Freedom Rides

E12151

The Freedom Rides were a series of nonviolent protests in 1961 in which interracial groups rode interstate buses into the segregated U.S. South to challenge and draw attention to the failure to enforce desegregation laws.

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Observed surface forms (3)


Statements (68)

Predicate Object
instanceOf civil rights protest campaign
interracial protest movement
nonviolent direct action
appliesToJurisdiction interstate bus terminals
interstate bus travel
basedOnLegalDecision Boynton v. Virginia
Morgan v. Virginia
commemoratedBy Freedom Riders National Monument
coOrganizedBy Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
surface form: SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
country United States of America
surface form: United States
documentedIn newspaper coverage across the United States
facedOppositionFrom Ku Klux Klan
surface form: Ku Klux Klan members

local law enforcement in the U.S. South
segregationists
hasCharacteristic interracial participation
nonviolent discipline
student leadership
hasConsequence Interstate Commerce Commission enforcement order against segregation
federal intervention by the Kennedy administration
increased national media attention to civil rights
hasEndTime 1961
hasGenre civil rights campaign
hasLocation Alabama
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Southern United States
surface form: United States South

Virginia
Washington, D.C.
hasPurpose challenge segregation in interstate bus travel
draw national attention to segregation in the U.S. South
test enforcement of Supreme Court desegregation rulings
hasStartTime 1961-05-04
inspiredBy Gandhian nonviolence
Montgomery bus boycott
sit-in movement
language English
notableEvent bus burning in Anniston, Alabama
mass arrests in Jackson, Mississippi
mob attack in Birmingham, Alabama
numberOfParticipants hundreds of riders
opposedBy many Southern state officials
opposedPolicy segregated bus station facilities
segregated seating on interstate buses
organizedBy CORE
Congress of Racial Equality
participant Bernard Lafayette
Catherine Burks-Brooks
Charles Person
Diane Nash
James Farmer
James Peck
Jim Zwerg
Joan Trumpauer
John Lewis
John Seigenthaler
Stokely Carmichael
Walter Bergman
partOf American civil rights movement
resultedIn stricter federal rules banning segregation in interstate transportation
supportedBy national civil rights organizations
timePeriod 1960s
usesMethod civil disobedience
freedom riding
nonviolent resistance

Referenced by (33)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Catherine Burks-Brooks arrestedDuring Freedom Rides
this entity surface form: Freedom Riders
this entity surface form: Freedom Riders
Nashville sit-ins influenced Freedom Rides
Congress of Racial Equality keyEvent Freedom Rides
this entity surface form: 1961 Freedom Rides
CORE keyRoleIn Freedom Rides
subject surface form: Congress of Racial Equality
this entity surface form: Freedom Riders
CORE notableCampaign Freedom Rides
subject surface form: Congress of Racial Equality
Jackson, Mississippi notableEvent Freedom Rides
Bernard Lafayette notableFor Freedom Rides
Charles Person notableWork Freedom Rides
this entity surface form: Buses Are a Comin’: Memoir of a Freedom Rider
Congress of Racial Equality organized Freedom Rides
James Farmer organized Freedom Rides
Catherine Burks-Brooks partOf Freedom Rides
this entity surface form: Freedom Riders
Diane Nash participantIn Freedom Rides
James Bevel participantIn Freedom Rides
John Lewis participantIn Freedom Rides
Bernard Lafayette participatedIn Freedom Rides
Catherine Burks-Brooks participatedIn Freedom Rides
Charles Person participatedIn Freedom Rides
Fred Shuttlesworth participatedIn Freedom Rides
Jim Zwerg participatedIn Freedom Rides
Boynton v. Virginia relatedEvent Freedom Rides
this entity surface form: Freedom Riders
this entity surface form: 1961 Freedom Rides
Ku Klux Klan targetedGroup Freedom Rides
this entity surface form: Freedom Riders