** Freedom Rides

• by Michael Akin

There I was on the first freedom bus ride ever. I was thinking over what might happen if I should go on this bus from Washington D.C. to New Orleans. The freedom ride was a result of the Supreme Court case of Boynton vs. Virginia when the African Americans won the right to desegragate public transportation. To test this case, thirteen people, African Americans and Whites decieded to get on a bus and drive from Washington D.C. to New Orleans to see how the Southerners reacted.

We set off on our ride on May of 1961. All thirteen of us knew what we were in for but we still got on those two buses with pride. Our first stop was in North Carolina, there we were teased, beaten, and cursed at the whole time. Afterwards, on one cold and dusky night, we heard shouting outside one of the buses. One of our thirteen men and woman went to see what was going on. Right as John (the man we decieded to send outside) went outside, we heard more shouting and then John ran back and said "Get out of here, these crazy people are trying to firebomb our bus!".

"God that was a close one, we could have been toast, literally!" John said in a freaked out voice. The bus driver Mike was also freaked out. That was just one of the many times those pesky white Southerners would try to hurt us. I, my self, am a white Southerner but I believe that African Americans should have equal rights. I was on the ride helping African Americans get their fair share of rights. It's important that we stand together, black and white and demand equal rights, then everyone wins. I wouldn't want to be judged on the color of my skin, it shouldn't matter and that's why I was there for the ride.

When our two buses finally got to Alabama everything got worse. Not knowing, we went into Alabama expecting the same minor reaction that we had received in other states. In Alabama, our tires had been slashed. In Alabama, we were attacked much more viciously. Mike was driving, realized we needed gas so he pulled into the next gas station. While he was outside filling up the gas, I heard the familiar sound of shouting we had become accustom to in South Carolina. All the sudden, I saw a red firery ball fly at the bus I was in. After that, i just remember is a flaming hot feeling all over my body and then black, just black.

When I woke up, I was on the side of the road and most of the other passengers that had been on the bus were sitting on side of the road next to me. I then saw what had really happened, the bus I was on had been hit by a firebomb and i had gotten burned along with the bus. Now we only have one bus and we all were petrified that we had been so brutally attacked, so none of us were fit to go any further on this freedom ride. Just because we couldn't complete the whole freedom ride many other freedom ride buses took our place.