American Experience (1988–…): Season 23, Episode 12 - Freedom Riders - full transcript

♪

JOHN LEWIS
"I wish to apply
for acceptance as a participan

in CORE's Freedom Ride, 1961."

GENEVIEVE HOUGHTON
"...to travel via bu
from Washington, D.C.,

"to New Orleans, Louisiana

and to test and challeng
segregated..."

"...facilities en route.

"I understand that I shall
be participating

in a nonviolent protest...

JERRY MOORE:
"...agains
racial discrimination,

that arrest or personal injury
to me might result."



RAYMOND ARSENAULT:
The Freedom Rides of 196

were a simple but daring plan:

The Congress of Racial Equalit
came up with the ide

to put Blacks and whites
in small group

on commercial buses,

and they would
deliberately violate

the segregation laws
of the Deep South.

HOUGHTON
We were to go throug
various parts of the South

gradually going deeper
and deeper

six of us on a Trailways bus and
six of us on the Greyhound bus

and see whether places
were segregated,

whether people were being served

when they went to get somethin
to eat or buy a ticket

or use the restrooms



GORDON CAREY
One of the major thrusts
of the Freedom Rid

was to get the movemen
into the Deep South.

Most of the action
up till this tim

had been in the upper Sout
or in the North.

And one of the ideas here wa
to go into the deepest South

We were hoping that this would
start a national movement.

♪

DEREK CATSAM
CORE had this set itinerary.

They anticipated that this would
be a two-week trip

that it would culminate down
in New Orleans

with a real celebratio
on the anniversary

of the Brown v. Boar
of Education decision.

And there's almost

an element of naivet
attached to it

how easily they though
it would go.

LEWIS:
"I am a senior at American
Baptist Theological Seminary

"and hope to graduate in June.

"I know that an educatio
is important

"and I hope to get one

"But at this time,

"human dignity is the most
important thing in my life..

that justice and freedom might
come to the Deep South."

(crowd shouting)

MAN:
I have no doubt that
the Negro basically know

that the best friend he'
ever had in the worl

is the Southern white man.

MAN:
We talk about it here as
separation of the races.

Customs and traditions that have
been built u

over the last hundred year
that have proved

for the best interests

of both the colore
and the white people

There's not been
one single change.

(protesters shouting

MAN:
The colored man know

where he stands.

The white man know
where he stands.

We have signs saying
colored and white.

The colored man knows that
he is not to enter there

WOMAN:
Well, the nigger's all right
in his place

but they've always been behind
us and just tell you the truth

I want them always
to stay behind me,

'cause I never have love
a nigger, mister

♪

N:
You cannot chang
a way of life overnight.

The more they try to force u
into doing something

then the worse the reactio
will be.

MAN:
Our colored people will do
exactly as they have done.

Our white people will do
exactly as they have done.

Why?

Because it's worked out best

ARSENAULT:
It was all encompassing, thi
so-called Southern way of life

and would not allo
for any breaks

Um, it was a syste

that was only as strong,
the white Southerners thought,

as its weakest link.

So you couldn't allow people
even to sit together

on the front of a bus,

something that really shouldn'
have threatened anyone

But it did

It threatened their sens
of the wholeness, the sanctity

of what they saw
as an age-old tradition.

DIANE NASH
Travel in the segregated South

for Black people
was humiliating.

The very fact that, uh, ther
were separate facilities

was to say to Black people
and white people

that Blacks were so subhuman
and so inferio

that we could not even use

public facilitie
that white people used

The Supreme Court even sai

that there was no righ
that a Black person ha

that white peopl
had to respect

CHARLES PERSON
You didn't know what you wer
going to encounter

You had night riders

You had, uh, hoodlums.

You could be antagonized
at any point in your journey

So most of the time it was very,
very difficult to plan a trip,

and, you know, you always had to
meet someone to meet you there

because you didn't kno
what to expect

♪ We're rolling along
the highway...

♪ There is merry adventur
in every wonderful mile ♪

♪ We're gliding along
the byway ♪

♪ Lighthearted and free
in streamline style ♪

♪ As we trave
over the countryside

♪ There's romance...

SANGERNETTA GILBERT BUSH
My father traveled quite a bit

And he just wanted
a cup of coffe

to make it to Montgomery

And he had to go around the back
of the caf

to get a cup of coffee
and then they told him..

I'm sorry, our management does
not allow us

to serve niggers in here

Pushed 'em on out the door

♪ It's a wonderfu
happy feeling ♪

♪ Rolling along
the broad highway ♪

♪ There's the open road
in view ♪

♪ Every mile there'
something new ♪

♪ To make your trip a happy
thrilling thing to do...

I grew up in the South

Child of goo
and decent parents

We had women who worke
in our household

sometimes surrogate mothers.

They were invisible women to me.

I can't believ
I couldn't see them.

I don't know where my head
or heart was

I don't know where my parents'
heads and hearts were,

or my teachers'.

I never heard it onc
from the pulpit.

We were blin
to the reality of racism

and afraid, I guess, of change

♪ We're rolling along...

♪ America for me.

JOHN F. KENNEDY:
Let the word go forth,
from this time and place

to friend and foe alike,

that the torch has been passed

to a new generatio
of Americans

ARSENAULT:
When John Kennedy was electe

in November 1960, there wa
great hope and expectation

that things would be bette
on matters of civil rights

that there was a contras

between hi
and Dwight Eisenhower.

He was young and had ideas and
talked about the New Frontier.

But when he gave his inaugural
address in January of 1961

he talked about spreadin
freedom all over the world--

to China, to Latin America
to Africa-

to everywhere but Alabam
and Mississippi and Georgia.

EVAN THOMAS:
The base of the Democratic Party

was the, essentially
white voting South

The Kennedys had to be careful

about antagonizing
Southern governors

and the whol
Southern establishment

which was segregationist

I was the first governor
in the South

that publicly endorsed him
for president.

I think he's a perso
who is sympathetic

to the problems and conditions
in the South

I think he's a man who wil
work with us down here..

PATTERSON:
I knew that you couldn't run
for presiden

on a segregation ticket;
I knew that.

But I felt like, tha
if we ever got in a situatio

where we needed some
understanding and some hel

from the federal governmen

in regard to our problem
down here,

that I'd get a good...
I'd get an audience.

The entire nation will b
looking at us on election da

and will judge the way we feel
about the segregation question

by the size of the Democrati
vote on November 4

Let's turn out the largest
Democratic vot

in the history of the state an
show the people of this nation

that we're not going to tolerate
integration of the races

one minute

♪

THOMAS
The Kennedys
when they came into office

were not worried
about civil rights

They were worrie
about the Soviet Union

They were worrie
about the cold war

They were worrie
about the nuclear threat

When civil rights did pop up
they regarded it

as a bit of a nuisance

as something that was gettin
in the way of their agenda

ARSENAULT:
It became clear that the civil
rights leaders had to do

something desperate,
something dramatic

to get the Kennedys' attention

That was the idea behind
the Freedom Rides-

to dare, essentially dar
the federal government

to do what it was supposed to do

and see if their constitutiona
rights would be protecte

by the Kennedy administration.

I'm James Farmer

national director of the
Congress of Racial Equality,

more often known as CORE

CLAYBORNE CARSON
CORE needed to do somethin

to demonstrate that it reall
deserved to be mentioned

in the same sentence
with the NAACP or SCLC

or Martin Luther King.

For James Farmer
this was a way of saying

"I need to be brough
into the discussions

"at the national level about
how the civil rights campaig

was going to be conducted.

Farmer thought among the other
benefits of this Freedom Rid

would be
added elevation for CORE

because elevation for thes
groups means everything;

it means money, it means
support, you get prestige.

All that comes with publicity.

And I'm sure Farmer was hoping
for some publicity

I do not think we can lose

We cannot lose unless we allow
ourselves to be so divided

that we lose a sense o
direction and common purpose

(applause)

CATSAM
The idea of the Freedom Ride
is a really radical idea

The idea of goin
into Mississippi

and going into Alabama
and challenging segregatio

so frontally and s
aggressively, in many ways

is something that alarme

not only those
who opposed civil rights

but those within
the civil rights community

They thought it wa
too confrontational,

that it was going to backfire,

it was going to se
the movement back.

It was too risky

CORE just didn't hav
the resources or the skill

or really the know-how about
the inner workings of Jim Crow

and racism and how
to fight it in the Deep South.

And it was very likely tha
they would get arrested,

they might get beaten up
they might even get killed

MAN:
May I have a cup
of coffee, please?

WOMAN:
Now look, I don't want
any niggers in here...

Nigger, what are you
doing in here?

CAREY:
The training that we did

in Washington, D.C.,
prior to the tim

the Riders got on the buse
was largely devote

to trying to see how the perso
is going to react.

Are you with this fella?

Why yes, we're bot
interstate bus passengers.

Where are you from

I'm from the
United States.

REV. JAMES LAWSON:
By using nonviolence
people see the contras

between your dignified
disciplined confrontatio

of the wrong

and then the reactio
of violence.

No way of confusin
that confrontation

You move

No, I don't move whe
I'm in the right

Well, then, we'll...

