The freedom rides were started by core in May of this year, specifically I think for
two purposes.
One to test the Boynton decision of 1960, which was handed down by the Supreme Court,
which said that Negroes have a right to eat in those bus stations, air terminals, and train
stations that fall under the jurisdiction of the interstate commerce laws.
And secondly, there is a real basic reason for the freedom rides, and that is the moral
principle upon which we are founding them.
And that is that individuals, regardless of race, creed, or color, have a right to travel,
have a right to be treated as any other American, regardless of their origin.
Well, how about you, sir?
Certainly your reasons have nothing to do with race.
Tell us a bit about you, your name, where you're from, what you do.
Well, my name is William Leons, and I'm a graduate student in anthropology at UCLA.
Though I'm obviously not a Negro, I lived in Holland during the Nazi occupation there.
My father was a Jew, and consequently, I saw my family and myself subjected to the
treatment that the Negro is experiencing in the South today.
I've seen my mother beaten by German soldiers.
My parents were in concentration camps, and myself was in hiding.
When I came to the United States, I thought of the United States as one country.
When I came here, it didn't take me long to find out, it was the South and the North,
and the jokes being made about needing a passport to go to Mississippi and not far from the
truth.
Some of the most basic elements of human decency, human rights as philosophers of hell and as
the Charter of Human Rights of the United Nations have set forth, have been violated
in the South time and time again for many years.
For many years, and the Southerners, one excuse is that these things take a long time to solve.
Well, the Civil War has been over now, a hundred years, and the American Negro and all Americans
of all classes and races feel that it's time to get moving.
You emphasize the situation in the South, sir.
Can we assume that you think the way Negroes live in the North and in our part of the West
is satisfactory enough so that no freedom rimes or similar protests are needed here?
No, I certainly don't.
I myself, as Helen, did protest it through picketing against some of the Californian
variants of racial segregation.
The important thing that is being tested in the South is whether federal law, as pertaining
to these matters, are enforced in the South.
In the Northern states, many laws are on the books.
This is the first big important step.
I don't think any of us here feel that prejudice can be picketed out of men's hearts or that
they can be one over two sides of decency in quotes overnight.
Look, you're prepared to face, and I believe you'll have no trouble living through the
kind of brutal, indecent treatment we just witnessed in the replay.
I'll certainly try my best.
Leon's, the Singleton's, and the twelve others who made the trip are now in jail.
Some coverage of their arrest in a moment.
This is the destination of the Freedom Riders, the railroad station in Jackson, Mississippi.
The events that followed the arrival of their train from New Orleans may have seemed anti-climactic
after all the preparations.
The fifteen Californians, ten whites, five Negroes, got off the train and went downstairs
into the terminal.
They sat down as a group in the white waiting room.
Police Captain J. L. Ray went up to each one and told him to move on.
He then asked if they understood his order.
When they refused to leave, he placed them all under arrest.
Then a police escort to the patty wagon and off to jail.
That's all there was to it.
It was all over in a matter of minutes.
The next day they were tried, convicted, and each was sentenced to six months and two hundred
dollars fine.
Last week they were transferred to the Mississippi State Prison at Parchman.
Their plans to bail them out after thirty-nine days, getting them home in time for the start
of the fall semester.
Friends of the Freedom Riders and their critics can probably agree on one thing.
The youngsters possess uncommon courage and dignity.
Perhaps at this moment the Los Angeles Freedom Riders in their cells are discussing the writings
of Mohandas Gandhi.
Passive resistance is an all-sided sword.
It can be used anyhow.
It blesses him who uses it and him against whom it is used.
Gandhi said also, if man will only realize it is unmanly to obey laws that are unjust,
then no man's tyranny will enslave him.
