Freedom riders demonstrate both the power and triumph of nonviolence

Our triumph consists again in being imprisoned for no wrong whatsoever. - Mohandas Gandhi

John Lewis in 1961

"Boarding that Greyhound bus to travel through the heart of the Deep South I felt good. I felt happy. I felt liberated. I was like a soldier in a nonviolent army" - Representative John Lewis, Freedom Riders trailer, American Experience, 2011

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland in 1961

"They can cause change for good. That they have the power and I hope that they will learn from our experience ways of looking at things -- thinking outside the box daring to do things that most people wouldn't. I hope they get ideas of how to tackle the problems of today." - Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, PBS Newshour May 13, 2011

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

Imagine for a moment hundreds of young Americans threatened, attacked, imprisoned and responding with nonviolent resistance. This happened in the Freedom Rides initiated by the Congress of Racial Equality on May 16, 1961. Fifty years later they still gather to remember what happened and to tell new generations that they too can make a difference for the better.

American Experience offers a powerful image with an interesting question: "Could you get on the bus?" I think the more provocative question is "Would you get on the bus?" Knowing what awaited the riders as they traveled further into segregationist territory.

Freedom Riders bus firebombed by racists in 1961

Buses were burned and people were hurt. Its a miracle that no one died on the Freedom Rides but we know that other nonviolent civil rights activists were indeed murdered. The students who participated in the last portion of the freedom rides had written their last wills and testaments. Would you get on the bus knowing all of this?

John Lewis and James Zwerg after being attacked in Montgomery, AL in 1961

This movement, along with the American Civil Rights movement in general was inspired by the nonviolent teachings and philosophy of Mohandas Gandhi. The struggle for freedom requires full effort. The Freedom Riders demonstrated that in 1961 and changed the United States of America for the better. Below is a featured excerpt that describes the link between the Civil Rights Movement and Gandhi:

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

Fifty years later let us remember and honor the hundreds of young and courageous men and women who not only could get on the bus but decided that they would risk everything to take a ride for freedom.

Rosa Parks and the nonviolent moment that initiated the destruction of racial segregation

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." - Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks, mugshot 1955

Before the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. there was Rosa Parks. In the video below she recounts the events surrounding her arrest. On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama sitting in the back of the bus [the area reserved for African Americans during Segregation] the "white" section having been filled to capacity with a white man standing the bus driver told Rosa Parks to stand up and give her seat to him.

Rosa Parks refused and a nonviolent moment that would generate a movement that would tear down legal segregation was mobilized. She was arrested, finger printed, photographed, jailed and fined $14 dollars for refusing to give up her seat.

Rosa Parks finger printed in December of 1955 following her arrest. Below her finger prints.

She appealed the ruling. The next day the Women’s Political Council called for a bus boycott in Montgomery on December 5, 1955 but seeing the huge turnout and intensity the decision was made to expand it and on that day the Montgomery Improvement Association formed to coordinate the boycott with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. elected the chairman of the organization. Carpools were formed and African Americans stopped riding the buses in Montgomery.

Rosa Parks and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

On January 30, 1956 Martin Luther King Jr.'s home was bombed but the boycott continued and remained nonviolent. On November 15, 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court rules that bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. The boycott ended on December 21, 1956 when the Montgomery City Lines desegregated. The bus boycott had lasted 382 days, and turned both Rosa Parks and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. into national figures. Civil disobedience had triumphed over brute force and terror.

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Although 55 years have passed since that day that changed the United States forever and five years have passed since the civil rights icon passed on, Rosa Parks continues to have an impact around the world. Today in Cuba, Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera heads the Rosa Parks Women's Civil Rights Movement and is a living reminder of an observation made by Rosa Parks: "Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others."

Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera