The Freedom Rides

1. Set Focus
Pose this essential question: What prompts people to risk their lives for a cause?

2. List Vocabulary
Share some of the challenging vocabulary words in the article (see below). Encourage students to use context to infer meanings as they read.

• tenacity (p. 19)
• entrenched (p. 19)
• civil disobedience (p. 19)
• chaos (p. 20)
• rhetoric (p. 21)
• reckoning (p. 21)

3. Engage
Have students share what they know about the Freedom Rides. To prompt discussion ask: What movement were the Freedom Rides a part of? Where did they take place? Who participated in them? What dangers did participants endure? What did they help achieve?

4. Read and Discuss
Ask students to read the Upfront article about the Freedom Rides. Review why the article is a secondary source. (It was written by someone who didn’t personally experience or witness the events.) Then pose these critical-thinking questions::

• What were the Freedom Riders working to achieve? What tactic did they use to achieve their goal? (In general, they were working to make the U.S. a more equal society. Specifically, they were trying to cause the federal government to enforce the Supreme Court rulings of 1946 and 1960 that desegregated waiting rooms in interstate rail and bus terminals. The Freedom Riders achieved their goal by risking arrest and violence to take buses to and enter Whites-only waiting rooms in Southern states.)  

• Ann Bausum says, “The struggle for equality wasn’t just a Black problem, it was an American problem.” What does she mean? How did this conflict of ideas result in federal support of the civil rights movement? (She means that as long as segregation existed and civil rights activists were arrested and beaten, the nation could not claim to be a beacon of democracy or be an admirable world leader. This conflict of ideas caused President Kennedy to support the activists with federal marshals and National Guard troops.)

• Why did Martin Luther King Jr. choose not to join the Freedom Riders? Do you agree with his decision? (King chose not to join the Freedom Riders because he was on probation for a bogus traffic arrest. He was concerned that he would be arrested on the Freedom Rides and locked up for months, which would prevent him from effectively leading the movement. Opinions will vary but should be well supported.)

• Why do you think the Freedom Riders and other civil rights activists chose to protest in nonviolent ways? Would they have been as successful if their protests had been violent? (Nonviolent tactics allowed the activists to maintain the moral upper hand and helped put a spotlight on the vicious treatment they received by those who attacked them. Opinions about violent methods will vary.)

5. Use the Primary Sources

Project or distribute the PDF Inhuman Conditions, which features excerpts from an oral history by Frederick Leonard, a Freedom Rider, about being arrested at the bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi. Discuss what makes the oral history a primary source. (It provides firsthand evidence concerning the topic.) Have students read the excerpts and answer the questions below (which appear on the PDF without answers).

• Based on the first few lines of the excerpts, what happened in Montgomery? What mood did that set? (Based on the first few lines, you can infer that White people were violent toward the Freedom Riders in Montgomery. Leonard says that the governor of Mississippi had promised that there would be no violence, but they couldn’t believe that because of “what happened in Alabama.” Leonard elaborates that Mississippi had a reputation of being one of the worst Southern states in terms of civil rights, so the Freedom Riders were expecting more violence. This expectation set an extremely tense and fearful mood on the bus.)

• What contrast does Leonard describe in the section about the judge turning his back? (Leonard contrasts the expectations of the Freedom Riders’ attorney with the behavior of the judge. The attorney expected his clients to be treated like human beings in court but the judge treated them as if they didn’t exist and were not worthy of being looked at. He also sentenced them as if his mind was made up before the defense.)

• Which details in the excerpts support the idea that Parchman Farm was an inhuman place? (The details about the guards taking away the mattresses—leaving the activists to sleep on steel—as a punishment for singing support the idea that Parchman Farm was an inhuman place. The details about the guards having a Black inmate beat Leonard to get his mattress also supports this idea.) 

• What does Leonard mean when he says “It hurt Peewee more than it hurt me”? (Leonard means that the emotional pain Peewee had to endure in being forced to beat up a Black activist—who was fighting for changes that ultimately would be beneficial to Peewee—hurt him more than Leonard was hurt physically by the beating.)

• Based on the Upfront article and the excerpts from Leonard’s oral history, why do you think the Freedom Rides inspired more civil rights activism in the years that followed? (Students’ responses will vary but should be supported with evidence from both texts.)

6. Writing Prompt
Changes in laws often change people’s attitudes. Write a brief essay explaining whether you agree or disagree. Support your points with details from the article and other sources.

7. Quiz
Use the quiz to assess comprehension.

8. Classroom Debate
Divide the class to engage in a key debate of the civil rights era: whether to work through the courts and be patient or use nonviolent civil disobedience.

9. Multimedia Presentations
Have students, independently or in pairs, research and create a multimedia presentation about a civil rights activist (e.g., James Farmer, Diane Nash). Have students share their presentations in class or post on a class website.