HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRO-2021-019-Proclamation commemorating the 60th anniversary of the freedom rides ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
A PROCLAMATION
COMMEMORATING THE 6oTx ANNIVERSARY OF THE FREEDOM RIDES
WHEREAS , on May 4, 1961 , thirteen Black and white civil rights advocates boarded Greyhound and
Trailways buses in Washington, DC, to begin a journey to New Orleans , Louisiana, riding side by side,
on interstate highways through the Jim Crow South — through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana; and
WHEREAS , the Freedom Rides involved approximately 450 women and men, from May 4 through
December 10 , 1961 , who sought to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court
decisions in Morgan v . Virginia [ 1946 ] and Boynton v . Virginia [ 1960 ] which ruled that
segregation in interstate transportation facilities , including bus terminals , was
unconstitutional ; and
WHEREAS , the Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government had done nothing
to enforce the rulings ; and
WHEREAS , the Congress of Racial Equality [CORE] and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee [SNCC] sponsored the Freedom Rides and worked in collaboration with the Nashville
Student Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and
WHEREAS , the Freedom Riders were inspired by the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation led by Bayard
Rustin and George Houser and co -sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the then-fledgling
CORE, and like the Freedom Rides of 1961 , the Journey of Reconciliation was intended to test an earlier
Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travels and
WHEREAS , the Freedom Riders encountered mob violence, fire bombings , and police brutality, and
arrest and incarceration for trespassing, unlawful assembly, violating state and local Jim Crow laws and
other alleged offenses ; and
WHEREAS , President John F . Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F . Kennedy called for a " cooling
off period " and condemned the Freedom Rides as unpatriotic because they embarrassed the nation on
the world stage at the height of the Cold War , to which James Farmer responded, " We have been cooling
off for 350 years , and if we cooled off' any more , we ' d be in a deep freeze " ; and
WHEREAS , the Freedom Riders persisted in their fight for justice, and eventually their activism,
influenced and changed the landscape of race relations , civil rights and human rights in the United
States ,
NOW THEREFORE, the Orange County Board of County Commissioners , on behalf of the people of
Orange County, hereby proclaims May 2021 as Freedom Riders Month in Orange County in
Commemoration of this 60t' Anniversary of the Freedom Rides and in tribute to the Freedom
Riders , the women and men who fought for justice in the United States of America .
This the 4th Day of May, 2021 . '�s$ $ �Cr,djh f
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` , , 52 Renee Price , Chair
Orange County Board of Commissioners