BOND
The Freedom Rides, I think

typified one of the standard
contradictions

within the civil right
movement

On the one hand,
it's nonviolent,

doesn't hit back when hit.

On the other hand, they're
really courting violence

in order to attract publicit
that will forward the cause.

And so you hav
these mixed motives:

Let's hope nothing happens
nobody's hurt.

On the other hand, suppose
something does happen.

Wouldn't that, in an ironic way,
be good for us

Get out! Move out! Move out!

BOND
People at CORE thought

"Maybe some bad things wil
happen," but I don't think

they imagined anywhere nea
the kind of level of violenc

that they'd meet in Anniston and
Birmingham and in Montgomery

GENEVIEVE HOUGHTON
It was make-believ

and it did not scare me perhap
because it was make-believ

and I wasn't sure I'd really
have to us

all these techniques

With our nonviolent behavior
and our goodwill

I thought we could do anything

Do you expect any trouble?

There is a possibility

that we will not be served
at some stops.

There is a possibility
that we might be arrested.

This is the only trouble
that I anticipate.

WOMAN:
♪ I'm takin' a trip
on the Greyhound bus line ♪

♪ I'm ridin' the front seat
to N'Orleans this time

♪ Hallelujah, I'm a-travelin'
hallelujah, ain't it fine ♪

♪ Hallelujah, I'm a-travelin'
down freedom's main line. ♪

JERRY MOORE:
The first day getting on the
bus, it was a good feeling

It was a good feeling.

We were together
it was comradeship

it was a good cause,

and we were goin
for the movement, you know

we were going for the people

LEWIS:
Boarding that Greyhound bu

to travel through the hear
of the Deep South, I felt good

I felt happy

I felt liberated

I was like a soldier
in a nonviolent army

I was ready.

WOMAN:
♪ Hallelujah, I'm a-travelin'
hallelujah, ain't it fine ♪

♪ Hallelujah, I'm a-travelin'
down freedom's main line. ♪

♪

CATSAM
When the freedom riders boar
those buses in Washington, D.C.,

those are regularl
scheduled buses-

they're not chartered,
they're not special buses.

They have a couple
of representatives

from the Black press, but no
national media following them,

and they certainly don't hav
any protection

whether from the police or
from the military or anything.

They are going dow
on their own, on regular buses

and are going to see
what happens to them

HANK THOMAS:
I thought white folks were going
to pull a fast one on us

they were going to integrate
the facilities

during the tim
that we were there

and as soon as we left

they're going to go back
to doing business as usual

And in a few cities,
that did happen.

♪

CHARLES PERSON
The first few days of the ride
was uneventful

And it basically was
a piece of cake.

James Peck and I, we realize
that, you know

this is not going to b
as bad as we thought

If we could do thi
all the way through,

then, uh, we will have achieve
what we had set out to do.

ARSENAULT:
Well, almost certainly

there wouldn't have been Freedom
Rides without Irene Morgan

She refused to give up
her seat on a bu

in Gloucester County, Virginia
in July of 1944.

She took her case all the wa
to the Supreme Court

And in Morgan v. Virginia,
in June of 1946,

on paper at least, the Supreme
Court struck down segregatio

in interstate travel on buses.

BOND
But no state in the South obeyed
these decisions,

so it was as i
they'd never happened.

The Greyhound bus company,
the Trailways bus compan

were able to hide behind

the refusal of state law t
accommodate to federal law

So despite the fact that you'd
had these national rulings

which should have been law
everyplace in the country,

they weren't in Alabama,
Georgia, Florida

across the South

Business as usual.

♪

HOUGHTON
When we got to Atlanta, ther
was a little reception for us,

headed by the Reverend
Martin Luther King

and of course it was
a great privileg

for all of us to meet him.

He was an icon of the movement

ARSENAULT:
They had hopes not onl
to meet Dr. King

but maybe he would becom
a Freedom Rider,

that he'd get on those buses
with them.

But he pulled some
of the leaders

of the Freedom Ride asid
and said

"Look, I hear some prett
disturbing thing

"from my sources in Alabama.

"The Alabama Klan is preparing
quite a welcome.

"And furthermore, many peopl
in the movement thin

what you're doing may do
more harm than good.

King said, "I'm not going to get
on the buses with yo

and if I were you, I probabl
wouldn't go into Alabama."

MOSES NEWSON
Later that night, Jim Farmer's
wife called from Washingto

to tell him that
his father had died,

which meant that he was goin
to have to leave for a few day

and leave other people
in charge.

He was the main ma

and losing him was quite
a sobering thing

HOUGHTON
Jim Peck kind of took over, bu
the leader was not there to lead

and we would hav
to lead ourselve

and we were getting into the
most dangerous part of the trip.

♪

There were two buses
leaving Atlant

for Birmingham
that Mother's Day morning-

one Greyhound, one Trailways

There were two group
of Freedom Riders.

They left an hour apart.

Only one made it
all the way to Birmingham.

It was such a beautiful day.

It was such a quiet feelin
that day at the...

It was bright and sunny.

The sky was blue

And it was jus
some beautiful scenery

We didn't have a sense of fear

PATTERSON:
These people are going from town
to town and getting off the bu

and seeking,
through mixed groups--

Negro men and white women-

to force themselve
into situation

which tend to inflame the loca
people in such a manne

as to incense them and enrag
them and to provoke them

into acts of violence.

That's what they're doing.

♪

It was a very disconcertin
period

It was as if one civilizatio
was just coming unhinged

and was free-floatin
and taking on water.

People in the South felt

"I'm being asked to live
in a different way

"I'm asked to have
different attitudes.

"I'm asked to behave
differently.

♪

"And as I'm being made to do all
of these things,

"there are people who come o
the TV in my own living room

"and tell me that I'm a rednec
and I'm a racist

"and I'm all of these things

"and by God, I'd like to
I-I'd just like to punch

"some of the... them dam
agitators right in the face!

♪

"I gotta hate somebody

I got to hate somebody."

♪

JANIE FORSYTH McKINNEY
I lived with my family
five miles out of Anniston

on the Birmingham highway.

I was 12 years old
at the time.

My dad had a grocery store
beside the house

and the name of it was
Forsyth & Son Grocery.

One day he sai

there were some Black agitators,
"nigger agitators,

coming down from the North

He said he and som
of his friends

had a little surprise part
planned for them

and he kind of laughed

HANK THOMAS:
As we entered the city limit
of Anniston,

we could see the bus station

Looked like at least 200 peopl
were around the bus station.

All men.

They were calling us
all kind of names:

"nigger, nigger lovers
communists..

"Come on out
and integrate Alabama,

we dare you to do this
we dare you to do that."

HOWARD
The men began to come closer
and surround the bus completely.

They were saying

"Let's kill these nigger
on this bu

and these nigger lovers.

(crowd shouting)

ARSENAULT:
The Anniston Kla
had it all worked out.

They had one of their member
lie down in front of the bus

They were puncturing tires

They were breaking windows

They wanted to make sure
that bus couldn't leav

before they could surround i

and do whateve
they wanted to do.

(glass breaking)

HANK THOMAS:
The bus may have been ther

for ten or 15 minutes; to us
it seemed like an hour

Another bus driver was able to
ease the bus through the crowd

♪

NEWSON
At first there was
a feeling of relie

because we were getting away
there, we thought.

But this car that wa
in front of us

kept dodging from side to side
to keep the bus from getting by.

I spoke to a innocent passenge
who was sitting there and said

"I'm sorry I got you into this."

And he said, "So am I.

(chuckles)

NEWSON
Eventually we hear
that sickening sound

of tires going flat.

McKINNEY
There was a commotion outside,

so I walked to the front
of the store

to see if I could tell
what was going on.

The bus driver came out and he
went out to look at the tire

and when he realized how fla
and hopeless they were

he just walked away from the bus

and just left all the passengers
to fend for themselves

He just walked away.

We were now in the hands
of this mob.

It didn't look good for us

(men shouting angrily)

HANK THOMAS:
I'm, like everyone els
on the bus, I'm pretty afraid.

Okay. That's putting it mildly

I watched as a man raise
his arm above the crow

with a crowbar

and he broke out one
of the back windows of the bus

You could hear him say
"Throw it in! Throw it in!

And asking, "Where is the gas?
Where is the gas?"

(glass breaking)

McKINNEY
The hand went down
and when it came back up

it had some object in it
that he threw into that hole

HANK THOMAS:
And there wa

an immediate flash fir
on the bus

(shouting continues)

HOUGHTON
Pretty soon, the whole bac
of the bus was black

You couldn't even se
in front of your face.

So I ran up to the front
of the bus

and I tried to open the door

The only thing I could hear is
"Let's burn them niggers

Let's burn them niggers alive.

At that moment..
(explosion, glass shatters

the fuel tank exploded

I heard somebody say
"It's gonna go

It's gonna go!

And they ran and that wa
the only way

we could get that door open.

McKINNEY
The door burst open and people
just spilled out into the yard

They were practically tripping
over each othe

because they were so sic
and they needed to get some air.

