This is what courage looks like
These mugshots were taken of the Freedom Riders arrested by the local police in Jackson, Mississippi, in the summer of 1961. The men and women pictured had boarded buses in Washington and were heading through the deep South to challenge states who were upholding Jim Crow laws and flaunting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting segregation on public transport. They were met by violence at almost every stop and after one of the buses was firebombed outside of Alliston, Alabama, CORE leadership wanted to call off the rides. However, an undaunted (and integrated) group of protesters continued to Mississippi where they were arrested and jailed. Far from being intimidated, their example encouraged even more civil rights workers to head south, and before long Jackson’s jails were bursting.
The Freedom Rides represented a number of firsts for the Civil Rights Movement. This year marks their 50th anniversary. It was the first time black and white Americans joined together en masse to protest segregated conditions in the deep South. The rides (mostly organized by young college students) were a direct action that surprised Southern leaders who didn’t quite know how to deal with nonviolent college students and adults who were willing to risk death and criminal prosecution to force a change in long held norms.
Despite a Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregation on interstate travel, blacks were subjected to discriminatory treatment. When the Congress of Racial Equality decided to discontinue the rides, young women and men in Nashville refused to let the movement die.
Despite being urged by their parents, older civil rights leaders and the Kennedy administration to abandon the protest, they continued the rides. Ultimately they prevailed and were victorious, but not without great costs. They were beaten, kicked out of school and jailed in Mississippi simply because they decided to take a stand.
