Answer:
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who in 1961 staged protest trips to the southern United States, declaring racial segregation on public buses unconstitutional.
In 1961, the intercity bus symbolized more than anything else the anti-racist struggle in the United States. Racial segregation on buses and their stops was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, but remained in force in the southern states, as were many other forms of racism.
Thus, on May 4, 1961, a group of white and black Freedom Riders, as they would go down in history, embarked on a protest bus ride from Washington. The final destination was New Orleans. However, the trip ended in Alabama, where, in the absence of police, white Birmingham residents, who later turned out to be members and supporters of the Ku Klux Klan, banned buses and beat protesters furiously. who were eventually forced to return to Washington by air. However, other protesters took their place, as on May 20, eighteen students traveled from Birmingham to the capital of Alabama, Montgomery. At the end of the march, protesters were waiting for hundreds of racists. All the protesters, as well as members of the press, were beaten, but the whites who took part in the "freedom ride" were beaten with particular fury. The incidents escalated to such an extent that the state came under martial law and Justice Secretary Robert Kennedy, an ardent supporter of the protesters, sent hundreds of Alabama National Guard men to restore order, albeit temporarily.
