The ICC declared that, effective November 1, interstate transportation would be fully integrated, but the city of Albany, Georgia ignored this ruling and continued to enforce segregation in its public transportation services.
More than 700 local African Americans and racial equality supporters were imprisoned for supporting the jailed "Freedom Riders." The amount of local support in the Deep South was surprising.
Freedom Riders (including John Lewis and James Zwerg in the picture) are attacked and beaten by segregationists in Montgomery, Alabama. This group's actions would inspire other young people to get involved and join the Freedom Rides too. Hundreds of black and white students traveled from across the country to participate later on.
After hearing about the Freedom Riders' encounters in Birmingham and Anniston, a group of sympathetic, SNCC sponsored students from Nashville continue the badly beaten riders' journey for them.
Two groups of Freedom Riders left an hour apart. There were 5 regular passengers and 7 Freedom Riders: Genevieve Hughes, Bert Bigelow, Hank Thomas, Jimmy McDonald, Mae Frances Moultrie, Joe Perkins, Ed Blankenheim and two journalists, Charlotte Devree and Moses Newson.
The first freedom ride consisted of seven black and six white CORE sponsored activists travelling on two public buses (Greyhound and Trailways) from Washington D.C., to New Orleans. The buses' routes would take the riders through some of the most dangerous places in the United States for people who believed in racial equality.
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