Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Freedom Riders by Sarah Butts

The Freedom Riders were a group of college students who would ride through the south on buses. The whites would sit in the back and the colored would sit in the front switching their roles. They would refuse to get up so that the government would create a new law.

Their protests got violent as they would step off the bus where mobs would be ready to attack them. This led to the need for police attention to help them. The police showed up on one of their rides but then disappeared in the middle of it which left them alone at their destination and beaten yet again.

Eventually police would have stayed and they made their journeys without any problem.

In this research I was shocked about how the police would just abandon them and how it got so bad that people were severely beaten and close to death.
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5 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 29, 2013 at 8:49 AM

    That is crazy that the police wouldn't even defend the people. I do admire the freedom riders though, they said they would do anything even if it meant death to get this movement through.

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  2. UnknownOctober 29, 2013 at 8:52 AM

    I am really inspired by the bravery the Freedom Riders had. That they never gave up even when beaten close to death they rode on. The Freedom Rides really interests me and I don't know how they went on fighting for their rights without using violence.

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  3. UnknownOctober 29, 2013 at 8:54 AM

    The courage that these students, our age, had to stand up for a cause like this and risk everything. Hearing that the police would just abandon them is sickening. To think their job is to protect and serve and they couldn't even do that.

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  4. Emma HardestyOctober 29, 2013 at 8:57 AM

    I thought learning about the Freedom Rides and their riders in the video was inspiring. I think it was incredible how even some white people would step up and sacrifice themselves to harsh beating, to protect the colored people, for example, Jim Zwerg. What he did was heroic to me, and in the video when he spoke about it on his hospital bed, I felt that what he did was even more honorable.

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  5. Madeline HouserOctober 30, 2013 at 9:56 PM

    It's hard to believe that the police were not defending the citizens. But what is more unbelievable is how much passion these riders had. They cared so much about a cause that they risked their well being just to stand up for another race or just the cause in general. It's terrible that some had to be arrested or beaten because of what they believed. As someone who is now at a similar age as many riders, I could not have the strength to stand up for a cause, I wish I could say that could be like them, but I can't.

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