When famous political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville toured the new United States of America, he was impressed by the representative government set up by the Founders. At the same time, he ominously predicted, “If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the Blacks upon American soil. That is to say, it will not be the equality of social conditions but rather their inequality which may give rise thereto.”

De Tocqueville was prescient, because the longest battle fought in the history of the United States has been the Civil Rights Movement. The framers of the Constitution kicked the problem down the road, over half a million died during the Civil War to end slavery, and then many more fought and died to dismantle segregation and legalized racism in the 100 years after.

Today every American is taught about watershed moments in the history of minorities’ struggles for civil rights over the course of American history: the Civil War, Brown v. Board of Education, Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Indeed, the use of the phrase “Civil Rights Movement” in America today almost invariably refers to the period of time from 1954 to 1964. 

After a 1960 Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia, bus segregation was made illegal on new grounds: it violated the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, by regulating the movement of people across state lines. With this victory in hand, the Freedom Rides of 1961 began. Organized primarily by a new group—the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)—the Freedom Rides followed the same guidance that inspired the Montgomery Boycott and the Greensboro Sit-Ins—nonviolent direct action. The purpose of the Freedom Rides was the test the Supreme Court's decision by riding from Virginia to Louisiana on integrated busses. This was notably the first major Civil Rights event that included a large segment of White participants.

Mobs in places like Birmingham and Montgomery firebombed buses and brutally beat the Freedom Riders, sending dozens to the hospital. Mob violence, orchestrated by the KKK and their segregationist allies, erupted endlessly throughout the summer. White activists, who were viewed by the Ku Klux Klan as betraying their race, took the worst beatings of all.

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s role in Freedom Summer was similar to his role in the Montgomery bus sit in. Rather than participate himself, as he had in Greensboro, King took the role of spokesman and worked behind the scenes. Dr. King was in constant contact with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and he encouraged Kennedy to take actions beneficial to the Riders. Most notable among these was Kennedy's unorthodox petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), demanding that it officially ban segregation on interstate travel, which it did in November of 1961. Having a regulatory agency ban segregation gave added bulk to the movement to effectively end segregation in the South. 

Both Black and White Northerners participated in the Freedom Rides, and civil rights activists sought other ways to harness their energy and activism in 1963. After the Freedom Rides, civil rights leaders initiated voter registration drives that could help register Black voters and build community organizations that could help make their votes count. The momentum generated by the Freedom Rides and the following activism would lead to the famous March on Washington and eventually the passage of a historic civil rights bill in 1964.