The Unity of Black and White Youth in the 1960s

By Bella Allen

The Freedom Riders were a group of Black and White (college-age and older) Civil Rights-Era demonstrators advocating for the desegregation of public transport. They traveled to test Supreme Court decisions in favor of desegregation that were not being enforced in the South. The cases were Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960). The later ruled that this included interstate passengers utilizing facilities in stations, not just on the vechiles themselves. Both relied on the interstate commerce clause in the constitution and the Interstate Commerce Act. To exercise their rights upheld by the high chorus, the Freedom Riders traveled on both of the major bus lines at the time, Trailways and Greyhound.

Morgan v. Virginia and Boynton v. Virginia

Morgan is named after a woman who refused to move to the colored section of a segregated interstate bus. She was arrested and took the case to the Supreme Court (Setegn 2002). There it was ruled 7–1 that Virginia’s state law enforcing segregation on interstate buses was unconstitutional. (Hall 2009, 201). Boynton is named after a law student who was found at a bus terminal restaurant for “whites only.” He was arrested for trespassing, but the Supreme Court overruled his conviction with their ruling, which stated that under the Interstate Commerce Act, segregation was illegal in public transportation.

Aboard the Greyhound Bus

 The Greyhound Bus There is a memorial to this subject (historical marker) from 14 May 1961 because a group who were part of this movement were on their way from DC to New Orleans to defend the Supreme Court case Boynton v. Virginia. When the riders on the Greyhound bus arrived in Anniston, Alabama, about sixty miles east of Birmingham. They were met with attackers with pipes, clubs, and chains. Rioters attacked the bus from the outside. Once they stopped, the police escorted the damaged bus, but the attackers followed them. Raymond Arsenault states they were followed by “a long line of cars and pickup trucks, plus one car carrying a news reporter and a photographer” (Arsenault 2006, 143).

East of Bynum, Alabama, on Highway 202, the bus was forced to the shoulder by two of the attackers’ cars. The attackers threw burning rags in the bus, so many passengers tried to evacuate. The man guarding the door opened it for them, and before anyone could get out, the attackers entered the bus and began to beat the passengers. When the injured riders arrived at Anniston Memorial Hospital, the physician would only treat the white victims. Federal agents had to force the hospital staff to treat the African American victims. Arsenault states, “a group of Klansmen made an unsuccessful attempt to block the entrance of the emergency room. Later, as the crowd outside the hospital grew to menacing proportions, hospital officials began to panic, especially after several Klansmen threatened to burn the building to the ground.” (Arsenault 2006, 147). Soon after the KKK threatened to burn the building, so the new patients were evacuated.

Aboard the Trailways Bus

Later that day, the Trailways bus was also attacked when the bus got to Anniston, Alabama, this time by the KKK. The Klansmen had been aboard the entire time, albeit undercover. Before the bus left Atlanta, they had discouraged others from boarding, not wanting any witnesses. Arsenault says, “The bus was barely out of the Atlanta terminal when the Klansmen began to make threatening remarks… Once the bus passed the state line, the comments intensified, giving the Riders the distinct impression that something might be brewing in Anniston” (Arsenault 2006, 149). Once they arrived at Anniston Trailways station, the Riders were badly beaten by the Klansmen. After the bus left to head toward Birmingham, they had a police escort of four vehicles and took back roads as they knew there would be protesters when they arrived in the Magic City.

When they arrived, there were even more Klansmen ready to attack, beating them again. The police (many of whom were in league with the KKK) watched and did not intervene. As Arsenault describes, “This was not just the Deep South – it was Birmingham, where close collaboration with the Ku Klux Klan and law enforcement officials was a fact of life. The special agents in the Birmingham FBI field office, as well as their superiors in Washington, possessed detailed information on this collaboration and could have warned the Freedom Riders. But they chose to remain silent.” (Arsenault 2006, 151). Also, Rosenberger tells us that “The Birmingham police denied knowledge of the attack and claimed that officers had not been posted at the bus depot because of the Mother’s Day holiday. It was later revealed that the local authorities were well aware of the planned attack but had intentionally shirked their law enforcement obligations” (Rosenberger 2014, 81). This was definitely a dire situation in which the federal law enforcement ignorantly and blissfully looked the other way.

Birmingham Memorials

The site of the attacks in Birmingham is remembered by two memorials. The older of these is a Alabama Historical Commission (AHC) marker erected in 1995. Later, after a Wells Fargo drive-through banking facility was erected on the site, the bank added a memorial mural featuring photographs and captions. Confusingly, the AHC historical marker erroneously states that the bus arrived at the Greyhound terminal (which was several blocks up the street), not the Trailways station. (All the photos below were taken January 14, 2024 by David Bains.)

What The Story of The Freedom Riders Teaches Us

The Freedom Riders were remembered because they were defending a cause that directly affected Southern public transport users. This is relevant today because many people of color are still facing race-based discrimination, which should not be the daily status quo, but unfortunately is for many people. It often impedes their lives. The riders’ original operation (DC to New Orleans) was comprised of people recruited and trained by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). This organization was made up of, as Arsenault states, “a diverse assortment of volunteers – black and white, young and old, male and female, religious and secular, Northern and Southern.” (Arsenault 2006, 2). This tells us that those who were part of the Freedom Rider movement were not just those affected by segregation and Jim Crow, but a group of fellows from all kinds of diverse backgrounds standing up for their civil rights. Similarly, Holmes states a good number of these RIders were college students (Holmes 2009). This shows us that young people can be just as influential as those who are older. The Freedom Riders travelled to hold Southern leaders accountable for not enforcing constitutional law. As Spears explains, “Sometimes, the very existence of places requires memory. And, ironically, the city’s economic future may depend on acknowledging this racially violent past.” (Spears 2006). This means that we should remember history on a citywide level and acknowledge the need for accountability. The remembrance of the Freedom Riders should motivate us to stand against racism, regardless of one’s age, color, or race, as well as to hold our leaders accountable. 

Freedom Riders
Form: Iron Alabama Historical Commission marker
Erected: 1995 by Greyhound and Kenneth Mullinax, Jr.
Form: Photo montage
Erected: 2022 by Wells Fargo
Location: corner of 19th Street North and 4th Avenue North, Birmingham, Alabama

References

Arsenault, Raymond. 2006. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hall, Kermit. 2009. The Oxford Guide to the United States Supreme Court Decisions. New York: Oxford University Press.

Holmes, Marian Smith. 2009. “The Freedom Riders.” Smithsonian 39 (11): 70–75.

Rosenberger, Ernst H. 2014. “Remembering the Freedom Riders: An Interview with the Honorable Ernst H. Rosenberger.” New York Law School Law Review 59 (1): 79–94.

Setegn, Lea. 2002. “Irene Morgan.” Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 13, 2002.

Spears, Ellen Griffith. 2009. “Memorializing the Freedom Riders.” Southern Spaces. https://doi.org/10.18737/M7160X.

 Bella Allen ’26 was a student in UCS 102: Icons & Memorials in Samford University’s Howard College of Arts and Sciences in Spring 2024.