Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Class Blog #2: Freedom Riders

Watch the film: Freedom Riders
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch/

1)  Blog about several impressions you make from the film.  Think about:

  • What you see
  • What you hear
  • What you think
2)  In the film find our original image shown in class.  What "were" your initial impressions and what "are" your impressions now?

201 comments:

  1. How can this be going on? Slavery was abolished 100 years prior during the Civil War?

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    1. Because after the end of the Civil War the south created the Jim crow laws that segregated Whites from Blacks all over the southern part of America.

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  4. hi it donny and i see those r people that look like they were in the days of segregation this is documentary...

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  5. in the upper south in new orleans

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  6. "Brown vs board" wasn't that the case where they tried to to allow African Americans to learn in the same school

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  7. the seperation of colored and white

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  8. its crazy how the ku klux klan just walked around in the streets like its nothing

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    1. Why do you think they felt so comfortable just walking around in public preaching hate?

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    2. because they were white and pluse it was the turf

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    3. because they felt it was a tradition

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    4. Most likely cause nobody was going to do anything about it, mostly everybody had the same agenda

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    5. Like you said yesterday they only felt empowerment, because they had such a huge group so they thought they could do anything.-Charone

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    6. they knew nothing would be done about it.. that many authorities themselves would like to beat the freedom riders

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    7. because they knew the black people werent gonna do anything and the cops definitly werent gonna stop them because most of them were probably KKK anyway

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  9. Anyone saw how they walked on the streets with KKK people around them? Reminds me of our debate from yesterday. They must have been scared surrounded by them like that.-Charone

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    1. yeah i saw that..i was appalled

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    1. I believe night riders are whites who rode during the night looking for vechiles that carried blacks or blacks and whites together and tried to kill them or cause harm to them

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  11. How could so many people be so blind to the reality of racism? Can you blame children that are born into this world?

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    1. no because it is there environment that they were brough into they wouldnt know

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    2. they was to scared for a change

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    3. No they were as you say "brainwashed". They were born into this. They couldn't help it. Like when your born into christianity or any other religion. You follow that religion until someone gives you ideas of various others. The children didn't have that kind of chance since the white people had so much power that no one had a say.-Charone

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    4. i think they were just thinking about there dominance over the minorities and felt good but they were wrong. I dont think we can blame the children because the way we are thought at home is what the kids will act .

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    5. The racisit whites would brainwash the people generation by generation to make them believe that Segregation is just the way of life. Just like the early civilizations were the Kings would brainwash the people making them believe whatever Church said goes.

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    6. I would say say know because it's what they were used to and brought up in . but then again anyone who really had a heart wouldnt be able to take part in crucial , unfair events set up and put out.

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  12. The supreme court even said that the black people have no rights that the whites had to respect.. clearly things weren't "equal" nor fair.

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    1. so much for land of liberty .. when there were plenty of restrictions on where people could go, there was just no living peacefully with everyone.

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  13. Because after the end of the Civil War the south created the Jim crow laws that segregated Whites from Blacks all over the southern part of America.

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  14. they had signs sayings "white only" or "colored"

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  15. 1961 john F kinnedy was elected and the people felt like there is gonna finally be a change

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  16. How do you think Governor Patterson feels years later when he looks back and hears what he said?

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    1. He probably feels like a hypocrite.-Ashley

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    2. he must feel embarrassed and feel guilt because the immaturity level he was speaking and the way in which he was speaking about another race

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    3. he probly feels kinda ashamed ..because as life goes on there is black people achieves something great

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    4. It is really hard to say how he feels. But he may see himself being ignorant because he probably grew up into believing that segregation is the way life was meant to be but now realizes he is wrong for thinking the way he once did now that he is enlightened

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    5. he must feel ashamed to now that his behavior was surely ignorant and wrong.

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  17. it seems as if this is first nature for them to segregate

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  18. 1961 john F kinnedy was elected the people that voted for him wanted change and they thought he was going to bring it for them

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    1. Did he disappoint the people?

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    2. i kindda understand there side here. they did have more on the plate dealing with the cold war and the nuclear threats

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  19. "We cannot lose unless we lose our sense of purpose."

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  20. Replies
    1. Hard to watch the movie and blog so many things at the same time, but I saw it =/-Ashley

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  21. it really suprises me that the white people are going through all the trouble for the black rights it shows that there not all the same !

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  22. thats the grey hound bus from the picture we saw !!!!

