1968: The Global Revolutions

In an act of mass civil disobedience, hundreds of black and white Freedom Riders journeyed south on Greyhound buses during the spring and summer of 1961. By putting themselves in danger from the violence of integration opponents, they hoped to pressure the U.S. Justice Department to step in and enforce federal statutes outlawing segregation in interstate travel. Facing beatings, fire bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, and a lack of police protection, the activists proceeded through Tennessee into Alabama, under constant threat by angry white mobs. At last, the Kennedy administration mobilized federal marshals to protect the demonstrators, but many participants arrived at the final destination of Jackson, Mississippi, only to be arrested by local authorities.