In 1960, Ruby Bridges was the only first grader to attend class at the then all-white William Frantz Elementary School, when New Orleans decided to integrate its previously segregated school system.

From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence.