Grade 12 Civil Society Protests, 1950s to 1970s

SOURCE 3A The source below was taken from a book, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, written by R Arsenault, a civil rights activist and militant student leader. It highlights the commitment of the Freedom Riders during the 1960s. In 1961, the Freedom Riders set out to change the world. They did so by simply boarding a bus, not as Blacks or Whites restricted by an outmoded system of racial discrimination, but as free and full citizens of a democratic nation. The Freedom Riders knew that federal law and the Constitution of the United States of America protected their right to travel together, even in the Deep South where the local law and custom mandated (authorised) racial separation. They also knew that they might be injured or even killed for trying to exercise that right. When riots ensued, the potential violence became too real, and a nation recoiled (reacted) in horror. Unfazed (not discouraged), the Freedom Riders kept coming, more than four hundred in all, filling the freedom buses and marching into jails of the Jim Crow South. The resolute (determined) courage and commitment of the Freedom Riders had brought non-violent direct action and grassroots' insurgency (uprising) to the centre stage of American public life, prompting an unprecedented (unique) governmental response to unconstitutional infringements (violations) of freedom and civic equality. This interracial, non-violent army forced John F Kennedy's administration to confront the immediacy (closeness) of a civil rights struggle that had captured the world's attention. By the end of 1961 a sweeping desegregation order was in effect and the federal government was moving towards active involvement in the struggle for racial justice. [From Freedom Fighters: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by R Arsenault]