WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama issued an official proclamation Wednesday marking the 50th anniversary of the non-violent segregation effort Freedom Riders.
Organized in the spring of 1961, Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated South to test a U.S. Supreme Court decision that interstate passengers had a right to be served without discrimination.
The riders were arrested for trespassing, unlawful assembly and violating state and local Jim Crow laws, along with other offenses.
"Through their defiant journeys, the Freedom Riders sent a resounding message to the rest of our nation that desegregation was a moral imperative," the president said.
Obama said the Freedom Riders showed the nation that young people have the power to generate a movement for equality and steer the course of a nation.
"Because of their efforts, and the work of those who marched and stood against injustice, we live in a country where all Americans have the right to dream and choose their own destiny," the president said.
