Bayard Rustin Centennial

Journey of Reconciliation

Journay of Reconciliation

Permission from the Estate of Bayard Rustin

Immediately after his release from federal prison in June 1946, Rustin plunged into to planning a test of the enforcement of a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Irene Morgan v. Virginia 328 U.S. 373 (1946). Rustin recruited sixteen black and white men who would sit in interracial pairs in the white front and the black rear sections of buses that would leave Washington D.C. headed for Richmond, Virginia, during April 1947. The trip, named The Journey of Reconciliation, is now known as the first Freedom Ride. On a final stop in North Carolina, police arrested Rustin and two of the white Freedom Riders, and a judge sentenced them to a chain gang. 

Full Report on the Journey of Reconciliation, including title page typed (PDF).

Permission from the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Beinecke Rare Book Library of Yale University

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