Existing comment:
CORE's Freedom Rides
In 1961 CORE organized Freedom Rides into the Deep South to test the 1960 Supreme Court's decision in Boynton v. Virginia, which held that segregation in railway and bus terminal facilities serving interstate passengers was illegal. On May 4, 1961, thirteen black and white riders, including CORE's National Director, James Farmer, departed Washington, D.C., by bus en route to New Orleans. On May 14, in Anniston, Alabama, one bus was firebombed and riders on another were assaulted. In this letter, Farmer asks A. Philip Randolph for help in raising money to support the Freedom Rides. |