University of Mississippi. Center for the Study of Southern Culture University of Mississippi. Division of Outreach and Continuing EducationUniversity of Mississippi. William Winter Institute for Racial ReconciliationUnited States, Mississippi, 32.75041, -89.75036United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.1194342001The University of Mississippi's Freedom Riders oral history project includes interviews recorded in conjunction with the 40th anniversary held in Jackson, MS in the summer of 2001.The Freedom Riders were young civil rights activists who planned to ride interstate buses from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, LA in the summer of 1961 to test the United States Court decision Boynton v. Virginia. The decision gave interstate travelers the legal right to disregard local segregation laws regarding interstate transportation facilities. The first ride left Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961 and was met with extreme amounts of violence in Alabama, so much in fact that most of the riders agreed to fly to New Orleans instead of continuing on. This did not stop the rides or the violence and on May 24th riders boarded buses for Jackson, MS. When they arrived, riders were arrested for using "whites-only" facilities and imprisoned in Parchman Penitentiary.enghttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/Freedom Riders' 40th Anniversary Oral History Project, Archives and Special Collections, J.D. Williams Library, The University of MississippiFreedom Rides, 1961--InterviewsCivil rights workers--Southern States--InterviewsCivil rights movements--Southern States--InterviewsFreedom Rides, 1961Freedom Riders' 40th Anniversary Oral History Project, 2001MovingImage