The Freedom Riders, part of a campaign created by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), pressured the federal government to enforce the law regarding illegal racially separate waiting rooms, rest rooms, and restaurants-common in public transportation facilities across the South. Greyhound Bus Station This former Greyhound bus station was the scene of many historic arrests in 1961, when Freedom Riders challenged racial segregation in Jackson’s bus and train stations and airport. In September 1961, the federal government mandated that segregation in interstate transportation end. Convicted on "breach of peace" and jailed, most refused bail and were sent to the state penitentiary. That summer 329 people were arrested in Jackson for integrating public transportation facilities. The first two came on Trailways buses May 24. On May 28, 1961, a Greyhound bus with nine Freedom Riders aboard arrived here, the third group of Riders into Jackson. It is in Farish Street Historic District in Jackson in Hinds County Mississippi This historical marker was erected in 2011 by the Mississippi Development Authority Tourism Division. The victorious Freedom Riders left a legacy of historic changes, proving the value of nonviolent direct action, providing a template for future campaigns, and helping jump-start the movement in Mississippi. They came from thirty-nine states and ten other countries forty-three were from Mississippi., On September 23, the Interstate Commerce Commission mandated an end to segregation in all bus and train stations and airports. Most were between the ages of eighteen and thirty. Between May 24 and September 13, 329 people were arrested in Jackson, half black, half white, and a quarter of them women. Within three weeks the city’s jails were full, and the Riders were transferred to the state penitentiary at Parchman, where most served six weeks, suffering indignities and injustices with fortitude and resolve. Embracing the "jail-no bail" tactic, they invited new Riders from around the country to join them in Jackson. When the Riders refused, they were arrested, charged with “breach of peace,” and quickly convicted. Instead of a protest mob, policemen met them in Jackson, urging them to “move on” when the Riders tried to use facilities denied them. The Riders, however, reinforced with new volunteers from the Nashville Student Movement, were determined to continue., On May 24, two buses of Freedom Riders left Montgomery bound for Jackson, with highway patrolmen and National Guardsmen as armed guards. The Kennedy administration implored them to stop, a call echoed by the media and some civil rights leaders. They integrated stations in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia with few incidents but were attacked by vicious mobs in Anniston, Birmingham, and Montgomery, Alabama. Trained in nonviolent direct action, they planned to desegregate bus stations throughout the South. The Freedom Riders, part of a campaign created by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), pressured the federal government to enforce the law regarding illegal racially separate waiting rooms, rest rooms, and restaurants, common in public transportation facilities across the South., On May 4, 1961, thirteen Riders, blacks and whites, men and women, left Washington, D.C., on two buses. In September 1961, the federal government mandated that segregation in interstate transportation end., (back), Greyhound Bus Station This former Greyhound bus station was the scene of many historic arrests in 1961, when Freedom Riders challenged racial segregation in Jackson’s bus and train stations and airport. , (front), On May 28, 1961, a Greyhound bus with nine Freedom Riders aboard arrived here, the third group of Riders into Jackson.
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