0:05 [Music] hurry
0:07 hurry [Music]
0:21 it's reading love use the Supreme Court
0:25 had said listen here mister Jim always
0:25 time you [Music]
0:41 I'm taking a ride on the brain buster
0:45 I'm riding for bronzy to Jackson yeah
0:59 [Music]
1:04 on May 4 1961 Turkish Negroes and whites
1:06 bought tickets in Washington DC for a
1:09 long ride on to regularly scheduled
1:12 buses through the dissolve
1:15 I'm James former national director of
1:18 the Congress of racial equality more
1:23 often known as core among us were Albert Bigelow
1:24 Bigelow
1:30 Genevieve Hughes and Jim Peck we were
1:33 called a variety of things we were the
1:36 Freedom Riders and this is how the
1:41 Freedom Rides began in December 1960 the
1:44 Supreme Court said segregation in bus
1:47 terminals is unconstitutional but Jim
1:49 Crow still sat at lunch counters and in
1:51 waiting rooms throughout the south and
1:54 where he sat there was no room for
1:56 Negroes and whites to sitting our ride
1:59 supposed to be only 13 days long was
2:02 designed to push Jim Crow laws purge
2:05 Alabama's governor Patterson believed we
2:08 had a different purse what these people
2:10 are doing is not just traveling through
2:13 Alabama in interstate commerce or
2:15 interstate travel they're buying tickets
2:18 from town to town and getting off in
2:21 each town and seeking through mixed
2:25 groups [ __ ] Negro men and white women
2:29 to force themselves into situations
2:32 which tend to inflame the local people
2:36 and insert some oh by going into two
2:42 waiting rooms restaurants of cafes lunch
2:44 counters which are traditionally and in
2:49 many cases required by city ordinance to
2:52 be segregated and pushing themselves
2:54 onto people who are citizens of those
2:58 communities in such a manner as to as to
2:59 insist them
3:01 enraged them and to provoke them into
3:04 acts of violence that's what they are
3:07 doing despite what the governor said
3:10 there was no violence in Virginia or
3:13 North Carolina I had to leave the ride
3:15 to be with my family when I learned that
3:17 my father had died
3:22 Albert Bigelow was one who continued the
3:24 first violence occurred in Rock Hill
3:29 South Carolina John Lewis walk toward
3:31 the segregated white waiting room in the
3:35 terminal some white men slugged him and
3:39 then slugged me both of us practiced a
3:43 nonviolent attitude Sunday morning
3:47 Mother's Day when we left Atlanta I gave
3:49 each of the riders a box of animal
3:52 crackers and raisins because we didn't
3:54 expect to be served at our lunch stop
3:59 Aniston when we rolled into the terminal
4:03 in Anniston mobs of men were waiting for us
4:12 mmm some of them yelled Heil Hitler
4:16 the driver got off but we stayed onboard
4:22 we seem to be there for a long time when
4:24 the bus finally pulled out of the
4:27 terminal the mob followed us a tire went
4:29 flat and the bus stopped on a small
4:33 clump of the hill the mob went to work
4:36 on the bus sides windows and tires
4:39 finally one of them cut out a rear side
4:44 window and to a bomb through it they
4:48 held the door tightly shut until a state
4:51 policeman fired a shot some of the
4:53 riders came out of the door
5:34 unbe I'll be your slave I'll be buried
5:42 in my grave and go home the burning bus
5:45 was neither defeat nor victory for us
5:47 but it did bring the entire country to
5:51 the edge of its seat Freedom Riders on
5:54 the second bus the Trailways bus learned
6:03 Charles person and I were to test the
6:07 Trailways lunchroom in Birmingham as we
6:10 got off the bus we saw a crowd of men
6:13 some of them armed with pipe waiting
6:17 along the sidewalk just as we got to the
6:19 lunchroom a group of them seized us and
6:23 steered us toward the exit as soon as
6:25 they got us out of sight of the crowd in
6:28 a waiting room six of them started
6:30 hitting and slugging me I was soon
6:33 unconscious when I came to I was
6:38 bleeding badly you can't see me in this
6:41 picture neither did I know what was
6:44 happening to Charles but when I saw the
6:47 photo later I was amazed at how you
6:50 could see the expression of hate on the
6:53 faces of these men while they were
6:58 beating me I was taken to the hospital
7:02 where they had to put 53 stitches in my head
7:13 someone asked the police chief why not a
7:16 single policeman was on hand when our
7:19 bus arrived in Birmingham he explained
7:22 that it was Mother's Day and that they
7:25 were all visiting their mothers