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  23. That bus is from the picture we saw,

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  24. @Akeem - Straight up I agree. After the Civil War the federal government ended Reconstruction in the South too early, thus puling the military from the region and no longer protecting free black Americans. They needed to stay MUCH MUCH MUCH LONGER.

    It takes generations to root out racism, not years!

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  25. where is the grey hound bus taking them ?

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    1. Through the south. Currently in Alabama

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  26. How was the South able to ignore federal law?

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    1. Could it be that federal law didn't apply there? Just guessing.

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    2. because they had people that was racist in the government system and just bypassed the laws set

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    3. they was able to ignore it because sints it was more of them nd after they didnt listen they jus made them slide

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    4. Or probably that they found ways to get around laws and twist words. And you include that their were alot of racist whites in power during that time.

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  27. Sometimes being naive gives you courage you may not know you ever had.

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  28. Martin Luther King Jr. .. one of the greats

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  29. Why is Dr. King against the movement?

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    1. he says that they may cause more harm than good

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    2. because he had a dream ! and he was in the days of segregation when he was smaller and wanted to see the black kids and white kids to hold hands andhave equal rights

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    3. because dr .martin was always a black man who believed in freedom nd always fought for us blacks nd he had a child nd he neva wanted his child to grow up free

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    4. because he knew the only thing this would cause is chaos and get people hurt and he wouldnt want to support something that would bring a negative view to what he was trying to achieve

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  30. they probably felt so honored to meet dr.king but he warns them that they may b doing more harm then good ...

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  31. Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961

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  32. i only hear things about the south.. what about the north .. weren't there also segregation. in the north even after the north won the civil war..also what got my attention was that JFK wanted mostly white votes in the south.. were the grand father clause already put into place ??

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    1. the North certainly had and has it's fair share of racism BUT segregation was illegal for the entire country after Brown vs. Board of Ed. decision in 1955. Freedom Riders is in 1961!

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  33. two groups of freedom riders one bus made it one didnt

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  34. Didn't Brown vs The Board of Education overturn Plessy vs. Ferguson? so why isn't the South abiding to the law of the land?

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  35. Were the people in the South being provoked to be violent?

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    1. i believe so with the kkk and all the violence that was being promoted so naturally

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    2. when u are being violently pressed ur first instinct is to fight back and the whites were using violence agianst them ...

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  36. i see black people protesting against discrimination

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  37. the white man who just spoke shows that not all whites were severely racist

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  38. even MLK didnt agree with the freedom riders

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    1. yeah but MLK needed THEM! perhaps they were the very thing he was lacking. real action.

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    2. and mass recognition via the Press.

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  39. why do white southerners gather in mobs?

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    1. to intimidate the minorities

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    2. so they can surround the bus they were in

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    3. Strength in Numbers

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  40. they surrounded the bus and was saying lets kill all of these niggas and they poped the tires

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  41. they did not want the bus to go anywhere because they were against this.

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  42. the white people trap the greyhound and had there plan all work out they had a white man put a bomb under the greyhound

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  43. that molotov cocktail was too much

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  44. why so much hate? i really don't understand? what is their motivation?

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    1. yup they where affaird of change

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    2. They were scared that black people might retaliate. So they only treated us that way to scare us probably?-Charone

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  45. Thats crazy, how did he ask if hes okay and then hit him? this is so messed up.

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  46. the bus we seen in the pic was a bus on fire and every one is trying to crawl and run off the bus some guy got hit wit a pice of a bat this it messed up on some real

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  47. " ok u had your fun lets move back" that got me tight -_- so the police oviolously dont care and the government are not doing nothing

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  48. they do not realize that harming others is not solving anything. it just creates more issues.

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  49. the people on trailways bus dont know wat was going on they really wanted to seperate the white from color

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  50. "Ok you've had your fun" (quoted sheriff)even the southern officials allowed these kind of actions and only reacted just as people were near death despicable

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  51. I thought that was sweet what the lady did. Those people are crazy though. At least all the white were not the same, because that was the daughter of one of the people that planned the mob.-Charone and Ashley

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  52. i jus seen the pic that ms selip showed us...so we was rite that there was a fire on the bus nd its becauz they threw something that made the bus catch on fire and jus found out why those people was on the floor its cause half of them couldnt breath nd needed water

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  53. I see that there is no black officers, white people were able to do anything.. even if it was against the law.

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  54. I wonder how the freedom riders feel now after they just been attacked by that mob and whats goning to happen to the trailways bus on its way ?

