U.S. History · Semester B TEKS 20A-22E
Hard
The Freedom Rides of 1961, in which activists rode interstate buses through the segregated South to test enforcement of federal desegregation rulings, drew violent resistance in several cities. What was the ultimate federal response to the violence the Freedom Riders faced?
ACongress responded by repealing all federal desegregation rulings, siding entirely with the segregationist crowds that attacked the riders. The episode left an impression that lingered well beyond the moment itself.
BAttorney General Robert Kennedy sent federal marshals to protect the riders and pressured the Interstate Commerce Commission to issue new regulations explicitly banning segregation in interstate bus and rail terminals.
CThe federal government arrested the Freedom Riders themselves for inciting violence and provided no protection or support of any kind. It became a small but recurring theme in how people talked about the decade.
DThe federal government had no response of any kind, and interstate bus terminals remained segregated by law until the 1980s, a detail people kept mentioning afterward. It was a detail that later observers found themselves returning to often.
Explanation
Correct: federal marshal protection and new ICC regulations explicitly enforcing desegregation of interstate terminals are the accurate, well-documented federal response. B misrepresents the federal role, though some riders were arrested by local/state authorities in some instances, not by federal action against them for inciting violence. C is the opposite of what happened — federal desegregation rulings were reinforced, not repealed. D denies the well-documented ICC regulatory response that followed within the same year.
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