Move Back
![Words of encouragement]()
Martin Luther King Jr. encourages freedom riders as they board a bus for Jackson, Miss., 1961.![Throwing stones]()
White segregationists hurl stones at a bus carrying freedom riders in Mississippi.![The Freedom Riders]()
Freedom riders on a bus in the Deep South.![Riding for freedom]()
Julia Aaron and David Dennis, along with 25 other freedom riders and several members of the National Guard, travel from Montgomery, Ala., to Jackson, Miss.![Challenges]()
Just shy of the Mississippi-Alabama border, members of the Alabama National Guard surround a bus carrying freedom riders.Martin Luther King Jr. and the Freedom Riders
Five decades after the Freedom Riders put their lives on the line for dignity and equal rights, LIFE.com presents photos made by Schutzer during that heady era in American history. Here are images charting a pivotal moment in the historic journey of Dr. King himself and in the nation-changing movement he led, from the monuments of Washington to the highways, rural roads, churches and bus depots of the Jim Crow Deep South. Learn more in the full gallery at Life.com.
Move Forward
- Martin Luther King Jr. and the Freedom Riders
