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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
<br /> A PROCLAMATION
<br /> COMMEMORATING THE 6oTx ANNIVERSARY OF THE FREEDOM RIDES
<br /> WHEREAS , on May 4, 1961 , thirteen Black and white civil rights advocates boarded Greyhound and
<br /> Trailways buses in Washington, DC, to begin a journey to New Orleans , Louisiana, riding side by side,
<br /> on interstate highways through the Jim Crow South — through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
<br /> Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana; and
<br /> WHEREAS , the Freedom Rides involved approximately 450 women and men, from May 4 through
<br /> December 10 , 1961 , who sought to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court
<br /> decisions in Morgan v . Virginia [ 1946 ] and Boynton v . Virginia [ 1960 ] which ruled that
<br /> segregation in interstate transportation facilities , including bus terminals , was
<br /> unconstitutional ; and
<br /> WHEREAS , the Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government had done nothing
<br /> to enforce the rulings ; and
<br /> WHEREAS , the Congress of Racial Equality [CORE] and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
<br /> Committee [SNCC] sponsored the Freedom Rides and worked in collaboration with the Nashville
<br /> Student Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and
<br /> WHEREAS , the Freedom Riders were inspired by the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation led by Bayard
<br /> Rustin and George Houser and co -sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the then-fledgling
<br /> CORE, and like the Freedom Rides of 1961 , the Journey of Reconciliation was intended to test an earlier
<br /> Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travels and
<br /> WHEREAS , the Freedom Riders encountered mob violence, fire bombings , and police brutality, and
<br /> arrest and incarceration for trespassing, unlawful assembly, violating state and local Jim Crow laws and
<br /> other alleged offenses ; and
<br /> WHEREAS , President John F . Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F . Kennedy called for a " cooling
<br /> off period " and condemned the Freedom Rides as unpatriotic because they embarrassed the nation on
<br /> the world stage at the height of the Cold War , to which James Farmer responded, " We have been cooling
<br /> off for 350 years , and if we cooled off' any more , we ' d be in a deep freeze " ; and
<br /> WHEREAS , the Freedom Riders persisted in their fight for justice, and eventually their activism,
<br /> influenced and changed the landscape of race relations , civil rights and human rights in the United
<br /> States ,
<br /> NOW THEREFORE, the Orange County Board of County Commissioners , on behalf of the people of
<br /> Orange County, hereby proclaims May 2021 as Freedom Riders Month in Orange County in
<br /> Commemoration of this 60t' Anniversary of the Freedom Rides and in tribute to the Freedom
<br /> Riders , the women and men who fought for justice in the United States of America .
<br /> This the 4th Day of May, 2021 . '�s$ $ �Cr,djh f
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<br /> ` , , 52 Renee Price , Chair
<br /> Orange County Board of Commissioners
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