50 Year Anniversary of the Freedom Riders

50 Year Anniversary of the Freedom Riders

Fifty years ago today, the inaugural Freedom Ride left Washington D.C. to end in New Orleans two weeks later. Taking on such a culturally dangerous challenge did not come without its fair share of hazards and riders from that very bus took time to recollect on such a journey that eventually changed the fabric of American history.

freedom-riders-celebrate-50-year-anniversary
It was the spring of 1961, when the first 13 Freedom Riders planned a two week trek from Washington, D.C. They would take two buses through the deep South.

Hank Thomas was just 19 when he boarded the bus. “We had no thought of any kind of violence,” he said.

 But violence would come ten days later. Outside of Anniston, Alabama, Thomas’ bus was surrounded by the Ku Klux Klan and set on fire. He and five others were almost burned alive.

“I was looking for the easiest way to die,” he said.

Hours later in Birmingham, the second bus –carrying seven others — was met by pipes and bats. James Peck lost six teeth and was knocked unconscious. 

“We must not surrender to violence,” Peck said in 1961

Diane Nash was a 22-year-old junior at Fisk University in Nashville.

“It was critical at that moment that we not allow the rides to stop,” Nash said.

This site offers two approaches for the study of specific time periods in American women's history.

 Ken Middleton
kmiddlet@mtsu.edu
Middle Tennessee State Univ. Library
Murfreesboro, TN 37132