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Group Research Project 2 Melissa Smoler, Katharine Rytych, Brandon Beamer, Brian Gregg Section S1 Gardner Rogers Freedom Riders “Freedom Riders” were a group of people, both black and white, who were civil rights activists from the North who “meant to demonstrate that segregated travel on interstate buses, even though banned by an I.C.C. Ruling, were still being enforced throughout much of the South” (The South 16). The Riders attempted to prove this by having a dozen or so white and black Freedom Riders board buses in the North and travel through Southern cities. This was all “a coldly calculated attempt to speed up integration by goading the South, forcing the Southern extremists to explode their tempers” ('Freedom Riders' 20). The author of the Newsweek article stated this as the Southern opinion of the reason for the Freedom Riders. The Southern opposition, inadvertently proving the Freedom Riders' point, made sure that most of the rides ended in violence. A U.S. Supreme Court decision, made in December 1960, stated that “Interstate passengers have … a right to expect that ... service would be rendered without discrimination, as prohibited by the Interstate Commerce Act” ('Freedom Riders' 18). This law was geared towards integration on public transportation. To get around this statement, the Alabama police charged those who tried to fight segregation standards with “disturbing the peace.” The Alabama police considered disturbing the peace to be “any person who disturbs the peace of others by violent, profane, indecent, offensive, or boisterous conduct calculated to provoke a breach of the peace shall be guilty of a misdemeanor” ('Freedom Riders' 18). In essence, policemen could arrest people for anything they sought fit. These two laws composed a struggle between integrationists and segregationists. The Freedom Riders attempted to combat this problem. The violence that ended these freedom rides was perpetuated in many different forms. Several incidents of beatings were reported, sometimes with simple weapons, other times with weapons of mass destruction conducted by local citizens as the freedom riders passed through their city. Very often, “the cops were conspicuously absent when the blood began to flow” (The South 16). One particularly violent incident on May 14, 1961 occurred when someone threw a bomb into a window of an interstate bus. When the twelve passengers on the bus exited because of the smoke and flames, the waiting mob pulverize beat some of passengers up. The police arrested four men in conjunction with the bombing, yet the four men were only charged with “willful damage to vehicles in interstate commerce” (State is Warned 1). The fact that this incident was taken so lightly is appalling. Clearly these men should have been punished or convicted more severely. The hurt freedom riders were taken to the local hospital, and none were seriously injured. We examined two articles about the bus bombing incident, one from Time and one from the New York Times. The Time article gave a much more general overview of the incident, and lacked some details, such as who was arrested and why, and the response of the government. The New York Times article discussed this information in great detail. It includes the names of the perpetrators and the reason for their arrest. It also discusses the response of Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who decided to keep Marshals in the area to maintain peace. Also, most government officials felt the need to pass legislation to ensure protection of the rights of African-Americans. However the context of The New York Times article and the Time article were very different. The article in The New York Times merely reported facts as if it were a report on the scene, which it very well likely could have been. Whereas, the Time article reported the incident in a different, more commemorative way. It is no surprise that a newspaper article would contain specific facts and information about an event such as this one. After all, that is what newspaper articles are for--to inform people. A periodical like Time would not include facts such as this. It would give an overview of the event and motives for why the people got involved, as well as how the world or community benefited or suffered as a result from the event. Here is where the differences lie in these two articles. Other than that, both articles covered the event thoroughly, just in very different ways, from two very different perspectives. Another way the Freedom Riders have been covered in written history is in books. Two types of books, published since the height of the Freedom Ride Movement, look at two different aspects of the history of Freedom Riders. The first type of book, usually written by historians, strictly talks about the history of the Freedom Rides. An example of this classroom textbook style of book is Black Revolt: Strategies of Protest edited by Doris Wilkinson. This book and others like it report the facts: when a Freedom Ride event occurred, who was there, what happened. Contrasting these historical accounts is the other type of book, written by Freedom Riders themselves. Not only do these books report the facts on Freedom Riders movements drives as the first type of book did, but these books have a personal side attached to them. Since the authors of these books fought for equal rights at major Freedom Ride events, their emotions come through in their writings. The emotions of the authors coupled with the facts are more powerful than just the facts alone. This technique of interweaving private emotions along with public facts is seen again and again in Baldwin’s writings. Through the study of Baldwin’s writings, we know this is an effective and interesting way to relate history. Freedom Ride, written by James Peck is an example of a book that intertwines private emotions along with public events. In a New Republic article “The Non-Violent Ideology”, David J. Eisen reviews Peck’s work. The information Eisen uses in “Non-Violent” to describe the Freedom Riders comes directly from Peck’s book. The first part of Eisen’s article relays facts: Peck is a pacifist, a member of CORE, and that the Freedom riders consisted of “middle class intellectuals and students” who where “mild-mannered, personally unaggressive, most often with a strong religious tinge” (The Non-Violent Ideology 22). Also, Eisen reports the Freedom Riders followed the teachings of Gandhi of non-violent resistance. Yet, Eisen transitions his review from the facts of who Freedom Riders were to what they did and the emotions attached to the actions. For example Eisen describes an “unforgettable” moment in Freedom Ride concerning the regret Peck felt when he could not “ ‘…discuss the Freedom Rides in a more serious manner’ ” with President Truman (The Non-Violent Ideology 23). Knowing that the Freedom Riders were disappointed because the President of the United State would not listen to their concerns is more compelling than just simply knowing that the President of the time did not support the Freedom Ride movement. This is a prime example of how Peck uses the important technique of public vs. private in his work. It is very apparent that the Freedom Ride movement of the early 1960s was a very influential, as well as monumental movement that influenced many at the time. Not only did it influence those at the time that it was occurring, but it still continues to influence and remind people today of how heroic and valiant those people really were. The Freedom Riders demonstrated how by the active participation of a few, can make such a huge difference in the world and for the civil rights movement. They not only serve as heroes, but as role models for many. The South was still very strict on laws regarding privileges being granted to African- Americans. What these freedom Riders did was help to break and re-shape many of these laws. They helped many African-Americans gain civil rights. An interesting fact attached to the Freedom Riders is that most of them were white and were willing to stand up for what they believed in to help those of a different color at such a volatile, as well as harsh time in southern society. They went combated violence, discrimination, and grueling journeys themselves just to help the people in the South. How We Conducted Our Research To do the research, we used the New York Times Historical Index and the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. In the NYT index, we used “Alabama Bomb Freedom Riders” as our search term. For the Reader's guide, we used “Negroes in the U.S.--Segregation, Resistance to” as our search term. We found these by trying a number of different search terms and ended up using the ones where we found the most articles in the Periodical section of the Undergrad. For the book review, we looked for subject headings within the Book Review Digest under “segregation” to find an author and searched for the author's name to find reviews. We focused on one event in Alabama to make sure the paper was specific enough.
Works Cited Eisen, David J. “The Non-Violent Ideology.” New Republic July 1962: 22-23. “'Freedom Riders' Force a Test, State Laws or U.S. Law in Segregated South?” Newsweek 5 June 1961: 18-22. Peck, James. Freedom Ride. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962. “State is Warned.” New York Times 23 May 1961: 1,26. “The South: Trouble in Alabama.” Time 26 May 1961: 16-7. Wilkinson, Doris Y., ed. Black Revolt: Strategies of Protest. Berkeley: McCutchan Publishing Corporations, 1969. |
