![]() ![]() Thompson, who moved to town in 1976, remembered how they were met by the National Guard with guns and bayonets who were sent to protect them. ![]() with the goal of then heading to Jackson, Miss. The Congress of Racial Equality organized a group to take the train from New Orleans to Montgomery Ala. Thompson was not on that first ride but would ride May 24. ![]() But that ruling clashed with local laws that separated blacks and whites in bus station restrooms, waiting rooms and lunch counters throughout the South. The Freedom Riders, both blacks and whites, wanted to force the federal government to enforce the Supreme Court rulings that outlawed segregation in interstate travel. Instead it was firebombed outside Anniston, Ala. Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of those rides in which 13 activists called the Freedom Riders boarded two buses and left Washington, D.C., bound for New Orleans. Thompson was just a 94-pound 19 -year-old from New Orleans back in 1961 when she made history, becoming one of hundreds of people riding buses hoping to end segregation. ![]()
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