about the Freedom Riders. This wasn't some foreign country, it was the US, not that long ago. These extremely brave people, mostly, but not all, black and male, rode buses into the heart of the ignorant South, knowing they were gonna get the crap beat out of them, and worse. Gangs of rednecks and KKK members beat them with pipes, clubs and bats while the local authorities watched, laughed and sometimes helped. JFK and Robert Kennedy begged for local protection, to no avail as the non-violent protestors were beaten and killed. I didn't realize that the govt people from Washington, sent to help them, along with reporters, were beaten along with them, AND, when they finally reached Mississippi, they were promptly thrown in (Parchman) prison for breaking the law, and it wasn't until the prison was overflowing, with chain gangs, that the desegregation laws began to be changed. Also, remember that the men who stood up to the Southerners, JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King, were all shot and killed within a few years. A really sad, but real, part of our history. The South, center of the Bible belt, lowest income and education and the Repub Party.
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