In remembrance of the first Freedom Ride, a group of 40 college students re-enact the ride with original Freedom Riders every year.
The first Freedom Riders rode from Washington, D.C. to Jackson, Miss. in May 1961. Their goal was to challenge segregated travel facilities and to raise national awareness about the injustice of segregation.
From May to December of 1961, the original Freedom Riders organized more than 60 rides. On May 4, the first Freedom Ride began its journey in Washington, D.C. with 13 riders. Almost immediately after traveling farther south, riders ran into trouble. They were arrested in North Carolina and attacked in South Carolina before meeting up with Martin Luther King Jr. nine days later.
When the riders reached Alabama, one of their buses was firebombed, forcing them to ride on one bus for the remainder of the ride. When the second bus reached Birmingham, the riders were met by a huge mob of Ku Klux Klan members and local police. The mob attacked the riders, horribly beating them. The Kennedy Administration stepped in and offered the riders protection so they could finish their ride. When they reached New Orleans by plane, the original riders decided to end the Freedom Ride.
Members of the Nashville Student Movement decided to continue the Freedom Ride. They began to travel north toward Tennessee. There, riders and 1,500 supporters were trapped inside a church in Montgomery, Ala. by an angry mob. Federal troops were eventually sent to protect the riders. They then traveled out of Alabama to Mississippi, where they were immediately arrested. The riders who continued to travel to Jackson, Miss. through the summer were sent to jail.
In September, four months after Attorney General Robert Kennedy issued his petition to end segregation in interstate travel facilities, the Interstate Commerce Committee voted unanimously to desegregate the facilities. From May to December, there was a total of 436 Freedom Riders.
The re-enacted Freedom Rides follow a similar route of the first ride. The trip lasts 10 days and they travel to over seven states. They make stops in the following cities for the ride: Fredericksburg, Va.; Richmond, Va.; Petersburg, Va.; Lynchburg, Va.; Greensboro, N.C.; High Point, N.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Rock Hill, S.C.; Sumter, S.C.; Orangeburg, S.C.; Augusta, Ga.; Atlanta; Anniston, Ala.; Nashville, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; Montgomery, Ala.; Selma,Ala.; and Jackson, Miss.
Each year there are speakers who participate in the ride and speak to the new participants about the original ride of 1961. Some of this year's speakers will be filmmaker Stanley Nelson, journalist Jerry Mitchell, former assistant to Robert Kennedy John Seigenthaler, and Raymond Arsenault, author of the book "Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice."
Five original riders will also be speaking: Charles Person, Ernest "Rip" Patton, Joan Mulholland, Bernard Lafayette Jr. and Catherine Burks- Brooks. t&c;
