The first Freedom Ride took place on May 4, 1961, with a programmed arriving time to New Orleans on May 17. Occupying two public buses, seven colored-skin people and six whites journeyed into the Deep South. The director of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), James Farmer, led this first ride. The riders traveled without incident across Virginia and North Carolina. They encountered violence for the first time in South Carolina when several white men knocked black members of the crew who tried to use a “whites only” bathroom. Nevertheless, the Riders continued their journey, but a few miles later, the ride for one of the buses ended when a group of whites firebombed the vehicle. Subsequently, they crossed Georgia without incidents. When the activists reached Alabama on May 14, the attacks intensified. That same day a second group departed from Nashville to strengthen the harassed Riders in Alabama, headed by Diane Nash, a participant of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Despite their efforts and the support, the Freedom Riders did not make it to New