dec 10, 1961 - Freedom Riders
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Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and consequent years to challenge the failure of enforcing United States Supreme Court decisions Morgan v. Virginia and Boynton v. Virginia. Which ruled that buses shall be unsegregated. The Southern states had ignored the enforcement and the federal government didn't do anything to carry them out. The first Freedom Ride departed Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961, and arrived in New Orleans on May 17. Boynton outlawed racial segregation in restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals. The freedom riders challenged the status quo by riding interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation in seating. The Congress of Racial Equality sponsored most of the Freedom Rides, but some were also organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
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