Freedom Riders

The freedom riders were a brave group of individuals that decided to get on buses and head to the deep south to challenge strict segregation laws. This idea alarmed people who opposed civil rights but also alarmed people who were helping to further the civil rights movement. Hearing these individuals’ stories was unimaginable. I thought to myself, “Would I be able to sit there and be able to handle all these harsh words being screamed at me or would I be able to have hot coffee thrown on me?”. In the documentary, the students who left Nashville, Tennessee to finish the freedom ride mentioned how they had signed their last wills and testaments before they left for Birmingham. They knew that there was a possibility that they could die but they still choose to fight for progress. Those students said, “We cannot let violence overcome nonviolence.”. I think about this as I am in college only a couple years younger than these freedom riders and I cannot imagine myself signing my last will. Throughout this documentary, I also thought about how much of this movement was actually a political battle. Everyone was just waiting for President Kennedy to make a move against Bull Connor and the Alabama police forces. Not only did these freedom riders want to start a national movement, it caused much more uproar from a political standpoint through President Kennedy’s staff and through Alabama’s political figures. I was shocked at the lack of motivation and involvement that was portrayed by local law enforcement. State police officers were shouting racial slurs and awful things to these freedom riders as they were forced to protect them from the airplane to the airport. I was caught off guard on how many people just let this hatred and violence happen. Everyone seemed to sit back and watch as innocent people were getting hurt because they were fighting for their God given rights. 

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