Freedom Riders Arriving in Alabama

Freedom Riders arriving at Birmingham, AL bus station in 1961. Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth escorts Catherine Burks-Brooks, John Lewis, and other Freedom Riders.

Vivian and Nash march in Nashville

C.T. Vivian and Diane Nash lead a demonstration march to City Hall in Nashville, TN.

C.T. Vivian

C.T. Vivian with National Guardsmen on bus from Birmingham, AL to Jackson, MS.

C.T. Vivian

On the impact of employing nonviolence

C.T. Vivian

On why Civil Rights activism increased in the 1960s.

C.T. Vivian

On the Kennedys' response to the Freedom Rides

C.T. Vivian

On Robert Kennedy's request for a cooling off period

Robert F. Kennedy on Montgomery Tensions

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (center) in his Washington, DC office in 1961 conferring with two assistants, Nicholas B. Katzenbach (left) and Herbert J. Miller (right). Kennedy urged all citizens and travelers in Alabama to refrain from actions "which will cause increased tension or provoke violence" in troubled Montgomery.

Robert F. and John F. Kennedy

President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in the Oval office.

The Governor

John Patterson, Governor of Alabama from 1958 to 1963, won election as a staunch segregationist. Patterson discusses his response to the Freedom Rides and his decision to refuse a phone call from President John F. Kennedy when the Freedom Riders encountered mob violence in Birmingham.

JFK with Governor Patterson

John F. Kennedy and Alabama Governor John Patterson are surrounded by supporters at a Kennedy-Johnson rally.

Gov. John Patterson

On the risk he took supporting John Kennedy

The Solid South

JFK campaigning at a rally in Georgia.

Rabbi Israel “Si” Dresner

On Kennedy's racial attitudes

Solid South

JFK tread carefully around the core of the Democratic Party, the white voting South.