(flames crackling)

HOWARD
I can't tell you
if I walked off the bu

or if I crawled of
or someone pulled me off

(crowd shouting)

HANK THOMAS:
When I got off the bus
a man came up to m

and I'm coughing and stranglin

and he said,
"Boy, you all right?

And I nodded my head

and the next thing I knew,
I was on the ground.

He had hit me with par
of a baseball bat.

People were gaggin

and they were crawling aroun
on the ground,

they were trying to ge
the smoke out of their chests.

It was just an awful
awful, awful, awful scene.

It was horrible.

It was like a scene from hell.

It was... it was the worst
suffering I'd ever heard

And I heard,

(in hoarse voice):
"Water, please give me water

Oh God, I need water."

I walked right out int
the middle of that crowd

I picked me out one person

I washed her face.

(crying)
I held her, I gave
her water to drink

and as soon as I thought she was
going to be okay

I got up and picked ou
somebody else.

♪

HANK THOMAS:
As I'm getting u
off the ground

four or five guy
coming at me again

And this is when I see
the highway patrolman.

He pulls his gun
and he fired in the air.

He says, "Okay, you've had
your fun

Let's move back.

And that's what stopped,
what stopped it.

(sirens wailing)

♪

BOND
The people on the Trailways bu
going into Birmingha

don't know that the Greyhoun
bus has been burned in Anniston,

outside Anniston, and the Riders
are sittin

on the side of the road,
you know, covered in blood

Now they're going into a cit

which is the worst city for race
in the whole United States

It literally is a police state

ruled by one of the wors
figures in American history,

Bull Connor, who must have bee
some kind of psychopath,

just rabid on the issue of race.

You can never whip these birds

if you don't kee
you and them separate.

I found that out in Birmingham

You've got to keep the white
and the Black separate

ARSENAULT:
Bull Connor was a real bigot

And he was willing and abl
to do anything, really

to make sure that the Southern
way of life-

of segregation and Jim Crow-
remained intact.

He thought tha
the whole social order

that civilizatio
depended on it

HOWARD K. SMITH:
Last night, a man phoned me,

said he was close to the leaders
of the Ku Klux Klan.

He said he wante
to give me a tip

"Be sure and be at the bus
terminal on Sunday," he said

"because you're goin
to see action.

PATTERSON:
Unbeknownst to any of us

the Birmingham polic
department

headed up by Bull Connor

had made an agreemen
with the head of the Kla

to give them time to beat up
the Freedom Riders

at the Trailways
bus station.

GARY THOMAS ROWE
My instructions were

from the Birmingham police
department

that the Klan organization
had 15 minutes, quote,

"to burn, bomb, kill, maim
I don't give a goddamn."

He said, "I will
guarantee your peopl

that not one soul will ever be
arrested in that 15 minutes.

♪

DIANE McWHORTER:
The FBI, even though they knew

that there was going
to be violence

and there was going to b
no police protection

they did nothing
to protect the Riders.

ROWE
The Klan had put out a fiery
cross summonses,

which means people from all over
the different states

were to come

Not hundred, thousands of people
would be down ther

in order to wait on them buses

and beat and probably kill
those people

McWHORTER:
What ended up being worse wa
that their very own informant,

Gary Thomas Rowe, was at
the center of the violence

EVAN THOMAS:
In theory, the directo
of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover,

reports to the attorney general.

But in fact,
Hoover was more powerful

than any attorney general.

Hoover made no effor
to stop the mo

and he never told Kenned
about it

He never told his boss
the attorney general

that he was watching
the mob be forme

and that the FBI was going
to do nothing to stop it

♪

TED GAFFNEY:
When the bus pulled up

there was a mob,
looked like a thousand people.

They had these iron pipes.

CHARLES PERSON
James Peck and I

we were scheduled to tes
the facilities

So he looked at me
and I looked at hi

and we proceeded to go
into the terminal.

MOORE:
I looked at the reporter

When our eyes me
and he looked away..

it just...

I don't know, my guts...
my very guts shook

He must have thought
we were doomed

CHARLES PERSON
As we entered, we were met

by hoodlums who were standin
around the walls

(men shouting)

GARY THOMAS ROWE
The very first thing that I sa
was a white man,

and he was hollering
"No, people, don't do it

"They are my brothers,
they're your brothers.

Before I let you kill them
you have to kill me first.

The Klansmen made a statement,

"Well, (no audio) it
that ain't no problem.

At that time
all hell broke loose

(crowd shouting,
punches landing)

CHARLES PERSON
I was thrown forward

I was hit on the bac
of the head with something

ROWE
It was a mass brawl.

Sticks, bats, clubs, gun

just swinging away
just swinging away

CHARLES PERSON
James went dow
almost immediately

The blood started running.

ROWE
A Black woman run up to a city
detective and hollered

"They're killing my husband,
for God's sakes help me.

He turned around
and slapped her down

knocked the hell out of her.

(crowd shouting)

MOORE:
Then this flashbulb went off

and I believe that flashbulb
may have saved my life

because they turne
on the reporter.

They knocked one man
a white man, down at my feet

and they beat him and kicked him

until his face was
a bloody red pulp.

The police did not arriv
at the scene

until ten minutes late whe
these men had, as if on signal

dispersed and had gone further
down the street,

where I saw some
of them discussing

their achievement of the day

right under the windows of the
police commissioner's office

♪

ARSENAULT:
Those pictures wer
about as dramati

as anything I think anyone
had ever see

coming out o
the civil rights struggle.

The notion that just
for the attemp

to sit on the front of a bus
that you could risk your life,

that people could try to bur
you to death, was incredible

BOND
For the Kennedy brothers

domestic affairs wer
an afterthought for them

and the civil rights movemen

was an afterthough
beyond an afterthought

Now all of a sudden,
chaos is broken loose.

Attention is riveted

People are talking about this.

The whole world is watching.

REPORTER
Radio Havana, Cuba

The recent incidents in Alabam
speak eloquently of the problems

that the devout and piou
Mr. Kennedy has to resolve

in his own country

before engaging his countr
in adventure

against people where
there is no proble

of racial segregation.

EVAN THOMAS:
Both RFK and JFK
wanted it just to go away.

JFK was vocal about it

"Get 'em off those buses
Stop it!

Because he was getting ready
for his summit meeting

with Khrushchev in Vienn

and he just didn't wan
the distraction.

HARRIS WOFFORD
To have the leading stor
about the United State

be the kind of violenc
that took plac

against the Freedom Riders

was a matter of embarrassmen
anywhere

And he was going to Europe

Our friends and allies wer
appalled that this was going o

in the United States of America.

BENJAMIN COX
If men like Governor Patterson

and Governor Barnett
of Mississippi

and also Governor Davi
of Louisiana

would carry out the good oat
of their office,

then a citizen would be able
to travel in this country,

and then people in Tel Avi
and Moscow and Londo

would not pick up thei
newspaper for breakfas

and realize that America is no
living up to the dream

of liberty and justice for all

We can't act as nursemaids
to agitators

Uh, I think when they lear

that, uh... that whe
they go somewher

to create a... to create a riot,

that there's not going
to be somebody there

to stand between them and th
other crowd, they'll stay home

And you just can't guarantee
the safety of a fool

and that's what these folks are,
just fools

♪

HOUGHTON
After we got out of th
hospital, we met the next day.

I saw Jim Peck
for the first time

I felt like crying, but didn't

And he proposed that we should
continue with our Freedom Ride

After that, there wa
no longer any debate

If he could be beaten as he wa
and still say we should go on,

we certainly fel
we could go on

Why are you planning
to keep up this ride

We're planning
to keep it u

because we feel that we must
not surrender to violence.

♪

NEWSON
We gathered at the bus station
there in Birmingham.

There were mob peopl
around there too

We had to make our way
through them

to get into the bus station.

MOORE:
The police are there because
a crowd is starting to gather.

It was getting tense

It was getting tense

I mean, anything was possible.

Right then, right there,
anything was possible.

The bus driver said,

"There are a thousand waitin
on you outside of town

"You all are Freedom Riders,
I am not

I have a family.

(laughs)

"So I'm not driving this bus."

♪

We were close to getting
to Mississippi

and for the rall
in New Orleans

And as beaten, as weary as w
were, we wanted to continue.

But I think we wer
pretty much traumatized.

HOUGHTON
I had very mixed feelings.

I'd learned to be afraid
overnight.

I was no longe
this fearless rider.

I was no longer so intereste
in dying for the cause

I appreciated being alive.

NEWSON
They had a vote.

They were discussing things.

Some wanted to continue.

The problem was, they couldn't
continue on the buse

because we didn't have
any drivers.

They finally made the decision
that they had to come to

that they had gone
about as far as they could

It was over.

♪

(engines droning

We got out to the airport.

You wouldn't believe it,

but those mob people
were still there

HOUGHTON
There was basically the same
crowd we had see

the day before

And when it reache
a critical point

we were going to get beate
to smithereens

NEWSON
Along the edges of the buildin
that we had to walk past

to try to get to the plane
they were still out ther

and they were still fired up

and they were still trying
to whack u

and they were stil
calling us names

Eventually we got to the plane
and settled in

and everybody go
a little relaxed

Then we get this call saying
there was a bomb scare

We had to walk back throug
these people again

(crowd shouting)

You had this nightmarish feeling
that they would never go away.

