The Freedom Riders

It was May 4, 1961, in Washington.

Thirteen people boarded two buses. Seven were African American, six were white. They were headed for New Orleans.

The Congress of Racial Equality, CORE, organized the ride.

The law was on their side. In 1946, the Supreme Court had banned segregation on buses between states. In December 1960, it had also banned it in the waiting rooms, lunch counters and restrooms serving those travelers. But in the South, the "whites only" signs were still there.

On May 12, in Rock Hill, South Carolina, John Lewis and Albert Bigelow, a white man, were attacked as they tried to enter a whites-only waiting room.

On May 14, Mother's Day, in Anniston, Alabama, a mob surrounded the Greyhound bus.

The driver passed the station. The tires had been slashed. Someone threw a bomb inside.

The bus caught fire. Those who got out were beaten.

That same day, in Birmingham, the passengers of a Trailways bus were beaten by a mob, many with metal pipes. No police were there.

The next day, photos of the burning bus went around the country and the world.

CORE's leader, James Farmer, called off the ride. The passengers flew to New Orleans.

That was when Diane Nash, 23, of SNCC, organized students in Nashville to carry on.

She told James Farmer:

On May 17, seven men and three women set out from Nashville for Birmingham. They were arrested before they arrived.

On May 20, the ride resumed from Birmingham under police escort. In Montgomery, the police withdrew. A white mob attacked the riders with sticks and clubs.

Robert Kennedy sent 600 federal marshals. The next day, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church in Montgomery. Outside, there was a mob. The marshals used tear gas.

On May 24, the buses left for Jackson, Mississippi. There, those who used the whites-only facilities were arrested and sent to Parchman penitentiary. They were sentenced to 30 days. Later, the Supreme Court overturned those convictions.

After the violence and the arrests, hundreds of new volunteers joined them. Students filled the jails of Jackson. In 1961, there were 436 Freedom Riders.

On September 22, 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission banned discriminatory seating on interstate buses. The "whites only" signs had to come down from bus terminals by November 1.

On November 1, the rule took effect.

The Freedom Riders did not come from a single tradition. But what they did echoes Ubuntu: we become fully human only by agreeing to sit beside one another.

Somewhere in Alabama, a bus had burned.

Others had set out in its place, with seats where people sat together.