Freedom Riders Facts
Freedom Riders Facts
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Interesting Freedom Riders Facts: |
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The idea of Freedom Rides CORE president James Farmer. |
After the initial Freedom Rides, most of the subsequent rides took place in the Mississippi. |
Most rides were done by nearly and equal number of white and black Freedom Riders. |
Although President John Kennedy was sympathetic to some aspects of the Civil Rights movement, he was highly critical of the Freedom Rides because he thought they made the United States look bad in the eyes of the world, especially to the Soviet Union. |
The Soviet Union used images of the anti-Freedom Rider violence in Alabama in their propaganda. |
Freedom riders were often arrested and not given bail. So many Freedom Riders were arrested in Mississippi that the local, county, and state authorities began housing arrested riders in the maximum security state prison. |
The precursor to the Freedom Rides was the 1947 "Journey of Reconciliation" in which activists challenged segregated interstate busing by riding in a racially mixed group and ignoring the segregated seating rules. |
Injured Freedom Riders were often denied hospital care and sometimes had to be recused by groups of armed, local black citizens. |
The worst of the mob violence was usually reserved for the white Freedom Riders, whom the Klan viewed as racial traitors and instigators. |
Nearly all of the white Freedom Riders were from northern states. |
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