This Day in History: May 4th: The Civil Rights Movement takes a new turn in history on this day.

Thu, 03 May 2007 23:00:00 GMT

By Clare McInerney

The "Freedom Riders" used public transportation to demonstrate the disparity of so-called "Civil Rights" legislation. (Image: Clipart)

On this day in history, 1961, a group of White and African American citizens later to be known as the "Freedom Riders," began their first bus trip through the still-segregated Southern states of the U.S. As part of the Civil Rights Movement, the Freedom Riders, a group of mostly college-age students, set out to test the sincerity of the South’s desegregation by using Southern public transportation as a non-violent demonstration in support of the 1960 United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which outlawed racial segregation in interstate transportation facilities, including bus stations and railroad terminals. While the riders did not instigate any civil disobedience, nor break any laws, the reality was that regardless of the Supreme Court decisions the South was still many years from true equality for African Americans. 436 of the Freedom Riders were arrested for various “crimes” including trespassing, unlawful assembly, violating state and local Jim Crow laws, and other unconstitutional practices throughout their bus tours. Most infamously, however, are the numerous incidents of mob violence and unrestrained cruelty toward the riders that occurred throughout the southern states where riders were beaten, terrorized, and even nearly burned to death by angered Southern whites and members of the Ku Klux Klan, yet received no justice in the Southern courts. The personal sacrifices of those who participated in the Freedom Rides are innumerable, yet their contribution to the Civil Rights Movement and role in United States history will never cease to be honored. Other Events of May 4th: 1494 - Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica. 1865 - Abraham Lincoln buried in Springfield, Illinois, three weeks after his assassination. 1871 - The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 1932 - In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion. 1953 - Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea. 1970 - Vietnam War: Kent State shootings – The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after the ROTC building was burnt down, opens fire on students protesting at the United States' invasion of Cambodia. Four students are killed, nine are wounded. 1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Other Observances on May 4th: -International Firefighters' Day. -May 4th is often known as 'Star Wars Day', jokingly said: 'May the 4th be with you' in reference to the popular phrase in Star Wars: May the Force be with you.