We the freedom riders were civil rights activists in interstate buses which drove into the segregated South of the United States to test how the supreme court's decision would be about our try to end secregation.
We left Washington D.C. on may 4, 1961 and were supposed to arrive in New Orleans on May 17, but not everything worked out like it was planned.
Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which we were fighting against. It was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens.
Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated.
-No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed.
-The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately.
-All persons licensed to conduct a restaurant, shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room or serve the two races anywhere under the same license.
We were all fighting with all we had for justice and equality, and never stoped, even when we thought we were about to die, we always came back and tried our best. Each and everyone of us should be a hero.
Each time we met violence and the campaign seemed doomed, new ways were found to sustain and even expand our movement. After Klansmen in Alabama set fire to our original Freedom Ride bus, we organized a ride of our own.
Later, Mississippi officials locked up more than 300 Riders in the notorious Parchman State Penitentiary.
