The Freedom Riders: The History of the Civil Rights Activists Who Rode Buses around the South to Protest Segregation
Written by Charles River Editors
Narrated by KC Wayman
5/5
()
About this audiobook
After a 1960 Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia, bus segregation was made illegal on new grounds: it violated the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, by regulating the movement of people across state lines. With this victory in hand, the Freedom Rides of 1961 began. Organized primarily by a new group – the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) – the Freedom Rides followed the same guidance that inspired the Montgomery Boycott and the Greensboro Sit-Ins – non-violent direct action. The purpose of the Freedom Rides was the test the Supreme Court's decision by riding from Virginia to Louisiana on integrated busses. This was notably the first major Civil Rights event that included a large segment of white participants.
Mobs in places like Birmingham and Montgomery firebombed buses and brutally beat the Freedom Riders, sending dozens to the hospital. Mob violence, orchestrated by the KKK and their segregationist allies, erupted endlessly throughout the summer. White activists, who were viewed by the Ku Klux Klan as betraying their race, took the worst beatings of all.
Both black and white Northerners had participated in the Freedom Rides, and civil rights activists sought other ways to harness their energy and activism in 1963. After the Freedom Rides, civil rights leaders initiated voter registration drives that could help register black voters and build community organizations that could help make their votes count. The momentum generated by the Freedom Rides and the following activism would lead to the famous March on Washington and eventually the passage of a historic civil rights bill in 1964.
More audiobooks from Charles River Editors
Gnosticism: The History and Legacy of the Mysterious Ancient Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The East India Company: The History of the British Empire's Most Famous Mercantile Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nineveh: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Assyrian Capital Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ur: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Sumerian Capital Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Life and Legacy of the Father of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Denisovans: The History of the Extinct Archaic Humans Who Spread Across Asia during the Paleolithic Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mysteries of the South: Ghosts, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena in Dixie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mossad: The History and Legacy of Israel’s National Intelligence Agency Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Legends of the West: Deadwood, South Dakota Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cambrian Period: The History and Legacy of the Start of Complex Life on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Arnold Rothstein and Meyer Lansky: The Lives and Legacies of the Gangsters Who Reformed Organized Crime in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden: The History of 19th Century America's Most Famous Murder Case Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madame de Pompadour: The Life and Legacy of French King Louis XV’s Chief Mistress Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vandals: The History and Legacy of Antiquity's Most Famous Barbarians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fermi Paradox: The History and Legacy of the Famous Debate over the Existence of Aliens Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Midwest: Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena in America's Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Battle of Hamburger Hill: The History and Legacy of One of the Vietnam War's Most Controversial Battles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung: The Pioneering Lives and Works of History’s Most Influential Psychologists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Freedom Riders
Related audiobooks
Symbols of Freedom: Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Slow, Calculated Lynching: The Story of Clyde Kennard Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Birmingham Campaign: The History of the SCLC’s Non-Violent Protests in Alabama’s Biggest City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHattiesburg: An American City In Black And White Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStolen Justice: The Struggle for African American Voting Rights (Scholastic Focus) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Black Man's President: Abraham Lincoln, African Americans, & the Pursuit of Racial Equality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Know Nothing Party: The History and Legacy of America’s Most Notorious Nativist Political Party Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow (Scholastic Focus) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spies of the Mississippi Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/51919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/512 Years a Slave Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ellis Island: A People's History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Prison Guard's Daughter: My Journey Through the Ashes of Attica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Color of Abolition: How a Printer, a Prophet, and a Contessa Moved a Nation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJuneteenth: The History and Legacy of the Holiday that Commemorates the End of Slavery in the South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bomb Heard Around the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reading Confederate Monuments Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hitler's Assassins Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfrican Americans in the Revolutionary War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlave Breeding: Sex, Violence, and Memory in African American History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tulsa Massacre of 1921: The Controversial History and Legacy of America’s Worst Race Riot Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strivers Row Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
United States History For You
Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untold History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Adams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letter from Birmingham Jail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Freedom Riders
1 rating0 reviews