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Freedom Rides are a dramatic moment that
occurred at the peak of the civil rights
era in 1961 they were response to a law
that had been passed so in 1961 a
northern group of civil rights activists
called core the Congress of racial
equality decides to test this law by
calling together activists of different
ages of different races of different
educational and economic backgrounds and
of different religions to travel
together sitting side-by-side on
Interstate buses from Washington DC all
the way to the deep south initially the
rides went very well they would walk in
as an integrated group violating Cripe
the precepts of Jim Crow and people
wouldn't bother them when they came to
the deep south it was a different story
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so their ride stalls they encountered
hostile violent angry moms the federal
government sends in its officials to
help them get out of there and flies
them to New Orleans do you feel that
it's wrong to discriminate against a
person solely on the basis of his race
their color Diane Nash who had led the
Nashville sit-ins heard about the
Freedom Rides heard about the trouble
that the Freedom Riders had encountered
and she did not want the Freedom Rides
to go down in the annals of history as a
failure she repeated the model of core
and they immediately encounter hostility
again in Alabama there is a notorious
moment in Montgomery where the riders
are badly beaten reporters who are
filming the riders are badly beaten the
local african-american church has a mass
meaning to call attention to this
problem dr. King is flown in a mob of
thousands surrounds the church and
threatens to set the church on fire dr.
King phones the Attorney General Robert
Kennedy and ask for help and after a
long series of telephone calls with the
governor of Alabama
Robert Kennedy sends in the National
Guard to rescue dr. King and his
congregation this is a moment of triumph
for the civil rights movement because it
shows that the federal government is
willing to bring its full powers in
support of the civil rights movement so
already the Freedom Rides are creating
the kind of social change that the
writers wanted - the writers continued
during the second round all the way to
Jackson mrs.
with some degree of police protection in
Jackson Mississippi they are promptly
thrown than a notorious prison called
parchment which was well known for the
kind of hard labor that the prisoners
had to enact did this discourage the
Freedom Riders no it's strengthened
their resolve they practice non-violence
in those jails when the guards were
violent toward them and they modeled to
people in jail who had not been a part
of the movement they modeled to the
people in jail how serious the
motivations of the movement activists
were and how transformative the movement
was in the end the Attorney General was
able to change the laws and interstate
travel was finally really desegregated
as a result of illegal so the Freedom
Rides are a major success for the civil
rights activists in the early 1960s
you
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