Freedom Riders

Carter asked the American people to cut down their energy usage during a fireside chat on February 2, 1977. "All of us must learn to waste less energy," Carter said.

The story of the 1961 Freedom Rides through America's Deep South for Civil Rights.

Learn about the 1961 Freedom Rides from the Freedom Riders themselves, and how they deliberately violated the segregation laws of the deep South.

For African-Americans, travel in the segregated South was insulting at best.

Civil rights activists rehearsed non-violence, using role-play, and were prepared to face violence.

Irene Morgan fought her 1944 arrest for sitting in the front of an interstate bus, taking her case all the way to the Supreme Court.

May 20, 1961, a busload of Freedom Riders were confronted by anti-civil rights protesters in Montgomery, Alabama.

Jailed for civil disobedience in June, 1961, the Freedom Riders used songs to turn prison into another place for peaceful protest.

In this video from 1961, two Freedom Riders explain why they risked their lives to participate in the Freedom Rides.

Two activists reflect on what the Freedom Rides meant for the Civil Rights movement.

Freedom Riders is the powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever.