On this day, 4 May 1961, Freedom Riders began using direct action to fight segregation of interstate bus travel in the Southern United States. Despite segregation being illegal, the law was not enforced, and police collaborated with the Ku Klux Klan and violent racist white mobs who attacked the Black and white riders. But the riders kept fighting, with some taking up arms to protect themselves, and by November segregation on the bus system was ended.
Pictured: just a small selection of mugshots of arrested Freedom riders https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1709150799270063/?type=3