7:28 Birmingham was the end of the bus ride
7:30 for this first group of Freedom Riders
7:33 drivers of Trailways and Greyhound buses
7:35 refused to take them beyond Birmingham
7:38 they were scheduled to appear at a rally
7:41 in New Orleans so they rode airplanes to
7:45 get to the rally on time but the Freedom
7:48 Ride wasn't finished it had a few of its
7:51 own now Negro and white students came
7:54 from Nashville soldiers volunteering in
7:58 freedom's frontline to carry on the ride
8:01 this was a chance to challenge
8:04 segregation the ride had become a symbol
8:07 of the fight against segregation not
8:10 only in southern bus terminals but
8:18 everywhere others said we should wait
8:21 for the time to get right for things to
8:25 cool off but we believe the time is
8:28 always right to fight evil and things
8:33 had grown so cold hearts had frozen the
8:35 United States Attorney General Robert
8:37 Kennedy tried to telephone Alabama
8:39 Governor Paterson for assurance the
8:41 students would be protected from Mars
8:43 but someone in the governor's office
8:46 said he was unavailable to the Attorney
8:49 General then President Kennedy tried to
8:51 call the governor and he was told he was
8:53 out on the Gulf of Mexico and could not
8:56 be reached other Freedom Riders some
9:00 from the first ride joined the students [Music]
9:04 [Music]
9:08 and they rode two buses Birmingham
9:21 and turned them over to state troopers
9:23 who convoyed them to the edge of Montgomery
9:24 Montgomery [Music]
9:31 [Music] Oh
9:46 [Music]
9:49 there was violence in Montgomery as soon
9:51 as the riders got off the bus
9:54 these men are reporting photographers
9:57 for Life magazine were among the first
10:00 to be attacked by a crowd of white men
10:02 and women who went after the newsman
10:12 the student who got the worst beating
10:19 was James's word he came at me
10:24 phrase very quickly grabbed me pulled me
10:29 over Shore trading under the pavement
10:39 tried to protect myself I was over able
10:40 to roll over in my stomach
10:44 tried to crouch out up and then somebody
10:46 kicked me ran to fanny
10:50 send me fine I rolled over on my stomach
10:53 and so the foot came down and got me
10:56 across here so last thing I remember
11:01 till I woke up in a taxi will take
11:04 shitty will take being or willing to
11:08 accept death we're going to keep coming
11:12 until we can ride from anywhere in the
11:18 south anyplace else myself without
11:24 anybody making any comments just as
11:27 American citizens the First Baptist
11:32 Church a rally for Freedom Riders by now
11:35 the whole country even the whole world
11:38 was involved in the agony of segregation
11:41 we dared begin to hope that the
11:43 nonviolent struggle against it will succeed
11:51 outside a mob gathered [Music]
12:14 inside fifteen hundred persons prayed
12:16 governor paterson could no longer ignore
12:19 what was happening he declared martial
12:22 law and the church rally became the
12:24 focal point for the conflict between
12:29 what is best and what is worst in men in
12:33 the church we sang prayed and listened
12:37 to the Reverend Martin Luther King he
12:42 told us it may mean going to jail if
12:44 such is the case the resistor must be
12:46 willing to fill the jail houses of the
12:50 South it may even mean physical death
12:53 but if physical death is the price that
12:57 a man must pay to free his children and
12:59 his white brethren from a permanent
13:02 death of the Spirit then nothing could
13:06 be more redemptive there was no defeat
13:12 in our mood that night May 24th and the
13:15 ride continued to New Orleans by way of
13:19 Jackson Mississippi I was one of the
13:25 riders some of us had grown up in this
13:26 section of the country
13:29 now we were being convoyed across it
13:32 like warriors being given safe passage
13:35 we couldn't somehow put down the feeling
13:40 that a war was going on of course many
13:42 of us had known that feeling before and
13:45 we knew that this was not a war against
13:49 segregation only in the south the
13:50 Freedom Rides were a way of
13:52 demonstrating against segregation
13:55 everywhere from South Africa to Seattle
14:00 from Boston to Berkeley segregation
14:02 kills men's spirits just as effectively
14:06 Anna Lauren slum ghetto as a dozen
14:10 southern segregated Terminal lunchroom
14:13 Alabama was in a hurry to be rid of us
14:15 so there were no stops during which we
