Who were the Freedom Riders?
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The freedom rides were a series of bus trips through the segregated Southern United States to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. The freedom rides started on May 4, 1961, the group consisted of 13 African-Americans and white civil rights activists. The Freedom Riders were recruited by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a U.S. civil rights group, and departed from Washington, D.C. The group attempted to integrate facilities at bus terminals along the way into the Deep South, African-American Freedom Riders tried to use "whites-only" lunch counters and restrooms, and vice versa. The group encountered tremendous violence from white protesters along the route, but at the same time drew international attention to their cause. Over the next few months, several hundred Freedom Riders engaged in similar actions. Finally in September 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulation prohibiting segregation in bus and train stations nationwide.