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Legendary civil rights leader Bayard Rustin and three other men who were sentenced to work on a chain gang in North Carolina after they launched the first of the “freedom rides” to challenge Jim Crow laws will have their sentences posthumously vacated Friday, more than seven decades later.
Legendary civil rights leader Bayard Rustin and three men who were sentenced to work on a chain gang in North Carolina after they launched the “freedom rides” will have their sentences posthumously vacated.
Civil rights activist Bayard Rustin and three other men's convictions have been cleared over 70 years after they started the first "freedom rides" against Jim Crow Laws.
Igal Roodenko, who received a 22-day prison term for his action, was the only Jewish participant on the trip, which led to the better known Freedom Rides of 1961.
Sixty years ago, on May 14, 1961, one of two buses carrying an interracial group of Freedom Riders was firebombed on the outskirts of Anniston, Ala. The riders barely escaped with their lives, only to be beaten by the mob outside. Of lesser import but nonetheless seared into America’s collective memory was the fate of the bus. Its charred hulk became an indelible symbol of just how far the Southerners would go to preserve white supremacy, even 15 years after the Supreme Court found segregation in interstate transportation to be unconstitutional. Image by Freedom Rides Museum Last week, a re...