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    1. the damage they did to the greyhound was horrible so who know wats gonna happen to that bus

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  55. these people were really cruel and brutual ...what seriously made them THAT angry to have to go to that extent of attempting to take others lives over a skin complexion

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  56. they beat the people up to the point where they were bleeding :(

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  57. Why are domestic affairs an afterthought for the Kennedy's? Why don't they step in?

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    1. because hoover did not info president kennedy .

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    2. i think if kennedy step in it wont matter cause there not gonna stop and they wont stop cause they absulotely hate the negros

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    3. weren't they more focused on the cold war

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  58. See how the cops waited down the street having a conversation when they could have stopped it a while ago.-Charone

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  59. The whole world was shocked to hear this was all happening in America

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  60. It seemed that the soutgh was governing themselves making the Jim Crow Laws, police department kind of acted like the inforcers of Jim Crow Laws and the government supported it.

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  61. Do you think this form of non violent protest like the Freedom Riders would work today?

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    1. Yes, because we have more power and there is less racist violence in our time now.-Charone

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    2. Yes because people now have a better grasp on how to direct a non violent protest and we have right in the constitution that help protesting non violently better

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  62. they think that violence is the key to their problems.

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  63. were the bus drivers white or black?

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  64. dam look @ his face his is horrible

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  65. Imagine what other countries were thinking! How can a super power like America can't get their people to get along in harmony. Or how can the government be focused on science and math but yet the youth were fighting eachother. I'm sure many countries questioned the state of America in the future years

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  66. The one woman "learned to be afraid over night." How very different this fear must have been for her than for someone who was born into a world in constant fear of their lives.

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    1. it mustve been shocking/frightening to her to adjust to a situation like that overnight, compared to someone who knows what to expect already

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    2. She was just scared over night like she wasn't scared like the other people that was dealing with it for their whole life.-Charone

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  67. JFK was not really paying worrying about civil rights at first he was worrying about nuclear threats, soviet union , and the cold war.

    I think the freedom riders were really braved because they even after they were attacked by mobs they still stuck together and did not give up.
    - Shamika Akerson

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  68. lol "who the hell is dian nash"

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  69. what i see, the people trying to do everything to stop that bus group people. fires, hiting them with a baseball bat and pull out guns to scare them. it just pretty sad that people during that time is so violenced.

    what i hear, about that the FBI didnt even try to stop the people that are attacking the group. also not telling the president.

    what i think, its really sad just from listening to the people that acutlly are there during that time.

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  70. I agree w nash, they wouldve looked weak and the south wouldve taken things to the next level once they feel they've won or beat the freedom riders

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  71. they had signs telling them to go back to Africa. i think that was very messed up and disrespectful.

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  72. may 16 1961 they STOP voilence and what they did to other people

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  73. in my opinion this is still civil war.. the original civil war was not over.. now instead of the north and the south.. its the freedom ridders and the KKK

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  74. crazy things they did to black people

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  75. even though people were going on strong you can clearly see that people were losing their faith in the movement-Ashley

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  76. i am trully suprised that this was not even a hundred years ago .. it actually wasn't to long ago and without the fight that freedom riders and others had done. we today would've propbably been in this same circumstances

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  77. The freedom riders could be my inspiration. they didnt focus on the danger ahead they just knew that things needed to change for the better. I was shocked when i heard a old lady say she rather keep the black people behind her and that whites felt there was nothing wrong with there system. whites looked at blacks a inferior and inhuman. when truly the whites themselve were behaving as scavengers and so disrespectful.

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  78. I realized that whites abused the jim crow laws .. i feel that segregation should have never even been created . it was no better than slavery.

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  79. you can tell that there was alot of naivete because whites were so afraid of change they killed to keep traditons and not have to face reality that the future needed to move on.

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  80. there was a point when jfk didnt pay attention to segregation and focused only on the soviet union. until disgraced was brought down upon america about the crisis that happened in alabama to the freedom riders.

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    1. They also regarded the civil rights as a nusance and thought that it was in the way

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  81. i cannot believe that the plessy vs. ferguson case even existed .. i feel that a arguement was not needed to see that everything going on in the south was horrible and lead to horrible conditions.

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  82. I see a mixed crowd on buses testing their rights in many different states down south. I see people that are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in, and that's for abolishing segregation.

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  83. what? how are they even trying to make putting them in jail a good thing for them..

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  84. I hear smart black people that know exactly what their getting into but is going to do it anyway. I hear people afraid on the inside, but does not show one bit of fear on the outside.

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  85. I wonder how the freedom riders feel now after being attcked i know that they kind of new the risk they were taken but how do they feel now to actually have experienced it?

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  86. of course the governor gonna say that the governor had nothing to do with what was going on .....