The attorney general and
the president talked togethe

and I talked then with them.

And our strategy was simply:

go to Alabama, go to Birmingham,

um, get those Freedom Riders
to New Orleans

It's a long flight
but by the time I get there,

they're still trappe
in that airport.

They were in limbo

They were in a frightened stat
of limbo

I think the people who wer
not glad to se

somebody from the federa
government was the airlines.

I got with the manager
and they got on the telephone,

and if you represent the
president of the United States

and you're talking

to the officials
of a regulated airline..

We were outta ther
on the first flight.

GAFFNEY:
I'd never flown before

but it felt good when that plane
got off that runway.

(laughing)

I'd rather take a chance o
getting killed in a plane cras

than to get beat to deat
by hoodlums with iron pipes.

SEIGENTHALER
When we arrived in New Orleans

state police formed a corridor

from the steps at the bottom
of the plane to the terminal

And I will say, they were cursed
and condemned with racial slur

from the bottom of that ladder

till we walked
into that terminal

You wouldn't believe i
from state police officers

just spewing filth
and venom and hatred

NEWSON
"The courageous Freedom Riders
won't ever be the same

"They left Washington, D.C.,
in good spirit

"with high hopes in thei
country and fellow men

"But the beatings, the tensions,
the shocks

"the depth of the hating, th
open lawlessness took its toll

"It will be a miracl

"if all their physical and
psychological wounds ever heal

The Deep South was that tough.

♪

SEIGENTHALER
I went to a mote

to spend the night

And you know, I thought, "What
a great hero I am, I, you know?"

"How easy this was, you know

"I just took care of everythin

"the president and the
attorney general wanted done

Mission accomplished."

(phone ringing

My phone in the hotel room rings
and it's the attorney general.

He has received word
from the FBI in Nashvill

that another wav
of Freedom Rider

is coming down to Birmingham
from Nashville

to continue the Freedom Rides.

And he opened the conversation
"Who the hell is Diane Nash?

(people clapping in rhythm

(people singin
"We Will Never Turn Back")

NASH
It was clear to me

that if we allowed the Freedom
Ride to stop at that point

just after so much violenc

had been inflicted

the message would have been sent

that all you have to do to sto
a nonviolent campaig

is inflict massive violence.

It was critical that
the Freedom Ride not sto

and that it be continued
immediately.

(crowd singing

JIM ZWERG:
Students from the movement
in Nashville

had been through violence,
we had been arrested

we'd all had our lives
threatened

We were ones
that had not broken.

And we were the logical ones
to continue the ride

NASH
We had had a successful movement
the year befor

and had desegregated
lunch counters

We had been watching the
progress of the Freedom Ride

We were fresh troops

(singing continues

♪ We want our freedom
we want our freedom ♪

♪ We want our freedom...

FREDERICK LEONARD:
CORE, I think, they didn't
understand

We dealt with violence
every day in the South

They didn't treat us
like we were human

They treated u
like vicious animals

like they were always on guard

thinking that we were goin
to do something to them,

while they were doing it to us

And CORE, I think, they felt

"We'll go down there
and you know, they'll let us

"ride the front of the bus
and go into the white station,

"the white waiting room, and
everything will be all right

"We'll just go all the way
to New Orleans doing thi

"and then come bac
to New York and...

See, we did it!"

It wasn't like that.

You're saying that you're goin
to start a movement,

you're going to do something t
change this, and then you quit

Your parents tell you:

Don't start somethin
that you can't finish.

Finish it.

The groups wil
be dispatched...

REV. C.T. VIVIAN
The meeting was called
and Diane led it

And I remember Diane sayin
something was very important

She took a break and said, "Go
out and let's think about it

"for about ten minutes
and come bac

and we'll make the decision.

It was not a easy decision
because what it mean

was dropping out of school
in the midst of our final exams.

And for some of us

we were the first generation
to go to college

Our parents had really
made sacrifices.

And we were making
a decision to drop out

VIVIAN
Time was up,
everybody came back in

The decision was mad
to leave that night.

ZWERG:
My parents had

provided m
a wonderful childhoo

and a tremendous amoun
of love and suppor

in everything that I had done.

But as a white person,
I was the primary focu

of most of the violenc
that took place,

because I was a disgrace
to the white race.

I was the traitor.

So I knew, if anybody wa
probably going to ge

pretty well beaten or killed
it would be me

And I wanted

to tell my folks
how much I loved the

and how much I appreciated
what they'd done

WOMAN:
♪ Oh, freedom...

ZWERG:
"Tuesday, May 16, 1961

"We held two meetings today.

"The first was at 6:00
this morning

"the secon
from 7:00 to 1:00 tonight.

"After much discussion

"we decided to continu
the Freedom Ride

"Of the 18 who volunteered
ten were chosen-

"three females and seven males

"We will leave on the Greyhoun
bus tomorrow morning

"at either 5:15 or 6:45.

"We were all again made awar
of what we can expect to face:

jail, extreme violence
or death."

SINGERS:
♪ To my...

LAFAYETTE:
We thought we would divide
the group in half.

If that group had been arrested,
beaten, unable to continue

or even killed, we had a secon
group that was ready to go

And they knew that no matter
what happened, okay,

I would bring a second group

CHOIR:
♪ Oh, freedom...

NASH
The people who were going on
the Freedom Ride from Nashvill

elected me to be
the coordinator.

That was a really heav
responsibility

because the lives and safety

of people whom I loved
and cared about deeply

who were som
of my closest friends,

depended on my doing
a good job at that

(singing concludes

(phone ringing

My phone in the hotel room rings
and it's the attorney general.

And he opens the conversation,
"Who the hell is Diane Nash?

"Call her and let her know

what is waitin
for the Freedom Riders."

So I called her.

I said, "I understand that there
are more Freedom Rider

"coming down from Nashville.

You must stop them if you can.

Her response was
"They're not going to turn back.

"They're on their wa
to Birmingha

and they'll be there shortly."

You know that spiritua

"Like a tree standing by the
water, I will not be moved"?

She would not be moved

And... and I felt my voice go up
another decibel and anothe

and soon I was shouting,

"Young woman, do you understan
what you're doing?

"You're going to get somebody...

Do you understand you're
going to get somebody killed?!

And...

There's a pause, and she said,

"Sir, you should know,

"we all signed our last will
and testaments

"last night before they left

"We know someone
will be killed

But we cannot let violence
overcome nonviolence."

That's virtually a direct quot

of the words that came
out of that... child's mouth

Here I am an official of
the United States government

representing the president
and the attorney general

talking to a student
at Fisk University

And she, in a very quiet but
strong way, gave me a lecture.

CHOIR:
♪ We shall not...

♪ We shall not be moved

♪ We shall not

♪ We shall not be moved.

ZWERG:
One young man, white fella
sitting kind of over there

leaned over and said
"Where are you guys going?

And I said, "To New Orleans.

And he kind of had a smirk
on his face and said

"You'll never make it.

CHOIR:
♪ Oh, we're on our wa
to victory

♪ We shall not be moved...

LEWIS:
When we arrived at the cit
limit of Birmingham,

Bull Connor let the regula
passengers get off the bus

He kept us on the bus.

Then he ordered the local police
officials to place newspaper

cardboards
to cover all of the windows.

They wanted to make it difficult
for the media to get word out.

WILLIAM HARBOUR:
We sat on that bus
for two hours or more.

It was getting hot

There was no air conditioning,
in the summertime.

When they let us out
we immediately wen

in the "white only" side
of the bus station

(police siren wailing)

Bull Connor came in and arrested
us and put us in jail, he said

for our own protection

REPORTER
Birmingham's police chief ha
taken a group of Negroes

into custody

Thus ended a potentially
explosive situatio

which had been growing
increasingly more tens

since about noon today

The college students came down
from Nashville

with the avowed purpos
of testing

Birmingham's segregation laws.

They wanted to continu
the Freedom Ride

aborted by a group
of CORE members here

after mob violence
earlier this week.

SEIGENTHALER
The attorney general says,

"You better get up there
as quickly as you can.

And of course by the time I ge
there, they're all incarcerated.

Now the attorney general i
trying to reach the governor

I'm trying to reac
the governor

The governor has nothing to do

with the
with the daily operation

of the police department
of the city of Birmingham.

Bull Connor neve
supported me for governor.

I never liked the man.

In fact, I was a little bi
afraid of him.

He was... he was
so unpredictable

ARSENAULT:
The situation is
really dangerous

Bobby Kennedy convince
his brothe

that maybe you need to tal
to Patterson yourself,

maybe we have to asser
presidential authority

PATTERSON:
I had figured that I might get
that call from the president

I told the operator to tell th
president that I was not there

They pressed from the Whit
House Office, and they said,

"Well, he can't be reached."

They said, "Well, where is he?

Get him on the phone."

"He can't be reached
he's out in the Gulf fishing."

