Blackwell Reference Online

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A nonviolent, civil disobedience tactic used to protest segregation of public accommodations, freedom riding was initiated by the C ongress of R acial E quality (CORE) during the civil rights movement . (In 1960 B oynton v. V irginia had ruled that bus facilities for interstate travelers could not be segregated.) The first freedom ride began on 4 May 1961, when CORE sent seven blacks and six whites by bus to test equal access to services at bus terminals from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans. The CORE riders were beaten by Ala. mobs in Anniston and Birmingham and then reinforced by volunteers from the S tudent N onviolent C oordinating C ommittee ; both groups were attacked in Montgomery and then arrested, along with Ralph A bernathy . On 22 September 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission banned interstate buses from using segregated terminals. News coverage of the first, and subsequent, freedom rides, which encountered ugly hostility from whites, was a major factor in creating a national consensus to pass the C ivil R ights A ct (1964), which outlawed segregation in public facilities. ... log in or subscribe to read full text