Freedom Riders are people who get on interstate buses and go to the southern United States and test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton V. Virginia.
Boynton v. Virginia was something that outlawed racial segregation in restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals that were with buses that crossed state lines. Five years before this ruling the Interstate Commerce Commission had issued a ruling in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company that got rid of the Plessy V. Ferguson doctrine of seperate but equal in interstate bus travel. Freedom Riders wanted to challenge this by riding multiple different forms of public transportation int the South to challenge any local laws that enforced segregation.
Violent reactions that the Freedom Rides provoked increased credibility of the American Civil Right Movement. It called a lot of attention to the violent disregard for the law the enforced segregation in the southern United States.
Riders would be arrested for thins like trespassing, unlawful assembly, and violationg state and local Jim Crow laws, and multiple other offenses.
The United States Supreme Court's decision in Boynton v. Virginia gave interstate travelers the legal right to basically ignore the local segregation laws concerning intersttate transportation facillities. Although the Freedom riders basically succeeded in what they were trying to do their rights were not protected. Most of their actions were considered criminal acts.
I think these people are good people. They did this for a good cause and it payed off. Not for all of them but it payed off for black people. I dont think i would ride around on a bus and go to jail so other people could have a good seat.
The first Freedom Ride departed Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961. It was going to arrive inf New Orleans on May 17.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_ride
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5149667
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