I lied

I just lied.

ARSENAULT:
I think the Kennedy brothers
were shocked

that despite the assertion
of presidential authority,

that their former political ally

wouldn't even talk to them
on the phone

I think that reall
gave them a sens

of how dangerous
things were in Birmingham,

that anything could happen
in Bull Connor's cit

when the governo
won't even tal

to the president
of the United States

♪

CATHERINE BURKS-BROOKS
I guess maybe around 10:00
one of the guards came i

and told us to get our clothes
on, that we were leaving

We walked out of the cell.

Saw Bull Connor.

When we got on the outside
they had two police cruisers

and a limousine, loaded us up,

and started driving,
1:00 in the morning.

SEIGENTHALER
The FBI called me at the motel
and woke me up and said,

"The Freedom Riders have all
been taken out of jail."

I said, "Kidnapped?"

And I thought, "My God
they're gonna kill 'em."

I didn't think Bull Connor
was above that

We got to the state line

the Tennessee...
the state line of Alabama.

He said, "I'm lettin
you off here."

We didn't know wha
was going to happen.

They throw the luggage out
and he says that

"You all can go over there

"There's a train station, an
get a train back to Nashville.

Of course I couldn't let Bul
have the last word

During that time we watche
a lot of cowboy movies

So I told him we would see him
back in Birmingham by high noon.

HARBOUR:
We didn't know if the Ku Klu
Klan was following us.

We didn't know where
we was located

We saw no telephon
to make any calls.

We had to find a place to hide

LEWIS:
We came upon an old hous
that was fallen,

knocked on the door, said,
"We are the Freedom Riders

Please let us in."

HARBOUR:
Older gentleman came
to the door.

He said, "Uh-uh, y'all
can't come in here."

My mother had always told me
that you need some help,

then you try to talk
to the lady of the house

And I said, let's talk lou
and wake up his wife

Few minutes later, we knocke
on the door again,

and his wife cam
to the door with him

And she... we told her we were
the Freedom Riders

she said, "Y'all children,
come on in."

WOMAN:
♪ I'm on my way

♪ And I won't turn back...

BURKS-BROOKS
We didn't get back by high noon,
but we made our way back

WOMAN:
♪ ...won't turn back

♪ Whoa, I'm on my way

♪ Won't turn back

♪ I am on my way

♪ Don't you kno
I am on my way

♪ Well, I was askin
my brother

♪ I asked my brother...

ARSENAULT:
The first grou
of Nashville rider

make it back to Birmingham
from the Tennessee border.

There's a second wave of rider
from Nashville already there

They've got a terrible problem

WOMAN:
♪ I will ask my brother to go
with me ♪

ARSENAULT:
Jimmy Hoffa, the leader of
the Teamsters union, says,

"None of my drivers are goin
to get on any of those buses."

Greyhound Corporation can'
find any drivers

willing to get on the bus.

So the riders are stuck there,
and it's not clear

how they're ever going to ge
out of Birmingham.

♪

REPORTER (archival):
A menacingly quiet mob gre
into the several hundred

outside the terminal

Dozens of police patrolled the
area and police dogs helped keep

the streets clear and the mo
back from the terminal

The Negroes went to boar
the bus finall

and the driver stalked off

saying he would not make
the trip

LAFAYETTE:
We were sitting in the white
designated waiting room.

This was my first encounter,
face to face

with the Ku Klux Klan.

They had on white sheets and
their hoods were thrown back

And they walked around in th
bus station while we were there,

and they stepped on our feet

They threw cold wate
on our faces

ARSENAULT:
Bobby Kennedy was gettin
frustrated

He gets word to John Patterson

that if the state of Alabama
won't protec

the Freedom Riders
won't end this crisis,

then the federal governmen
would have to do it,

they'd have to step in
in some way.

Patterson realizes tha
he's got to do something

He says, "Can't you send
somebody down to Montgomer

to talk to my staf
to figure this out?"

And that opens the way for
John Seigenthaler going down

to Montgomery to tal
with John Patterson.

SEIGENTHALER
I said, "Look, Governor,
it's just this simple:

"if you can't provide them
protection--

"and you say you can't--
you don't leave us any option.

"We'll have to provide
protection for them.

And it will have to be
the U.S. marshals or troops.

Well, he turned immediately to
a man seated across the table,

and said, "That's Floyd Mann
my commissioner of safety.

"Floyd, tell this ma

"these rabble-rouser
are asking for trouble

and we can't protect them.

He said, "Governor, I've bee
in law enforcement all my life

If you tell me to protect them
I'll protect them.

It sucked the ai
out of the room.

Patterson's hands are tied

Because his chief la
enforcement official

has essentially said, "I can
protect the Freedom Riders

in front of the Kenned
administration's representative.

And so Patterson's in a position
where he has to act.

ROBERT KENNEDY
Around 11:00 I talke
to Mr. Seigenthaler,

and the governor at that tim
assured Mr. Seigenthaler

that we have the means
the ability and the will

to protect these people.

We'll make sure that
people traveling

in interstate commerce, an
traveling across our highways,

are not molested

and traveling through our cities
are not harmed

That's all I asked for

He said that that's...
they gave us..

he gave us his flat word
and assuranc

that that would happen

♪

BURKS-BROOKS
When we saw all the protection
that we had, you know,

we got relaxed then.

We sang a few freedom song
and, as a matter of fact

I dozed off.

That's right, felt safe.

♪

JOHN PATTERSON
Floyd Mann had state trooper
leading them and following them.

And we had a state trooper
helicopter overhead,

protecting them from overhead,

and escorted them to the cit
limits of Montgomery

where we turned them over to the
city authorities of Montgomery

who guaranteed to us tha
they would protect the

and maintain order themselve
at the bus station

♪

BURKS-BROOKS
I was looking out the window

And I could see the policeme
taking off

in different direction

And so would the helicopter.

And we were thinking that some
Montgomery policemen

was going to come in then.

But then we didn't see anyone.

HARBOUR:
We pull into the bus station

there was a eerie feeling;
we didn't see anybody.

We saw a couple of taxicabs.

Cameraman Maurice Levy
soundman Wee Risser and

jumped out of our car to
photograph the debarking

from the bus itself.

There was no large crowd around.

I asked some of the Riders wha
they intended to do.

They said they did not yet know.

Then a heavyset man asked me
whether I was one of the group

I said I was not

I noticed then that he was
holding in his right han

an open penknife

ZWERG:
John was getting ready to go
to the microphone,

and just as he was about
to do this

this fella went at one
of the fella

that was holding one
of the parabolic mics.

And he grabbed it out his hand
and he threw it to the ground,

stomped on it, and turne
and approached

one of the photographers
and grabbed his camera

and yanked on it
and in doing so,

the cameraman fell
to the ground.

He started kicking
and beating him.

And that seemed to be the cue.

The mob came out and wen
straight to the reporters,

and started beating them
and kicking them

and throwing their cameras down,
smashing them on the ground.

KAPLOW
After we were forced away,

that's when the attack o
the Riders themselves started.

LEONARD:
It just seemed like,
just suddenly they were...

we were like..
the bus was like surrounded.

ZWERG:
You could see baseball bat
and pieces of pipe

and hammers and chains

And one fella had a pitchfork.

LEONARD:
They were like it wa
a feeding frenzy

Like, you know how sharks ar
just... they were just crazy

And what really sticks with me
were the women

They were screamin
"Kill them niggers

and they had babie
in their arm

You could see baggage bein
thrown into the air,

you could hear screams

My heart was in my throat.

I knew, suddenly, betrayal
disaster

I hope not death

EVAN THOMAS:
Bobby is getting thi
in real time

as it's happening,
from his own lieutenants

Saying something to the effect
"It's terrible, it's terrible.

He's watching it happen.

"There are no police
they're just beating them.

This was war

on the Greyhound bus termina
parking lot.

This was absolute war.

ZWERG:
I asked God to be with me,

to give me the strength I woul
need to remain nonviolent,

and to forgive them.

The last thing I recall,
standing with Jim Zwerg.

I was hit in the hea
with a wooden crate.

ZWERG:
I heard a crac
and fell forward

Rolled over on my back
and a foot came down on my face,

and that was it, I was out

LEONARD:
William Barbee was knocked down.

A big, 250-pound white guy had
his foot on his neck

while another one wa
trying to driv

a steel rod through his ear.

SANGERNETTA GILBERT BUSH
The police were standing there
in their uniforms, just looking.

They provided no protectio
for those students

♪

SEIGENTHALER
There was a skinny, young ki

and he was sort of dancing i
front of this young woman,

punching her, and I could see,
as she turned her head

blood from the nose and mouth.

I grabbed her by the wrist
over the hood of the car

had her right at the doo

and she put her hand
up on the doorjamb

and said, "Mister, I don't wan
you to get hurt.

"I'm nonviolent,
I'm trained to take this

"Please, don't get hurt.

We'll be fine.

And I said, "Get your as
in the car, sister."

And at that moment
they wheeled me around

and they hit me with a pipe.

They kicked me under the car
and left me there.

