On May 4, 1961, thirteen courageous civil rights activists—seven Black and six white—departed Washington, D.C., on Greyhound and Trailways buses to challenge segregated bus terminals across the American South. Known as the Freedom Riders, they tested the Supreme Court’s decision in Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which outlawed segregation in interstate bus and rail travel.

Organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the riders faced threats, mob violence, and arrests as they journeyed through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Their bravery sparked a national movement and drew international attention to the injustices of Jim Crow segregation, ultimately pressuring the federal government to enforce desegregation laws more strictly.