ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by freedom rides.

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The journey shown on the map was an example of... what?

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And here are the potential answers.

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[ old-timey music ]

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Well, the road to freedom was a long and winding one,

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especially when you add up all those sleepless nights

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crammed in busses criss-crossing the South.

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Was the journey on this map an example of B -

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a movement to spread black nationalist ideas?

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Well, actually the Freedom Riders believed in peaceful protests,

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whereas black nationalists like the Black Panthers

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were advocates of a more confrontational approach.

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So we can ride B out of town.

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Were these freedom rides an example of C -

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organized protests against the Vietnam War?

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Well, even though American troops were already dispatched

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to Vietnam by 1961,

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many Americans didn't oppose the war until its escalation

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in later years. So that's it for C.

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Could the freedom rides have been an example of D -

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mass migration in the Civil Rights Era?

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Well, this image is from 1961, so we're a little too late

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for mass migrations, which were more common during periods

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of industrialization. Which means

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the journey shown on the map was an example of A -

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nonviolent protests by civil rights activists.

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The Freedom Riders were a group of activists who rode busses

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in the South as a way to peacefully protest the Southern states

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that had failed to enforce the integration of transportation.

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So A is the correct answer.

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Unfortunately, these nonviolent protestors

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often encountered violence on the road,

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since many Southerners had little interest in going along

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for a freedom ride.

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[ horn honks ]

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