The Freedom Rides Made the Most of a Multiracial Activist Base
Today’s protests for racial justice are strikingly multiracial. Civil rights organizers have historically considered this an asset and often used it creatively and strategically to their advantage, as they did during the Freedom Rides through the American South in 1961.
The military guard a bus en route from Montgomery, Alabama, as the Freedom Riders head for Jackson, Mississippi, on May 26 1961. Express / Archive Photos / Getty Images
For three weeks now, American streets have been flooded with protestors demanding justice for George Floyd, a black man killed by Minneapolis police, and Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed by Louisville police. They have also leveled a system-wide demand to defund the police.
The protests have emerged in in more American cities and towns than any protest movement in our nation’s history. A striking feature of the movement is its highly multiracial character. Approached strategically, this can be a key strength. One of the lessons of the twentieth-century struggle for civil rights is that a multiracial activist base can be a major asset.
For a creative and successful example of multiracial anti-racist activism, look no further than the Freedom Rides that challenged segregated bus travel in the Jim Crow South.
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