3/26 Freedom Writers Documentary

Watching the “Freedom Riders” documentary offered a new insight for me into the African American struggle and the intensity it lead back in the days of MLK. It was shocking to me just how severe the atrocities against African Americans were and how unreported these crimes against them were. The Riders on these buses took a stand even with the knowledge that some of them might not make it off those buses alive. The Riders were met with aggressive anger and physical abuse simply for protesting in a nonviolent manner to bring light to the cause. Segregationists were so blinded by their racism that they found no harm in the damage they were imposing onto African American. It hurts to know how dangerous being an activists can be, especially during such a divisive time as then. These riders had physical attacks against them, property destroyed, and their bodies and souls dehumanized. It is astonishing to me just how much begging and pleading it took the black struggle to get the Kennedy Administration to pay attention to what was going on and send some semblance of protection for these riders. It was only after the situation got so bad that any sort of help was sent to the riders. So many lives could have been save if the National Guard would have gotten to them before the angry mobs of white men did. The freedom riders were aware of the risk this form of protest entailed however, they were also aware that it would take protest event with this much intensity to finally get those in positions of power to realize just how much of a problem segregation is and why more of an effort needed to be made to fix the issue. The freedom riders risked their lives for the movement and that’s a gratitude I will always have.

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