Masaryk University

4.4Freedom Rides

The Freedom Riders (13 demonstrators - seven black and six white) left Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961, and their plan was to travel through Virginia, North and South Carolina and finish in New Orleans on May 17 – the anniversary of Brown decision. The Riders managed to travel without much trouble through Virginia, however, in South Carolina and in Alabama they were attacked by segregationists. In Anniston (Alabama) they were forced to leave the bus as it was firebombed and then they were beaten up by members of Ku Klux Klan who used iron bars. Violent attacks took also place in Birmingham, where the Riders were awaited by segregationists. The police offered no protection to the Riders. The next day the pictures of burning bus carrying Freedom Riders and the attacks at Birmingham Magic City Terminal were on the front pages of numerous newspapers, not only in the USA but also abroad.

The pictures of African Americans being harassed by angry white mobs while trying to exercise their rights guaranteed to them by the US Supreme Court were in sharp contrast with the image of “beacon of freedom and democracy” as the USA tried to present themselves in the world (Rosenberg 31). President Kennedy called “emergency meeting” with the members of Justice Department (Williams 148). As Dallek confirms, “the Freedom Riders caught the Kennedys by surprise” (Unfinished Life 384). The President and his aides worried about the image of the USA in the world, especially after the debacle of Bay of Pigs Invasion and before the upcoming meeting of Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna.⁴⁷ “Kennedy... saw the headlines as another blow to America’s international prestige” (ibid.)

The President and the Attorney General agreed on sending federal marshals to Alabama if necessary, however, Robert Kennedy perceived the protection of Freedom Riders as a responsibility of local police, even though he was aware of the fact that there was certain evidence that Eugene Connor (police official in the city of Birmingham) “had facilitated the Birmingham violence” (Bryant 264). According to Rorabaugh, FBI had the information proving that Connor “had agreed to give the Klan 15 minutes alone with the Freedom Riders” (82). The Justice Department and the President administration could have (and according to their critics should have) acted more promptly on the account of such information, however, they postponed any intervention until later.

The Kennedys sent John Seigenthaler, a Justice Department aide, to Birmingham in order to monitor the situation for them. Seigenthaler had a meeting with John Patterson, Alabama Governor, who promised to “protect all people in Alabama, visitors and others, whether on the highways or elsewhere” (Brauer 100). When a new group of Freedom Riders left Birmingham on May 20, their bus was accompanied by a plane flying over and state patrol cars were along the highway between Birmingham and Montgomery. When the bus arrived in Montgomery, “Riders exited the bus into the middle of an angry, howling mob of 500 – 1,000” (Rorabaugh 82). The Riders were severely beaten and so were the crews from NBC News and Life (ibid.) When Seigenthaler, who had been following the bus, tried to help two female Riders he was “knocked unconscious and left lying in the street for nearly half an hour” (Williams 155). Martial Law was declared in Montgomery and Robert Kennedy sent four hundred federal marshals there (Rorabaugh 83).

Despite the attacks, the Riders decided to continue in their journey and on May 24, 1961, they left Montgomery and headed for Jackson, Mississippi. No violence occurred in Jackson because the Freedom Riders were awaited by the police, arrested and sent to jail. Robert Kennedy had made an agreement with James Eastland, Mississippi Senator, that the Freedom Riders were guaranteed the protection under the condition that upon their arrival in Jackson they would be arrested. Burke Marshall, Assistant Attorney General, later admitted that “the arrests ‘were unconstitutional...without any question’” (Stern, Calculating Visions 60). However, Robert Kennedy wanted to avoid the crisis so desperately that he “agreed” with the imprisonment of the Riders (Silvestri 244). After the Riders entered Mississippi, Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, issued his first public statement on the crisis. In his speech “he praised state authorities for protecting the riders” and he also “appealed to the patriotism of the riders and rioters” (Bryant 276), however, he drew the attention to the upcoming meeting of John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna and stated that anything that “brings or causes discredit on our country, can be harmful to his mission” (ibid.). In other words he told both sides that they had certain responsibility for the crisis.

President Kennedy issued his first public statement regarding Freedom Rides and the crisis it provoked on May 20, 1961. Kennedy expressed his belief that all the responsibility of maintaining peace and order is the responsibility of local authorities. He claimed: “I call upon the Governor and other responsible State officials in Alabama, as well as the Mayors of Birmingham and Montgomery, to exercise their lawful authority to prevent any further outbreaks of violence” (Kennedy, “Statement of the President Concerning Interference”). He also declared that he hoped that “any persons, whether a citizen of Alabama or a visitor there, would refrain from any action which would in any way tend to provoke further outbreaks” (ibid.). By saying this the President called upon the Freedom Riders and other civil rights activists to stop any further protests in order to keep peace and order.

According to Stern, Harris Wofford and Burke Marshall tried to convince the President that he should say “a few stout words of support for the riders” but Kennedy refused (Calculating Visions 61). He also refused to see the Riders when asked by CORE and Southern Christian Leadership Conference. During the summer of 1961, more than sixty different Rides went through the South and “by the end of summer over 300 were behind bars in Mississippi” (Anderson 53). On September 22, 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) banned segregated interstate transportation facilities so it is possible to say that the objective of the Freedom Rides was met. Apart from that they also managed to provoke the administration into action. The order of ICC was initiated by Robert Kennedy. “Under heavy pressure from Robert Kennedy, the Interstate Commerce Commission brought an end to all segregation signs in railroad and airport, and bus terminals” (O’Brien 591).

During the crisis, President remained silent most of the time, however, on July 19, during the President’s News Conference he claimed that: “... everyone who travels...should enjoy the full constitutional protection given to them by the law and by the Constitution” (Kennedy, “President’s News Conference of July 19, 1961” p.3). Dallek points out that Kennedy believed that he had “done more for civil rights than any President in the American history” (Unfinished Life 387). Nevertheless, it was not “enough to keep up with the determined efforts of African Americans to end two centuries of oppression” (ibid.). The fact that Kennedy administration eventually managed to keep law and order was viewed positively, as well as the fact that they refused to accept racial mob violence. However, they were criticized for not interfering with local police, who in many cases were members of Ku Klux Klan and approved of violence.⁴⁸ The President and his administration were “pushed into acting where it had refused to act earlier,” nevertheless they managed to cope with the situations and enforce new rules regarding racial discrimination (Schwab 151).