REPORTER (archival):
There were from 30
to a thousand whites

in the area of the bus depot

Before police finally broke up
the crowd with tear gas,

they beat and injure
at least 20 person

of both races and both sexes

CATSAM
After the Montgomery riots

the Kennedys are
feeling betrayed

There's John Seigenthaler lyin
in a pool of his own blood

They realized that they can'
work with Patterso

and they're going to to have
to bring in federal marshals

REPORTER (archival):
The Justice Department say
400 United States marshals

will be in Montgomery tomorrow

They're being assemble
from other Southern states now

and court orders are being
prepared to enable the

to keep armed orde
if necessary

PATTERSON:
We don't need the federa
marshals here in this city

The situation here i
well in hand

and if the outside agitators
who came her

and deliberately stirred u
this controversy would go home

and the marshals go home

it would be best for everybody

and the situation would return
to normal very quickly

We're dedicated to this.

We'll take hitting
we'll take beating

We're willing to accept death.

But we're going to keep coming
until we can rid

from anywhere in the South
to anyplace else in the South.

♪

WOMAN:
♪ Well, don't you think
it's about time, Lord ♪

♪ That we all be free...

ARSENAULT:
The next day after
the Montgomery riot,

it was clear that the riot
required a respons

from the movement,

that the movement couldn't let
this pass.

So they called a mass meeting-
support for the Freedom Riders

at the First Baptist Church,
Ralph Abernathy's church

Jim Farmer flew in

Reverend Fred Shuttleswort
came down from Birmingham.

Dr. King flew in

PATTERSON:
He is the worst of all
the agitators in this country.

Now, the best thing for King

and all of the so-called
Freedom Riders

is to return to their homes,
go back to their books

and mind their own business.

Well, I wasn't happy when
found out he was coming to town.

He was a spellbinder
in those day

and he-he could get a crow
riled up quick

This would exacerbat
the overall proble

of the interest in the thing

and it would draw more
attention to it,

and it would bring out
more of the crazies.

CHOIR:
♪ Don't you think it's abou
time, Lord

♪ That we all be free

ARSENAULT:
They fill that church-
1,500 people

And they were making a statement

that the movement was behind
the Freedom Rides.

There had been
disagreements before--

many people though
it had been a mistake,

that they were squandering
the resources of the movement,

that they were going to ge
themselves killed-

but now they had to close ranks.

They had to say that
"We're in this together,

that the Freedom Rides
are here to stay

that "We're not goin
to get pushe

out of Alabama by violence."

DELORES BOYD
In 1961 I was 11 years old

It was important
that I go that night

The busload of Freedom Rider
had been attacked,

had been beaten.

Many of them were stil
hospitalized at St. Jude

We were told that those who were
able would actually be there

I'd heard Dr. King before,
I'd heard Reverend Abernathy

so the excitement wasn't
just seeing the leaders.

We were all wanting to see

who are these courageous
Freedom Riders

(applause)

And probably we'd been there a
least an hour, hour and a half

when we realized that this
would be different

♪

(people shouting

BURKS-BROOKS
When I first realized that
something was happening,

I think when I heard a roc
hit the window

And then some of u

went to look out the window,
and then got some more rocks

And so then that's when,
know what was about to go down

McWHORTER:
There's a crow
of white people outsid

that just keeps growin
and growin

as the evening progresses.

And finally,
there's a full-scale mob

We could hear outside noise.

We could hear the jeering,
the taunting

And they were all throwing
things at the church

HARBOUR:
You could see the flare-up
of fire on the outside

You could hear the hollering
from the groups on the outside

We just knew that the church
was going to be set on fir

and we couldn't get out.

(sirens wailing)

TOMMY GILES:
They sent the marshals
to the churc

to protect the Freedom Riders.

They showed up down ther
in a bunch of mail trucks.

U.S. Mail vehicles carried the
down there

EVAN THOMAS:
In fact, it was a motley crew,

a kind of a posse rounde
up at the last secon

of federal workers

Postal workers
some customs officials

maybe some border guards

And a lot of these guy
were rednecks.

I mean, the joking
up in Washington

I think one of the Kennedys'
aides said

"I'm not too sure which side
they're going to be on."

GILES:
The crowd started moving towards
the church

and the marshals decided
"We're gonna put out tear gas.

Throwing the tear gas,
not realizing the wind

was blowing back
on the marshals.

And they got disbanded, and they
went in all kinds of directions.

MARTIN LUTHER KING
The first thing that we must
do here tonigh

is to decide tha
we're going to be calm

and that we are goin
to continue to stand u

for what we know is right.

BURKS-BROOKS
We were told that we couldn'
leave the church

and to stay on the inside.

The singing had kind of stopped,
and we were tired at that time

We were about fit to leave
the church

♪

EVAN THOMAS:
Well, here you have this churc

that's got 1,500 Black folks
in i

and they're surrounded b
a screaming, raving mo

of 3,000 whites who want t
burn 'em, who want to kill 'em

And Martin Luther King i
in there and he's scared

and he should be scared.

And he's on the phon
with the attorney genera

and he's askin
for federal help

ARSENAULT:
Dr. King was saying,

"The situation here is
desperate.

"You have got to do something.

You've got to figure out som
way to uphold the rule of law.

We are not giving in for
what we are standing for

And maybe it takes
something like thi

for the federal government
to see

that Alabama is not going to
place any limit upon itself;

it must be imposed from without.

CATSAM
At the same time as the Kennedys
are communicatin

with the folks in the church
they are talking to Patterson,

saying, "You need to d
something.

You need to ac
and you need to act now.

What they really want to see
happen, ultimately

is a peaceful solution
in which

Patterson is the one
who protects the Riders,

Patterson is the one who takes
the responsibility

They don't want to appea
to be imposing the wil

of the federal government.

It is a sin, a shame befor
God on a day like this

that these people who govern u

would let things com
to such a sad estate

But God is not dead.

The most guilty ma
in this state tonigh

is Governor John Patterson

I had my window up

and I could hear the din
going on down there.

I had a colonel there from the
National Guard assigned to m

as a liaison officer

just in case I had to declar
martial law.

GILES:
I was driving back and forth

and I was keeping Governor
Patterson abreas

of what was happenin
at the church.

I told him, I said

"Governor, things have gotte
real outta hand down there

and we're going to need to d
a lot more with the situation.

He said, "Governor
you better call them out

"you better call them out.

This thing is going to get
out of hand.

And... and I signe
the proclamation

and handed it to Colonel
Shepherd and I said,

"Here, call 'em out.

♪

I want to make this announcement

that the city is now
under martial la

and troops are on the wa
into Montgomery.

(applause and cheering

LEWIS:
People rejoice

People express a sense of relief
and happines

because they kne
that the federal governmen

has spoken from Washington

They knew that
for the first time

the Kennedy administration
President Kennedy,

his brother Robert Kennedy
had identified with their side

at the side of civil rights.

ARSENAULT:
The back and forth between
King and Bobby Kennedy

was one of the remarkable dramas
of the civil rights movement

It gave Dr. King a stature

that civil rights leader
had not had before

It was a kin
of, you know, personal contact

that becomes one of th
hallmarks of the movement later.

But in 1961,
it was a real affirmatio

of the movement's power.

♪

REPORTER (archival):
The capital city of Alabam
remains under martial la

in the wake of racial strife

800 national guardsmen
and 700 U.S. marshals,

aided by state and local police,
are keeping the watch here

to prevent a reoccurrenc
of the interracial violenc

which has swept the city
over the weekend

Montgomery now hopes
for the best

but braces for the racial worst.

REPORTER (archival):
This was as good a time as any

to point out to the rest of th
world that we are not barbaric

The man who did the pointing
for the United States toda

was Attorney General
Robert Kennedy

who, using the microphones
of the Voice of America,

told the people of mor
than 60 countrie

that the Montgomery mo
did not represen

the people of the South,

and actually represented onl
a small minority of Americans.

There are many areas
of the United States

where there's no prejudice
whatsoever

Negroes are continuously makin
progress here in this country.

The progress in many areas i
not as fast as it should be,

but they are making progress

and we will continue
to make progress

There is prejudice now

there's no reason that
in the near...

in the foreseeable futur
that a Negro could also be

president of the United States

REPORTER (archival):
The 17 Freedom Riders who were
at last night's church service

have disappeared within the city
of Montgomer

or in the surroundin
countryside.

There is no sign them,
no one who will admi

that he has any knowledg
of their whereabouts

They were expected to surrende
to local authorities today

to face charges of havin
violated an injunction

against integrating buse
operating on Alabama highways.

They have not surrendered.

ARSENAULT:
After the siege,
the Freedom Riders gathere

at Dr. Harris's house.

This was one of the larges
houses in the Black communit

in Montgomery.

And it's an amazing scene.

Nothing like it had ever
quite happened

in the history of the movement
before

where you have young
and old leaders,

sort of sequestere
in this house,

talking about the philosophy
of the movement,

the strategy, what to do next.

And part of this involves th
relationship between the Riders,

between the Freedom Ride
and Dr. King

KING
We met with the students

some four hours last evening
and discussed many matters

concerning the whole Freedom
Ride and the goals ahead

And it was a unanimous feeling
of all of the students present

that the Freedom Rides shoul
and must continue.

