On May 4, 1961, the Freedom Riders set out from Washington, DC on a Greyhound bus. The test was the brainchild of James Farmer and CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). Farmer recruited young people, Black and White, to participate in an integrated bus ride from Washington to New Orleans. Along the way, they intended to integrate bus station waiting rooms, lunch counters, and public restrooms, testing enforcement of a Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation.
Pictured: A black and white photograph of Freedom Riders being loaded into a police wagon. There are five officers standing to the right of the vehicle. A row of reporters stands between the wagon and a crowd of White onlookers. In the background are eleven parked cars and several people on the sidewalk.
Credit: AP/Horace Cort
