How the Freedom Rides Helped to Shape the Civil Rights Movement

The Freedom Rides of 1961 were an integral part of the Civil Rights movement yet could not have been a success if it were not for the activism of white volunteers or the intervention of state and federal governments. According to Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, a prominent leader in CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), “When white men and black men are beaten up together, the day is coming when they will walk together.” The volunteers for the Freedom Rides were approximately fifty to sixty percent white, largely from the states of New York, California, and Washington. Few Southern whites wished to be involved in the Civil Rights movement at all. The few Southern whites who admired the Civil Rights movement and its volunteers were unwilling to initiate integration by force.