Freedom Rides
From Social Justice Wiki
"This was the farthest south I'd been, the real deal. The feel of the air, the fruity, swampy smell, the surrounding lush vegetation. But you know what really represented the Deep South to me: my first sight of tall trees festooned with beards of Spanish moss. The mere sight of those moss-bearded trees etched against the rising sun said Louisiana, plantation, slavery, bayou, swamp, lynching... the mythical South. Just seeing those trees sent a tremor through me."
Inspired by the growing popularity of the sit-in movement, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) intitiated a project in 1961 that they named the “Freedom Rides,” in which a group of integrated travelers took various forms of public transportation, including buses and trains, into the deep South. The purpose of this action was to test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling Boynton v. Virginia that mandated the integration of interstate and travel facilities. When NAG was asked if they would like to participate, most of the students, including Stokely, were hesitant, knowing that the violence that met the riders in Mississippi and Alabama would be brutal. Only one NAG member, Hank Thomas, signed up for the initial ride. As the ride progressed, fears became realities as white Southerners became more violent and the riders were eventually thrown in jail. At this point, SNCC stepped in, determined not to let the riders and the non-violent movement be defeated by the physical force of the South. Their strategy was to keep people coming on public transportation through the South, and if they get thrown in jail, then enlist more people until the jails were full. Carmichael immediately signed up for the next round of Freedom Rides and flew to New Orleans after his exams in order to meet others to go into Mississippi by train. Like the rest, Carmichael was thrown in jail; the first of dozens of times that he would be arrested.
Carmichael talked extensively of his first time as a political prisoner as a result of the Freedom Rides and his experience in jail: "Given that political prisoners were in lockdown 24/7 and confined two per cell, it might be expected that time would hang heavy. Not at all. No way, Jose, not with this group. What with the range of ideology, religious belief, political commitment and background, age, and experience, something interesting was always going on. Because, no matter our differences, this group had one thing in common, moral stubbornness. Whatever we believed, we really believed and were not at all shy about advancing. We were where we were only because of our willingness to affirm our beliefs even at the risk of physical injury. So it was never dull on death row."
After a few weeks in jail, Carmichael was bonded out. CORE had decided, without contacting SNCC, that enough was enough and the Freedom Rides had made their point. Even though the Rides were over, they had an indelible impact on Carmichael. He realized that participation in the movement was something he had to do, not just something he wanted to do. However, because of a promise to himself and to his family, Carmichael chose to finish at Howard. Though he was largely involved with NAG, he did not fully return to the movement until the summer of 1964.
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Quotations on this page taken from Ready for Revolution.