Experience

My experience as a Freedom Rider was amazing. I had the opportunity to make a change in many peoples eyes about how they treated others. I may have had a rough journey accomplishing my goal, but the hardest part is over now. I've met great people who were also Freedom Riders and I have also made many long lasting friendships. My journey has changed my life. Before I joined the Freddom Riders all I did was sit in the background and watch all of the wrong doings that were being done to colored people. I thought that it was wrong. I tried to put my self into one of there shoes just to try and imaging what I would feel like but I just couldn't do it. So I decided to do something about it, and that is when I joined the Freedom Riders group. I joined the Freedom Riders because they all believed in equality.

slideshow/ photo exibit

Freedom Riders Video

Freedom Rider Heroes

There were many people that were a part of the Freedom Riders group who were considered as Heroes. Some of them were my friends. They were people who wanted equality between humans no matter what race they were. One of the heroes was James Lawson. He was the son and gradson of Ministers. He joined a group called CORE, which stood for Congress of Rasial Equality, in 1948. Another hero i know of would be Bob Filner. Bob Filner was a part of an organized group with other high school students that participated in civil rights marches in 1957. Both of these people are examples of heroes in the Freedom Riders group.

traits of Freedom Riders: Then and Now

they now? Find out in this excerpt from Breach of Peace.

The Oprah Winfrey Show  |  May 04, 2011

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Portraits of Freedom Riders: Then and Now

More than 300 Freedom Riders were imprisoned in 1961. Where are they now? Find  from Breach of Peace.

The Oprah Winfrey Show  |  May 04, 2011

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This is a picture on Bob Filner.

Jim Crow laws of segregation

The Jim Crow laws were a list of laws that were meant to separate the white and colored people. All of the Freedom Riders did not agree with the laws of Jim Crow. Another reason why we set out for our journey was to challenge the laws of Jim Crow. I hated each and every one of those laws, who were they to say that White people have more value compared to colored people. The Jim Crow laws were unfair laws made my local states on the United States. They were mostly in southern states of the United States. A couple examples of Jim Crow laws were that whites could not be abe to marry anyone who was at last 1/8 black, hispanic, or asian. Another example is when they made different schools for white and colored people. They also had a law stating that colored barbers were not allowed to cut the hair of white women and children. These laws were unfair to the colored people.

The Freeddom Riders

The Freedom Riders first began on May 4th-8th, 1961. There were thirteen Freedom Riders; they were young and old, black and white, male and female. Our goal was to travel to different towns around the south that were segregated. We left Washington DC in two separate buses.The two buses we took were the Greyhound and the Trailsway. We started this Freedom Ride to get the attention of the President at the time, John F. Kennedy. We all wanted to try and get his attention because before we started our journey as the Freedom Riders we thought they he would support us with trying to end racism. Our attempt to end racism was very difficult. We started to have complications when we arrived in Charlotte, many of us were attacked and arrested in Rock Hill of South Carolina. Our next stop was to Atlanta, Georgia. On May 14th the first buss that the Freedom Riders took were fire bombed, they didn't make it. The second bus, the one that i was on, made it to birmingham. The KKK were already there to try and get rid of us, they had beaten most of the Freedom Riders that were on the bus. It was a terrible experience. Four days later were were forced to end our journey in New Orleans.