50th Anniversary: May 1, 1961 (Freedom Riders)
Militant students joined James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality to conduct "Freedom Rides" on public transportation from Washington DC across the deep South to New Orleans. The trips were intended to test Supreme Court decision and Interstate Commerce Commission regulations prohibiting discrimination in interstate travel. In several places riders were brutally beaten by local people and policemen. The rides were patterned after a similar challenge to segregation, the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, which tested the US Supreme Court's 1946 ban against segregation in interstate bus travel. For more info: "Freedom Riders" by Ann Bausum.
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