What do freedom riders do

Students, acting as the editorial board for their assigned newspaper, will write an editorial commenting on the speeches given at the March on Washington. Which position would the editorial board endorse for the African American community? What would they have the Administration endorse bear in mind Kennedy's initial opposition to the March? How should the majority of Americans, who were not at the March, respond to the issues raised that day?

Skip to main content. Lesson Plan. Photo caption. Why did the issue of civil rights divide people in the U. Whose approach to advancing civil rights appears most plausible? Analyze and evaluate the relationship between civil rights activists and the Federal Government. Lesson Plan Details Background. Analyze change and continuity in historical eras. Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past.

Activity 1. The Kennedy Administration's Record on Civil Rights In this initial step, students learn background information through doing two readings before going on to the next activities. Students should take notes on what they read, listing: the actions that the Kennedy Administration took regarding civil rights and the Civil Rights Movement; any criticisms, positive or negative, those participants in the Civil Rights Movement made of the Kennedy Administration or the Federal Government.

Students should then read the following online documents, linked to the EDSITEment-reviewed Center for History and New Media website: The Introduction to Project "C" in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's campaign in Birmingham, Alabama President Kennedy's press conference comments, " An Ugly Situation in Birmingham, ," on the civil rights protests in Birmingham Teachers may also want to review students' notes from their reading of the summary of President Kennedy's civil rights record Then, in the final part of this activity, students should respond in writing to the following questions: What do President Kennedy's comments tell us about: How does President Kennedy say this conflict has been resolved?

How does he describe what has happened in Birmingham? What is he leaving out of this description? Why would he omit this information? What type of audience is watching events in Birmingham, according to Kennedy?

Activity 2. The teacher can assign all students to read all four speeches. Alternatively, the teacher might use a "jigsaw" approach, dividing the class into four groups, giving each group one speech. After each group has read its assigned speech and answered the questions, students can meet in groups of four in which each student has read a different speech.

Now each student explains the speech he or she read to the other students, and how his or her group answered the questions. Following the "jigsaw," the teacher can lead a classwide discussion on the speeches.

Fourteen years later, in a new national context of sit-ins , boycotts, and the emergence of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC , the Freedom Rides were able to harness enough national attention to force federal enforcement and policy changes. Following an earlier ruling, Morgan v. Virginia , that made segregation in interstate transportation illegal, in the U. Supreme Court ruled in Boynton v.

Virginia that segregation in the facilities provided for interstate travelers, such as bus terminals, restaurants, and restrooms, was also unconstitutional. Prior to the decision, two students, John Lewis and Bernard Lafayette , integrated their bus ride home from college in Nashville, Tennessee, by sitting at the front of a bus and refusing to move.

On 4 May , the freedom riders left Washington, D. Although they faced resistance and arrests in Virginia, it was not until the riders arrived in Rock Hill, South Carolina, that they encountered violence.

The beating of Lewis and another rider, coupled with the arrest of one participant for using a whites-only restroom, attracted widespread media coverage. In the days following the incident, the riders met King and other civil rights leaders in Atlanta for dinner.

The ride continued to Anniston, Alabama, where, on 14 May, riders were met by a violent mob of over people. One of the buses was firebombed, and its fleeing passengers were forced into the angry white mob.

Although the violence garnered national media attention, the series of attacks prompted James Farmer of CORE to end the campaign. The riders flew to New Orleans, bringing to an end the first Freedom Ride of the s. With fractured support, the organizers had a difficult time securing financial resources. Nevertheless, on 17 May , seven men and three women rode from Nashville to Birmingham to resume the Freedom Rides. Just before reaching Birmingham, the bus was pulled over and directed to the Birmingham station, where all of the riders were arrested for defying segregation laws.

The arrests, coupled with the difficulty of finding a bus driver and other logistical challenges, left the riders stranded in the city for several days. Federal intervention began to take place behind the scenes as Attorney General Robert Kennedy called the Greyhound Company and demanded that it find a driver. Seeking to diffuse the dangerous situation, John Seigenthaler, a Department of Justice representative accompanying the freedom riders, met with a reluctant Alabama Governor John Patterson.

The entire world watched in anguish at the violence that took place in Alabama. The Kennedy Administration was concerned and asked for a cooling off period. Kennedy called Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett to strike a deal behind the scenes unbeknownst to the public. Instead of ordering the Governor to enforce the federal law integrating interstate travel, Mississippi authorities agreed that there would be no violence and no mob, but would arrest and transport the Freedom Riders once they arrived at the terminal in Jackson, Mississippi.

Days later, the riders were convicted and sent to the Mississippi State Penitentiary, known as Parchman in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. The Parchman Prison Farm was one of the most notorious prisons in America dating back to the beginning of the 20th century.

We only want to break their spirits. The Freedom Riders at Parchman experienced psychological torture for up to sixty days at a time. They were sent off to chain gangs, beaten by prison guards, and were forced to live under extreme inhumane conditions. Some Freedom Riders would be placed in a cells only a few feet away from the execution chamber on death row. As barbaric as Parchman was, hundreds of volunteers still took the Freedom Ride and were sent to Parchman.

By July , more than Freedom Riders were incarcerated at one time. The Freedom Rides were the first nationally known interracial civil rights demonstration in the South. As more and more volunteers took the Freedom Ride into the South, the Kennedy Administration slowly evolved into an ally for the Civil Rights Movement.

Later that year, Attorney General Robert F.