Classroom Simulation

Freedom Ride

May 1961

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Freedom Ride

May 1961
In December 1960, the Supreme Court ruled in Boynton v. Virginia that segregation in interstate travel facilities was unconstitutional. Across the South, nothing changed.

In this simulation, you are a college student in 1961. You will join the Congress of Racial Equality's Freedom Ride—a journey by bus through the Deep South to test whether the law of the land will be enforced.

The people in this story were real. The danger was real. Many of them were barely older than you.
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Last Will & Testament

Congress of Racial Equality — Freedom Ride, 1961
Before departure, each Freedom Rider was asked to prepare a last will and testament. This was not a formality. CORE organizers believed there was a real possibility that riders would not return. By completing this document, you acknowledge the risks ahead and the courage required to board that bus.
I, the undersigned, being of sound mind and body, do hereby declare this to be my Last Will and Testament. I make this declaration freely and voluntarily, with full knowledge of the dangers inherent in the journey I am about to undertake. I revoke all previous wills and codicils. I direct that my personal property and effects be distributed as outlined above. I appoint the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) as executor of this will in the event that no family member is available to serve in that capacity. This document shall be governed by the laws of the District of Columbia.

Note: This is an educational simulation and not an actual legal will. However, the Freedom Riders really were asked to prepare wills before departing Washington, D.C. Many of them genuinely believed they might not survive the journey.

Historical Footage

Archival film from the 1961 Freedom Rides

Dr. Walter & Frances Bergman

Retired Public School Teachers from Detroit, Michigan

Dr. Walter Bergman
Dr. Walter Bergman
Frances Bergman
Frances Bergman
Freedom Riders group photo including Frances Bergman
Freedom Riders group photo with Frances Bergman (center)

Who Were They?

Walter Bergman was 61 years old. Frances was 57. They were retired public school teachers from Detroit, Michigan — not college students, not professional activists. Walter had been a professor of educational administration at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. They were members of CORE and deeply committed to racial justice. When they heard about the Freedom Ride, they volunteered immediately.

They were the oldest riders on the bus.

The Beating

When the Greyhound bus was attacked and firebombed in Anniston, Alabama on May 14, 1961, both Walter and Frances were aboard. After escaping the burning bus, the riders continued to Birmingham on the Trailways bus. There, a white mob was waiting at the bus station.

Walter was beaten savagely by Klansmen with pipes, fists, and bats. He was struck repeatedly in the head. The beating caused a cerebral hemorrhage — a stroke that would leave him permanently paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for the remaining 38 years of his life. He was 61 years old, a retired teacher who had simply believed that the law of the land should be enforced.

Frances was also beaten but survived without permanent physical injury. She spent the rest of her life caring for Walter and continuing to fight for the cause they both believed in.

Walter Bergman in wheelchair in later years
Walter Bergman, confined to a wheelchair after the beating in Birmingham. He would never walk again.

The FBI Knew

What made the Bergmans' story even more devastating was what came out years later: the FBI knew the attack was coming and did nothing to stop it.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had informants inside the Ku Klux Klan. The Bureau knew — days in advance — that Klansmen in Birmingham were planning to attack the Freedom Riders when they arrived. The FBI not only failed to warn the riders or intervene, but Birmingham's Public Safety Commissioner, Bull Connor, had arranged to give the Klan fifteen uninterrupted minutes to beat the riders before police would respond.

The FBI memo below, dated May 9, 1961 — five days before the attack — lists the Freedom Riders by name, including "Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Bergman, white, from Detroit, Michigan." The government knew exactly who was on that bus and exactly what was waiting for them.

FBI memo dated May 9, 1961, listing the Freedom Riders by name
FBI memo, May 9, 1961 — listing each Freedom Rider by name, race, and hometown, including the Bergmans. Page 2 of 3.
FBI memo page 2, continued list and intelligence details
FBI memo, continued — detailing intelligence from Birmingham police and Klan-connected sources. Page 3 of 3.

Justice — Decades Later

In 1983 — twenty-two years after the attack — Walter Bergman filed a lawsuit against the FBI. The case, Bergman v. United States, argued that the FBI's failure to act on its intelligence made the government complicit in his injuries.

He won. A federal judge ruled that the FBI had violated the Bergmans' civil rights by failing to protect them despite having advance knowledge of the planned violence. Walter was awarded $35,000 in damages. It was a landmark ruling — one of the first times the federal government was held accountable for its role in enabling racial violence during the Civil Rights Movement.

Walter Bergman died in 1999 at the age of 100, having spent the last 38 years of his life in a wheelchair. Frances preceded him in death in 1979. Neither ever expressed regret about boarding that bus.

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