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  87. I see that police didnt really have a car in the world about what was about to take place.. because if they diod they wouldnt have stoped it before it could even start.

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  88. I hear angry white people because of these "colored" is coming into their town and trying to get rights and they're not going to stand for it. I hear Bill Connor being a jerk, and a "phsyco" for thinking that blacks and whites should have their own place in life.

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  89. its terrible to see this happen and i feel a way....i wonder how life would be today if we were going through this stil

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  90. id be mad scared if i had to get out and dont know whats going on if the KKK is following you on not

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  91. i hear people that are really afraid and scared for there life...i also hear some people are brave and still willing to go through with there choice

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  92. The president should have done more than just a phone call.

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  93. plessy vs ferguson is the most ridiculous cause i ever heard of ... how can there possibly be equality in segregation ? -_-

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  94. I heard a lot of racism and hate towards African Americans. I Also heard that people wanted to kill the people on the greyhound bus.

    What i saw was a lot of REAL photos, and a lot of REAL videos from when the was actually occurring.

    What i think is how can anybody hate another human being? They are literally made up of the same exact stuff then any white person is.
    Blood, nerves, intestines, hair, everything is identical, they are a human being, but they didn't see them as that. People just dont understand because there all uppity, and basically born into racism. Racism takes time, not years, but decades! People back then where born into it, and since they saw there parents do it, they were racist. Kids see there parents do things, there going to think its normal, then that group in brought up in racism.

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    1. thats why they felt that racism was such a tradition

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  95. Finally someone who got the guts to say and do something more, the officer would be like my hero if I was the freedom rider.

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  96. to hear that they now feel safe like nothing can go wrong makes me feel good...its about time they had that type of secerity(protection)

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  97. Why are the mobs shifting the attack to the media?

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    1. so they can have no evadence about this event

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    2. so the media could be blind and not know what happened

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    3. because once out in the media the public will see how violent crazy n ignorant these people really were and start supporting the anti-segregation movement

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  98. after they got safed and was flowed back intill they turned back and only the riders and the bus was left

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  99. jim zwerg i think his name is say u can see weapons everywhere like a baseball bats

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  100. how do you do that with your baby in your arms...

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  101. wow, they were screaming kill them while they were holding their kids..

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  102. how you do that? say "kill them niggers" while holding a baby?

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    1. They wanted to show there children that is normal to do that. They said everything in front of them so they can be brought up with racism to, basically a tradition, and they wanted to keep it going.

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  103. i feel thankful honestly and very safe today to walk around with no fear of getting beating up by a mob of non-colored people

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  104. How did the police just stand there?! I don't understand!!!

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  105. how could something like this happen without any authority being spoken too ?? crazy just crazy

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  106. are u serious the us official was knock out

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  107. the hate thats in these people heart is crazy

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  108. No one knew how to fight the Jim Crows laws

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  109. JFK didnt really care until he heard that the freedom riders were being attacked, he honestly just wanted to the the situation out of his way

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  110. looking at the image i really thought that maybe the bus just broke down....after seeing the actual situation in the film i was shocked...i really didnt expect to see that at all..its just not right

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  111. once again they were attacked ! and women with babies in there hands yelling kill them n****s

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  112. the cops were just by standing and propaganda helped fuse many of these attacks !!

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  113. i think that life was terrible,unsafe,and like a horror movie....

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  114. wow the white mob wont leave them alone sheesh !

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  115. burning down churchs disrespect

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  116. if i was in the freedom riders i would shoot all the white people

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    1. they used a non-violence code and plus you would be outnumbered...

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  117. 3,000 vs 1,500 u cnt be serious

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  118. how come JFK hasnt responded to anything yet

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  119. i see a lot of voilence, people who were hurt and i saw the picture that was shown to us.
    i hear a lot of facts about what really went down, i hear a lot of what the people who were there ( the freedom writers) and what they experienced.
    i think this is all very disturbing, especially because the freedom writers were viciously beaten by 300 people, and there were only 21 of them.

    when i first saw the image i thought that the bus was broken down, and that it had really no meaning at all, i just thought of it as a broken down bus, but now that i know what really happened it opened my eyes. while watching this film, i never knew anything about the freedom riders, nothing at all and this was all very new to me.

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  120. my intial impressions to the picture was that it was probably just a regular accident but to see that the whites were plotting this attack for days and really wanted to kill these people just for riding with eachother its crazy and wrong for this to happen and police just to let it slide

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  121. i feel dr martin luther king should of been president back then cause hes doin more then jfk

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