Freedom Riders

In 1961, hundreds of people from all over the country boarded buses throughout the South to test a 1960 Supreme Court decision integrating interstate buses and facilities.  Of every age and color they came.  Many were arrested.  Adopting the motto, "Jail, no bail," they chose to stay in prison in order to clog the justice system southern states.  Many were beaten, by angry onlookers before they got to jail, and sometimes once they arrived there.  John Lewis, now a Congressman from Georgia, was one of the first Freedom Riders brutally beaten (you may remember him from inauguration day 2009 - he had a front row seat).  The mug shots of riders arrested in Mississippi were recently unclassified, and photographer Eric Etheridge went through them and then found the people in them and took their photos.  His book Breach of Peace puts the 1961 mug shots alongside modern photos.  Here are some examples.  

A video about the Freedom Riders can be seen by clicking the "Riding to Freedom" link at this Smithsonian Magazine website.