The Freedom Riders: The History of the Civil Rights Activists Who Rode Buses around the South to Protest Segregation

After a 1960 Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia, bus segregation was made illegal on new grounds: it violated the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, by regulating the movement of people across state lines. With this victory in hand, the Freedom Rides of 1961 began. Organized primarily by a new group - the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) - the Freedom Rides followed the same guidance that inspired the Montgomery Boycott and the Greensboro Sit-Ins - non-violent dir...