During the Freedom Rides, SNCC members rode buses through the deep southern states where discrimination and segregation were most prominent. The concept originated in the 1940's with CORE, a non-violent group out of Chicago trying to end racial discrimination.

Learn about the Freedom Riders, a courageous band of African American and white civil rights activists who in 1961 rode together on buses throughout the American South to challenge segregation. These video segments document the events and accomplishments of the Freedom Rides, and introduce you to the real human stories of those who helped change our history.

Fighting racial segregation in the South, these activists were beaten and arrested. Where are they now, nearly fifty years later? By Marian Smith Holmes Photographs by Eric Etheridge Smithsonian magazine, February 2009, Subscribe After a mob attacked a bus with protesters in Alabama in 1961, hundreds more joined the cause.

Developed in partnership with PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, the guide Democracy in Action supports educators and students in their use of the documentary Freedom Riders. This film tells the powerful story of the Freedom Riders taking brave and decided actions to dismantle the structures of discrimination-specifically segregated interstate bus travel-through nonviolence.

Developed in partnership with PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, the guide Democracy in Action supports educators and students in their use of the documentary Freedom Riders. This film tells the powerful story of the Freedom Riders taking brave and decided actions to dismantle the structures of discrimination-specifically segregated interstate bus travel-through nonviolence.

The 1961 Freedom Rides were public bus trips undertaken by racially integrated groups through the Deep South to test the enforcement of a newly enacted court order prohibiting segregation in interstate bus terminals. The riders were met with hostility and violence in a number of states, and they encountered some of the worst violence inAlabama.

Jim Crow Laws The segregation and disenfranchisement laws known as "Jim Crow" represented a formal, codified system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South for three quarters of a century beginning in the 1890s. The laws affected almost every aspect of daily life, mandating segregation of schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, trains, and restaurants.