On this day, May 24, in 1961, 27 civil rights activists were arrested after a bus trip from Montgomery, Ala., to Jackson, Miss. The “Freedom Riders” rode buses in the segregated South to test the Supreme Court decision that forbade racial segregation on public transportation. The black activists tried to use the white-only facilities at the bus depot and were immediately arrested. The next day, the judge turned his back as defense attorney Jack Young spoke, then the judge found the activists guilty of trespassing and sentenced them to 60 days in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. The riders’ strategy became trying to overfill jails with their numbers, which happened rapidly. With NAACP support, they eventually had their convictions overturned. An estimated 300 riders journeyed through Southern states in 1961. Natalie Plumb
