfully to smear the sit-in movement as Communist.
Source or Text
Source 1:
Freedom Riders Map
Source 2:
Freedom Rider video
Source 3:
Letter from father to
Freedom Rider son
Source 4:
Image from
Freedom Riders Bus
Source 5:
Freedom Rider Hank
Thomas interview
Source 6:
Jim Peck interview
with Harry Truman
Who created this piece, when was it
created, and what point was the
creator trying to get readers to
understand?
What was implied by
the creator and what
information may have
been left out or not
considered?
Is this source advocating
Freedom Riders were
wanting equality or is the
source claiming the riders
were just agitators?