Twelve Days in May: Freedom Ride 1961

TWELVE DAYS IN MAY: FREEDOM RIDE 1961 details the harrowing journey of a racially mixed group of activists committed to the cause of social justice who ride a Greyhound Bus across the segregated South at the height of the civil rights movement. Launched as an effort to integrate interstate bus facilities and expose racist customs and policies in the South that violated federal antidiscrimination laws, the Freedom Riders set out from Washington, D.C., headed for New Orleans, Louisiana, knowing full well that they will encounter resistance and racism along the way. At each stop, the brave passengers attempt to use the facilities traditionally designated as "whites only" in order to challenge the illegal separation of spaces and services based on race, forcing confrontations with employees and vigilantes trying to enforce Southern "tradition." The farther they ride, the more violence they face, eventually leading to a horrifying series of incidents in Alabama in which the buses are attacked by members of the Ku Klux Klan, a hate group long known for terrorizing and targeting African-Americans and their sympathetic allies. Though the original buses are unable to continue due to the damage caused by the mob, the Freedom Riders eventually make it to New Orleans, becoming powerful symbols of the power of nonviolent protest and inspiring hundreds of others to take up the cause and launch Freedom Rides of their own.