14:24 could get out Mississippi the uniforms
14:27 have the words US Army sewn on their
14:29 breasts some of the state troopers
14:34 carried submachine guns stomachs
14:37 tightened now I heard a National
14:40 Guardsmen shell look behind every tree
14:43 consciously we inhaled and exhaled
14:47 deeply we tried to sing America the Beautiful
14:48 Beautiful
14:52 but our voices had no energy for the
14:55 last half hour the bus was a tomb
14:59 outside we could hear police car sirens
15:03 on the brain home bustle I'm I'm riding
15:06 the front seat two chapters
15:13 hello Jorma traveling I'll be fine
15:15 some of us thought moms would be waiting
15:24 for us but there were only police we got
15:38 walked into the terminal into the white
15:43 waiting rooms and felt Jim Crow clappa
15:46 hand on our shoulders his name is
15:49 Captain Ray and he has become a legend
15:53 among Freedom Riders three times he
15:55 asked us to move on three times we
16:00 refused and now this pattern is a ritual
16:04 it may mean going to jail if such is the
16:06 case the resistor must be willing to
16:12 fill the jail houses of the south we
16:15 didn't choose Jackson Mississippi has
16:19 the last stop on the freedom ride it
16:26 chose us we chose to fill its jails they
16:28 charged us with refusing to disperse and
16:31 move on after being ordered to do so by
16:35 a policeman and they accused us of
16:38 breach of the peace these laws had been
16:40 passed the year before to guard Jim Crow
16:44 against city and demonstrations justice
16:47 in Mississippi is run with assembly line
16:58 efficiency arrest trial fine
17:03 for months and $200 and when we refused
17:06 to pay back to jail and from Hinds
17:10 County Jail to Parchman state prison
17:14 most of us stayed in jail 40 days and 40
17:19 nights if we had stayed longer we would
17:21 be legally unable to appeal our
17:24 sentences and all of us of course wanted
17:26 to appeal against the evil that
17:31 Mississippi calls justice others appeal
17:37 to magazines newspapers radio and
17:39 television networks joined us in
17:46 one writer who protested against Jim
17:48 Crow was the Dean of Yale University's
17:53 law school he wrote the changes required
17:56 to make the Negro the white man's equal
18:01 before the law must come they are coming
18:03 not because political forces in the
18:06 north demand them nor yet to please
18:08 public opinion in Africa and Asia and
18:13 the score a point in the Cold War we are
18:15 struggling to accomplish these social
18:24 but we were put in the South 15 by 20
18:31 then I decided to switch and I described
18:34 what was on the bars of one of our
18:37 windows and we put all the toilet
18:38 article up there and we had something
18:47 like 22 bars do nothing for two hours
18:49 time girls exercise in this hour and
18:51 then afterwards we have that three hours
18:55 with two hours that I told you what we
18:57 had meetings to bathe to learning grief
18:59 because a Greek professor was there from
19:05 Mount Holyoke College we had strong get
19:08 it and I look down the cellblock and you
19:10 really look like an animal in a cage and
19:12 the day that I left I ran all the way
19:13 down the cellblock to say goodbye to
19:15 people and I almost got stuck in there
19:19 as a result of it the 1961 Freedom Rides
19:23 were an expedition into America's conscience
19:24 conscience
19:27 they didn't begin and end with the first
19:30 group of rides which we've described
19:32 hundreds of other Freedom Riders came
19:36 from all over the country to challenge
19:40 segregation the ride was only a
19:43 beginning but it was a breakthrough
19:46 terminals in Atlanta Charlotte Terra
19:49 and many other southern cities are now
19:54 desegregated perhaps more important some
19:56 white southerners are now beginning to
20:00 free their own trapped spirits will take
20:04 shady will take being we're willing to
20:07 accept death but we're going to keep
20:12 coming until we can ride from anywhere
20:17 in itself anyplace else myself without
20:23 anybody making any comments just as
20:36 one man's hands can't break a prison down
20:38 down
20:49 let me make a million will see light
20:56 they come round we'll see that day come
21:00 one man strength can't break the color more
21:01 more [Music]
21:13 we make our million will see the
21:25 one man's hands can't break a prison [Music]
21:34 [Music]
21:37 - and misbehave of me
21:42 we'll see that they come around will be [Music]
21:45 [Music] you
