Freedom Riders

In the spring and summer of 1961 hundreds of civil rights activists rode interstate buses throughout the Deep South to challenge the region's Jim Crow segregation laws. Freedom Riders is a television documentary for PBS' American Experience that tells the story of these activists. This interactive timeline—which is featured on the program's website—has two parts. The first lets visitors follow the route of the original Freedom Ride, which is combined with photographs of the riders and the challenges they faced. The second part shows the routes followed by other Freedom Riders throughout 1961.