Roles and Aims
Roles
The Freedom Riders made up the Freedom Rides and played a
very important role in the Freedom Rides, without the Freedom Riders the
Freedom Rides would have been possible. The Freedom Riders role in the Freedom Rides was to ride interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions on Boynton v. Virginia which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Freedom Riders sang songs, made signs, and refused to move even when facing arrests, assault, and even possible death.
The Freedom Riders traveled on interstate buses to different bus terminals where African-American Freedom Riders tried to use "whites-only" restrooms and lunch counters, and vice versa. The group encountered great violence from white protesters from the South but also managed to bring attention to the cause. Over the next few months, hundreds of Freedom Riders engaged in similar actions which resulted in regulation prohibiting segregation in bus and train stations nationwide.
The Freedom Riders traveled on interstate buses to different bus terminals where African-American Freedom Riders tried to use "whites-only" restrooms and lunch counters, and vice versa. The group encountered great violence from white protesters from the South but also managed to bring attention to the cause. Over the next few months, hundreds of Freedom Riders engaged in similar actions which resulted in regulation prohibiting segregation in bus and train stations nationwide.
Aims
The aim of the Freedom Rides was to test the 1960 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia that segregation of interstate transportation facilities, including bus terminals, was constitutional, since the South refused to comply, the Freedom Riders decided to go into the deeply segregated South to challenge the status quo and stop segregation in interstate bus terminals. The Freedom Riders main aim was to stop segregation in interstate bus terminals (since African Americans could not enter whites only restrooms and zones and were refused service by lunch counters) which meant that there should be no "whites-only" zones and that African Americans could use the same facilities and be treated equally.