Celebrating the advocacy of the Freedom Riders — 65 years after their journey

On May 4, 1961, a group of 13 activists dubbed the “Freedom Riders” boarded two buses in Washington, D.C., bound for New Orleans. Their mission: to journey across the Jim Crow-era South to challenge discriminatory state laws and local customs requiring the segregation of races on buses and in station facilities, such as waiting areas, lunch counters and restrooms.

Organized by the Congress of Racial Equality, the group consisted of seven Blacks and six whites. Among them was John Lewis, then a seminary student and member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Their plan was to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 17 to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

Also aboard was a World War II white veteran Albert Bigelow.  Lewis, who would become a key figure in the civil rights movement, went on to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1986. A Democrat, Lewis continued to represent Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, which includes Atlanta, until his death at age 80 in 2020.

As the Freedom Riders traveled across the South, white supremacists attacked them on multiple occasions. In Rock Hill, South Carolina, Lewis, Bigelow and another Black rider were assaulted as they attempted to enter a whites-only waiting area. A bus was firebombed outside Anniston, Alabama. In Birmingham, Alabama, Ku Klux Klansmen attacked riders on one of the two buses.

Through the media, the nation and the world witnessed the violence. The images shocked the American public and created political pressure, which forced the federal government to take action.

Along the way, the Freedom Riders inspired hundreds of others to join their cause, culminating in more than 400 participants. Together, they succeeded in pressing the federal government to respond. On May 29, 1961, Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to issue regulations banning segregation, and the ICC subsequently decreed that by November 1961, bus carriers and terminals serving interstate travel had to be integrated.

The Freedom Rides and Freedom Riders made substantial gains in the fight for equal access to public accommodations. Federal orders to remove Jim Crow signs on interstate facilities did not change social mores or political institutions overnight, but the Freedom Riders struck a  mighty blow against racial segregation.

Now 65 years after that journey, an international jazz collective is honoring the Freedom Riders’ advocacy and legacy with a North American tour that started in New York City in January and culminates on Oct. 2 at Symphony Center. Led by music director Ben Williams on bass, the collective features Sarah Elizabeth Charles on vocals, Joe Dyson on drums, Carmen Staaf on piano, Sasha Berliner on vibraphone, Alfredo Colon on alto saxophone, Tomoki Sanders on tenor saxophone and Milena Casado on trumpet. In Chicago, vocalists Kurt Elling and Lizz Wright will join the group.