History Research Proposal: Investigating the Challenges Freedom Riders Faced and The Results of Their Efforts in Fighting for Equality

Investigating the Challenges Freedom Riders Faced and The Results of Their Efforts in Fighting for Equality
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Investigating the Challenges Freedom Riders Faced and The Results of Their Efforts in Fighting for Equality
The world has faced several discrimination cases over time, but gladly the situation is changing exponentially. We attribute these changes to different groups, including the Freedom Riders. Dating back to the 19th century, the United States recorded several cases of racial discrimination. Sadly, some leaders over this period implemented policies that promoted discrimination. Before 1960, different races were not allowed to mingle while traveling in the US. The whites used different and exclusive facilities like the restrooms and terminals from the blacks until Supreme Court's ruling dubbed Boynton v. Virginia of 1960. This is despite the 1946 ruling by the US Supreme Court that illegalized racial discrimination in interstate travels. The Freedom Riders purposed to test whether the federal government would enforce the Boynton v. Virginia ruling. This paper explores the problems the Freedom Riders encountered in their fight for equality and tests whether they achieved their objective in the process.[Baylor, “Boynton v. Virginia,” When a bus carrier has volunteered to make terminal and restaurant facilities and services available to its interstate passengers as a regular part of their transportation, and the terminal and restaurant have acquiesced and cooperated in this undertaking, the terminal and restaurant must perform these services without discriminations prohibited by the Act. Pp. 364 U. S. 457–461, (315)]
Freedom Riders, a group of civil rights activists, protested the government's non-enforcement of the Supreme Court ruling of Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and the Boynton v. Virginia (1960) that ruled unconstitutional segregation of races in buses and other travel termini. The federal government was aware of the Southern State's defiance of these rulings, yet it did not take any action to on the same. The Morgan v. Virginia (1946) decision banned the segregation of races in interstate bus travels, while Boynton v. Virginia decision ruled unconstitutional the racial discrimination witnessed in the waiting room and restaurants in interstate bus terminals. However, the Freedom Riders discovered more facts during their ride. The Southern State supported the discrimination of races in bus travels.
The first Freedom Ride took off on 4 May 1961, led by Congress of Racial Equality, CORE Director James Farmer. The group comprised thirteen riders with seven blacks and six whites between 18 and thirty years. CORE and Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, SNCC sponsored the riders who planned to start from Washington DC and ride through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, then ending the ride in New Orleans, Louisiana, where a civil rights rally was planned (Andrews, 2018). To implement their protest, the riders planned to break the segregation rules of the South by having a black to sit on the front seat dedicated for the whites and the rest scattered throughout the bus....