ROCK HILL, S.C. — Dozens of people filled Fountain Park in downtown Rock Hill on Thursday to remember the 1961 Freedom Riders, whose bus trip through the segregated South turned violent here when a white mob beat riders at the city bus terminal.
The ceremony was a stop on The Ride, an 11-day charter bus tour that left Washington on Oct. 18 and follows the original route through eight states before ending in New Orleans on Oct. 28. After Rock Hill, the tour headed to Sumter the same day.
The first Freedom Riders were a group of 13 who set out from Washington to test segregation in interstate travel. More than 400 people eventually joined the rides, and the pressure led federal officials to end segregated interstate buses and terminals later in 1961.
The riders reached Rock Hill on May 9, 1961, less than four months after the Friendship Nine were jailed for a sit-in at the McCrory lunch counter on Main Street. A local pastor read the names of the original 13 during the program, and two people who joined the rides that summer were on hand.
Organizers from a coalition of faith and civic groups, including Vote Common Good and Faith Out Loud, framed the tour around turnout for the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