LAWSON
There were a numbe
of students and Riders

who wanted Martin King
to go on the ride with them.

So there were major discussions,

and a lot of heat, I think
even anger

at Dr. Harris's house during
the night and the next day

The folk who were pushing hi
to go were wanting to use hi

because he was the spokesperso
and symbol of the struggle

and they wanted that to give
them some kind of media edge

BOND
He refuses, and he claim
that he can't go

because he's on probation.

And many of these young people
are on probation

three or four times over

You know, they've been arreste
many more times than he has,

and they can't understan
this reluctance.

McWHORTER:
The SNCC kids fully expected

that King was going to b
on the bus with them

to Jackson, Mississippi,

and were really crestfalle
that he wouldn't

and that's when they started
calling him,

mockingly, "De Lawd.

LEWIS:
To refer to Dr. King

as some people did

"The Lord" was being facetious
sarcastic,

that he was bigger
than any of us

CARSON
When he was explaining

why he wouldn't go o
the Freedom Rides,

kind of compared himself
to Jesus

in the sense of seeing himself
as a person facing crucifixion

I think he lost a certain amount
of stature

among some of the students

And I think it fed into some
of the splits that would come.

BOND
That didn't mean

that they turned their backs
on him by any means;

he was still a revered
and beloved figure

but he was revealed to hav
feet... well, maybe of clay.

♪

CARSON
At a certain point

the Kennedy administration and
the state officials in Alabama

make a decision that this is
a crisis that has to end

and that they need
to diffuse it.

They decide to d

what they could have don
in the first place

and that is provid
the protection necessary

to make sure that the Freedo
Riders get from Montgomery

to the border of Alabama
and Mississippi safely

♪

GILES:
We had over 120 people to guar
the Freedom Riders

as they left Montgomery becaus
we were going to be assure

that there wouldn'
be any problems.

And the guardsmen had thei
rifles with fixed bayonets

Everybody was well prepare
to get the Freedom Rider

on out of Alabam
and on to Mississippi.

REPORTER (archival):
The scheduled departure:
7:00 this morning.

National guardsmen and highway
patrolmen dominated the scene.

A half dozen guardsmen
boarded the bus,

then the 12 Freedom Riders--

nine Negro men, one white man,
two Negro women.

At 11 minutes after 7:00
the convoy started to move

The bus was preceded by
half-dozen highway patrol cars

LAWSON
We did not ask

for all of the state polic
and the helicopters overhead

It was shameful that we coul
not travel peacefull

without that apparatus
of protection.

VIVIAN
We take off across country

We can see people on porches

and Black people
on their porches

When you're going throug
the Black part of a town

they're just waving, you know,
and we're waving back.

It was really tremendous

and old folks sitting out on the
porch like they normally do;

and it was reall
a wonderful thing.

Their hopes were on us
you know

and we were supposed to,
in fact, do what we're doing

and to make it so that one day

their children wouldn't have
to put up with

what they put up with.

PATTERSON:
We escorted them all the way

with state trooper
and national guardsmen

all the way to
the Mississippi line

Then the thing was over.

And then we bega
to lick our wounds

(chuckles)

REPORTER (archival):
At 11:50 a.m
Central Standard Tim

the bus hit th
Mississippi line

the Alabama authoritie
pulling back

We felt a very strange feeling

when there was
a changing of the guar

at the Alabama-Mississippi
state line

It was very eerie.

In spite of all that Alabama
had done

the fear of Mississipp
in the minds of many peopl

was far greater.

There was a huge billboard

And that billboard said,

"Welcome to Mississippi,
the Magnolia State."

And when we continue
to ride on

the next large sign we saw said,
"Prepare to meet thy God."

ROSS BARNETT (archival):
There are seven or eight

of these what they cal
Freedom Riders

on the way from Montgomery
Alabama,

coming into the stat
of Mississippi

And I believe you asked me

if we'd made any preparation
for them, is that right?

MAN:
Yes.

Well, we expect them to obey
the laws of Mississipp

just as you or any other citizen
we would expect to do.

♪

LEONARD:
What we didn't know at the tim
was that Ross Barnett,

the governor of Mississippi,

had told all the white peopl
in Mississippi, "Stay home."

He said there would be
no violence in Mississippi

even though that was the state
most known for hanging

You know, that was
the most violent state

but Ross Barnett said,
"Let us handle this.

And that's what they did

LAFAYETTE:
We walked into the
white waiting room

and there was this
police captain

we learned his nam
was Captain Ray,

and he said, "Move on.

Move on, move on."

♪

VIVIAN
By the time I came out
of the bus station

everybody was in the paddy wagon

and he was telling his men
to close the door.

So I sort of tapped hi
on the shoulder and I said

"I'm with them."

He looks and then he turns
his face aroun

because he's smiling

First time he have anybody tel
him to open the paddy wago

so they can go to jail

And then when he got
his face together,

he turned back around an
he said, "Get in there!"

LEONARD:
They took us

right to the paddy wagon

to the jail, to court,
and to the state penitentiary.

(siren wailing

BOND
The arrangement is made betwee

the federal government
Robert Kennedy

and the most powerful ma
in Mississippi

James O. Eastland, the senator

In exchange for providing safety
for the Freedom Riders

their civil rights
can be violate

and they can be arrested
in Jackson peacefull

and calmly, under laws which
have twice been invalidate

by the U.S. Supreme Court.

ARSENAULT:
The authorities in Mississippi
arrest them for breach of peace.

This was the implicit deal
worked out

I think the Kenned
administration was not

totally averse to this

I think they thought
that the Freedom Rider

would learn a lesson
and that this would quiet down

the whole, the whole movement.

BARNETT (archival)
In the face of an attemp
to violate the law

of Mississippi by agitators,

our law enforcement officers
did in fact enforce these laws

as they have alway
enforced them.

And they will continue
ladies and gentlemen, to enforce

all of the laws of the state
of Mississippi

when efforts are made by anyon
or any group of people

to violate those laws.

CATSAM
This is a major national story

It's drawing headline coverage
in newspapers,

it's on the nightly news every
single night

And it's also drawin
international coverage

REPORTER (speaking Czech):

CATSAM
It's a story that really
resonates with peopl

who are seeing on the one hand

the American ideals that the
know about

and on the other hand the wa
the Freedom Ride

and the response to them
confronts their imag

of American ideals

CZECH REPORTER

(men singing

ARSENAULT:
After the arrests in Jackson

Ross Barnett decided to send
them to Parchman Prison.

(singing continues

Parchman was the most dreade
prison in the South.

William Faulkner
in one of his novels

called it "destination doom.

(singing continues

♪ Well I don't gamble then...

♪

CARSON
Ross Barnett wants to teach them
a lesson

and the lesson is, "I'm goin
to send you to a real prison

"to Parchman Penitentiary.

"So you're going to do
hard time in Mississippi

You're not... this is no
going to be a city jail.

This is going to be like
the reputation of the Old Sout

where people did work gangs.

MAN:
♪ I would write the governor,
but...

♪ That'll do no good

♪ I would write the governor,
but...

♪ That'll do no good.

ARSENAULT:
Ross Barnett thought tha
he could intimidate them

that just the though
of Parchma

would scare people to deat

and that this woul
break the back

of the Freedom Rider movement.

JOAN MULHOLLAND:
We were taken into
this dark building

We had to strip and ge
examined, a vaginal exam

Had, um...

Matrons had on rubber gloves

and would dip them into what
smelled sort of like Lysol

or some concoction like that

and then they'd gouge up u
and back into the Lysol,

or whatever it was
and on to the next one

And that was reall
intimidating

Showed they could do anythin
they wanted to us,

and probably would

VIVIAN
Suddenly he asked me
"Do you have syphilis?

I said no and kind of laughed,
quite like I'm doing now

Boy, that was the key.

They jumped on me.

But as they attacked
blood spouted.

And when the blood spouted
they all jumped back

because they weren't suppose
to do that

The idea was to bruise
not to bleed

CATSAM
Ross Barnett thinks that
he has the ultimate move

on the chessboard by sending
them to Parchman farm.

The Freedom Riders take th
pretty brave stand of saying

"Fine, we'll go to Parchman,
and we'll fill Parchman up

"and we'll make Parchman
the next sit

of the civil rights movement."

MAN (archival)
We must now fill the jai

and be willing to remain

for at least a minimum
of 60 days or more

CATSAM
It became a continuation
of the Freedom Ride.

Parchman becomes every much th
location in the Freedom Ride

as the bus depots themselves

MAN (archival)
I'd like to see the show
of hands of those yo

who will be willing to continu
the Freedom Ride

in the near future

Put 'em up high, please.

LAFAYETTE:
We made up a song saying

that buses are a-coming.

And we sang it to the jailer
to tell them and warn them

to get ready, to be prepared

that we were not
the only ones coming

So we started singing,

♪ Buses are a-comin', oh yes

♪ Buses are a-comin', oh yes

♪ Buses are a-comin',
buses are a-comin'

♪ Buses are a-comin', oh yes.

