Agenda - 05-04-2021; 4-e - Proclamation Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides

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1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: May 4, 2021 Action Agenda Item No. 4-e SUBJECT: Proclamation Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides DEPARTMENT: Board of Commissioners ATTACHMENT (S): INFORMATION CONTACT: Proclamation Laura Jensen, 245-2130 PURPOSE: To approve a proclamation commemorating the 60t" anniversary of the Freedom Rides. BACKGROUND: On May 4, 1961, thirteen black and white civil rights advocates boarded buses in Washington, DC, to begin a journey on interstate highways through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The Freedom Riders sought to challenge the enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions in Morgan v. Virginia [1946] and Boynton v. Virginia [1960], which ruled that segregation in bathrooms, waiting rooms, lunch counters, and in interstate transportation facilities, including bus terminals, was unconstitutional. The Freedom Rides occurred during a time when the Civil Rights movement was gathering momentum, when African American in the South were routinely harassed and subjected to segregation by Jim Crow laws. The Congress of Racial Equality ("CORE") organized the Freedom Rides under the leadership of James Farmer. CORE sought application from diverse men and women of various ages from across the United States. Among the first thirteen selected was Reverend Benjamin Elton Cox, a retired minister at Pilgrim Congregation Church in High Point, North Carolina. The Honorable John Lewis, then 21, represented the Nashville Branch of CORE and was a member of the original thirteen Freedom Riders. The original froup of Freedom Riders prepared by completing a few days of training on role-playing, preparing how to respond to nonviolent ways to harassment. • May 4, 1961 - Greyhound and Trailways buses leave Washington, DC for New Orleans. John Lewis and another rider beaten in Rock Hill, South Carolina. • May 8, 1961 - Joseph Perkins is the first Freedom Rider to be arrested after sitting at a whites only shoe-shine stand in Charlotte, NC. John Lewis is assaulted in the Greyhound bus terminal of Rock Hill, SC, after attempting to enter the white waiting room with fellow Freedom Rider Al Bigelow. • May 12, 1961 — Freedom Riders warned of violence ahead by Martin Luther King.