John Kennedy was elected on November 1960, there was hope that the civil right movement will promote change. John Kennedy campaign was run on the idea that he will protect southern rights. Due to the support from the south, state governors had this belief …show more content…
The Freedom Riders were formed by the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE and lead by James Farmer. The south had a culture that believe that the white people were superior to colored people. It was against their culture to help mix the two races. The white southern culture dehumanized blacks in the United States, and they did not respect African American rights. The freedom riders were planning to enforce the ruling of Morgan v. Virginia, which ruled segregation in buses illegal. Most southern states did not enforce this ruling and set state segregation laws called Jim Crow laws. Participants of the Freedom Riders were mostly collage students that accepted and understood the possible consequences that a protest in the deep south would have caused. These students normally dropped out of school in order to support the Freedom Riders and defend their beliefs. The Freedom Riders conducted training to see how one should react in the face of conflict, by nonviolent means. The Freedom Riders first trip was plan to run on May 4, 1961 from Washington to New Orleans on May 17, 1961 where they would celebrate the Morgan v. Virginia ruling. The Freedom Riders traveled in two buses with two different bus companies. First group was put in the greyhound bus, and the other group went with a bus company named the …show more content…
held a meeting to discus the civil right movement in a church in Montgomery. This caused a mob to surround the church and posed a serious treat to the safety of the people inside. This forced John Kennedy to take action and provided military assistance by the United State Marshal. This problem caused marshal law in Montgomery. The help of John Kennedy showed the power of the civil right movement and people cheered because John Kennedy sided with the movement. With the president’s protection, the Freedom Riders continued the movement. They went to Mississippi, where the Freedom Riders were arrested for disobeying orders. The Freedom Riders were place in Parchman Penitentiary. This caused the civil rights movement to purposely be incarcerated in Parchman Penitentiary, which was considered one of the toughest penitentiary of the time. Civil right activist filled the Parchman Penitentiary to full capacity and kept flooding the jail. This showed that the states could not stop the movement even if they trew the member of the Freedom Riders in