We say to the jailers,

♪ Better get you ready,
oh yes. ♪

The jailers say, "All right,
shut up all that singing

"and hollering in here

This is not no playhouse
this is the jailhouse.

So, we said to ourselves

"What are you going to do,
put us in jail?"

♪ Better get you ready, oh yes

♪ Better get you ready,
oh yes. ♪

And they said,
"Wait a minute, hold it.

"If we hear one more pee
outta you guys

we're going to tak
your mattress.

♪ You can take our mattress
oh yes

♪You can take our mattress,
oh yes

♪ You can take our mattress
you can take our mattress ♪

♪ You can take our mattress
oh yes. ♪

And then, they sai

that they were going to take
our toothbrushes

And someone struck out

♪ You can take our tooth...

We said,
"Wait a minute, hold up.

"This is time for Quaker
consensus.

We all got to agre
on this together."

'Cause here we were, eight of us
in a cell built for tw

and that means, you had...
we're close quarters

And so we learned to sin
with our mouths closed

so we wouldn't breathe
on each other, and we sang

♪ You can take our toothbrush
oh yes

♪ You can take our toothbrush
oh yes

♪ You can take our toothbrush
you can take our toothbrush ♪

♪ You can take our toothbrush
oh yes. ♪

WOMAN:
♪ Buses are a-comin', oh yes

♪ Buses are a-comin', oh yes

♪ Buses are a-comin',
buses are a-comin'

♪ Buses are a-comin', oh yes.

PAULINE KNIGHT-OFOSU
I got up one morning in Ma

and I said to my folks at home

"I won't be back today
because I'm a Freedom Rider.

SINGERS:
♪ ...ready, oh yes

KNIGHT-OFOSU
It was like a wave or a wind

that you didn't know where i
was coming fro

or where it was going,

but you knew you were supposed
to be there.

Nobody asked me.

Nobody told me

It was like putting yeas
in bread

it was a leavening effect.

SINGERS:
♪ Buses are a-comin', oh yes

♪ Buses are a-comin',
buses are a-comin'

♪ Buses are a-comin'...

MULHOLLAND
What are you going
to do this summer?

Well, you can go do some, yo
know, menial, low-paying job

or you can g
on the Freedom Rides

SINGERS:
♪ Comin' through Alabama

MULHOLLAND
I think a lot of us,
we were past fear.

We can't stop.

If one person falls,
others take their place.

SINGERS:
♪ Comin' through Alabama,
oh yes. ♪

ISRAEL DRESNER
They wanted to have people
of different religions

We started out

with 14 Protestant ministers--
eight white and six Black-

and four Reform rabbis

and we wound up with ten
of us getting arrested

MAN:
We cannot submit to immoral laws

which demand that we separat
racially

Nor can we conscientiously avoid
entirely the situation

of which these segregationis
laws operate

contrary to the laws
of the land.

SINGERS:
♪ Rolling into Jackson, oh yes

♪ Rolling into Jackson,
rolling into Jackson

♪ Buses are a-comin', oh yes.

ARSENAULT:
As the Freedom Rider leaders
called for more Freedom Ride

going into Mississippi
Bobby Kennedy decide

to go formally to the Interstate
Commerce Commission, the ICC

and to ask them for a sweeping
desegregation order.

As attorney general, Bobby
Kennedy didn't have the powe

to take down the Jim Crow signs.

Only the ICC did

Now the matter i
before the ICC

We have taken action
in the governmen

to try to end segregatio
in all of these facilities

It seems to me that that's
the proper place for it to be.

I don't see that
the Freedom Riders now

who are so-calle
Freedom Riders

who are making these trips
accomplish a great deal.

I question their wisdom-

I don't question their
legal right to travel,

but I question their wisdom.

I think that some people
can get hurt

innocent people that don't hav
anything to do with this

ARSENAULT:
Bobby Kennedy hope

that he could go to the Freedo
Rider leaders and say,

"Look, I've made this move

"Those signs are going to come
down eventually.

Why don't you call off
the Freedom Rides?

CATSAM
Robert Kennedy calls for thi
cooling-off proces

and the Freedom Riders say no.

And, in fact, they pick up
the Freedom Rides,

they intensify the whole project

and they have people coming in
from all across the countr

to participate

And they're coming in by plane

and they're coming in by bus
and they're coming in by train

REPORTER (archival):
Well, as this train rolls on
toward Jackson, Mississippi,

do you have any second
thoughts with regard

to this effort
you're taking?

No, none at all.

Even though we came from man
different places

and we had many differen
cultures

and many different
home environments,

in some ways we were
very much unifie

because we had a common caus

and we were all moving
in that direction.

And we did believe i
what we were doing

We knew that we ha
taken a stan

and that it was going to b
better

There was something better
out there for us

REPORTER (archival):
What made you want to take par
in this?

I want to break, help break down
the barrier of segregation

How about you?

Can you give me an
of your feelings

on why you wan
to take part in this

Well, I want to help establish
the right of all Americans

to eat togethe
and to travel together

Why do you think it'
your responsibility?

I think it's every
American's responsibility.

I only think that some
are more conscious

of their responsibilitie
than others.

♪

ARSENAULT:
Eventually there wer
over 430 Freedom Riders,

300 of whom ended up
at Parchman.

At Parchman they began to se
the movement in a new way.

It became almost a universit
of nonviolence

They became not just
individual group

of Freedom Riders, but they ha
a shared experience.

And they were from different
parts of the country

they were different races,
different religions,

some cases different
political philosophies

and it all got blended together.

They became tougher.

They became even more committed.

They became the shock troops
of the movement.

LEWIS:
The people that took a sea
on these buses

that went to jail in Jackson

that went to Parchman,
they were never the same

We had moments there to learn,
to teach each othe

the way of nonviolence, the wa
of love, the way of peace.

The Freedom Ride created
an unbelievable sense-

"Yes, we will make it.

Yes, we will survive."

And that nothing, but nothing,
was going to stop this movement.

♪

ARSENAULT:
Finally, on September 22
after hundreds of arrests,

the ICC issued its order

It gave the Freedom Riders
what they'd been asking for.

The "colored only,
the "whites only" sign

that had been in the bus and
rail stations for generations,

they finally came down

This was the first
unambiguous victor

in the long history of
the civil rights movement.

It finally said that
you know, "We can do this.

And it raised expectations
across the board

for greater victorie
in the future.

WOMAN:
♪ I'm taking a trip o
the Greyhound bus line

♪ I'm riding the front seat
to N'Orleans this time

♪ Hallelujah,
I'm a-travelin'...

HANK THOMAS:
Black folks always lived in fear
of white folks

And now they are seein
the young people

defying white people

And so we helped to get ri
of that myth of impotence.

WOMAN:
♪ I walked in Montgomery,
I sat in Tennessee

♪ Now I'm a-ridin
for equality

♪ Hallelujah, I'm a-travelin'
Hallelujah, ain't it fine ♪

♪ Hallelujah, I'm a-travelin'
down freedom's main line

DRESNER:
They understoo

that the only way it could b
done in Americ

is through peaceful methods.

And the Freedom Ride
illustrated that

The people who got beate
did not strike back.

The people who got beaten di
not have weapons with them

It was just a stroke of genius

♪

BOYD
The Freedom Riders
introduced the notio

that there were fair-minde
white person

who were willing
to sacrifice themselves,

their bodies and their lives

because they too believe

that the country
had an obligatio

to uphold it
constitutional mandate

of liberty and justice for all

And I think it opened our eyes

so that we didn't pain
all white people

with the same broad brush.

JOHN KENNEDY
A great change is at hand,

and our task, our obligation
is to make that revolution

that change, peacefu
and constructive for all

Those who do nothing
are inviting shame

as well as violence.

Those who act boldly
are recognizing righ

as well as reality

EVAN THOMAS:
There's no questio
that Kennedy was changed

by the Freedom Riders.

There's a direct lin
from the Freedom Rider

to the speech that President
Kennedy gave in June of 1963

calling on Congres
to pass legislatio

to get rid of Jim Crow and t
give civil rights protection

to all citizens.

ARSENAULT:
It was America

It was interracial

It was interregional

It was secular and religious

It brought together people

of different political
philosophies

There was a sense of unity
and purpos

that I'm not sure that
the movement ever had before

It was a shining moment.

WOMAN:
♪ Hallelujah, I'm a-travelin'

♪ Hallelujah, ain't it fine?

♪ Hallelujah, I'm a-travelin'
down freedom's main line. ♪

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ANNOUNCER:
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driven by the promis
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♪

ANNOUNCER:
Major fundin
for "Freedom Riders"

is provided by the Nationa
Endowment for the Humanities

bringing you the stories
that define us

♪

"American Experience
is also made possibl

by the Robert David Lion
Gardiner Foundation,

members of the Documentary
Investment Group

including Lynn Bay Dayton an
the Nordblom Family Foundation

the Corporatio
for Public Broadcasting,

and by contributions
to your PBS statio

from viewers like you.

Thank you.

♪

♪

♪

♪