Day 1 — Washington, D.C.
Orientation and training day. Included in Leg One and the Full Journey.
In 1961, the original thirteen riders departed Washington, D.C. on May 4, bound for New Orleans. They never arrived — violent resistance stopped them along the way. The Ride broadly retraces that path 65 years later, through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi. Completing the journey to New Orleans is the historic heart of this tour.
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Leg One runs Saturday 17 to Thursday 22 October; Leg Two runs Friday 23 to Wednesday 28 October. Full routing and stop-level detail, including hotel information, will be shared with registered riders ahead of the tour.
Orientation and training day. Included in Leg One and the Full Journey.
Departure. The buses roll out of the capital, as they did on May 4, 1961.
Home of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.
End of Leg One.
Ebenezer Baptist Church and the King Center. Leg Two riders join here.
Where a mob firebombed a Freedom Riders bus on Mother’s Day, 1961.
The Freedom Rides Museum and the Dr. Richard Harris House.
The Edmund Pettus Bridge; the Medgar Evers Home Museum and the Fairgrounds, where riders were jailed in 1961.
The final stop, and the historic endpoint of the 1961 Freedom Rides — the destination the original riders never reached.
Historic bus stations
Entire route
The Supreme Court
Washington, D.C.
International Civil Rights Center & Museum
Greensboro, NC
Freedom Riders National Monument
Anniston, AL
Ebenezer Baptist Church & the King Center
Atlanta, GA
Freedom Rides Museum
Montgomery, AL
Dr. Richard Harris House
Montgomery, AL
Edmund Pettus Bridge
Selma, AL
Medgar Evers Home Museum
Jackson, MS
The Fairgrounds
Jackson, MS
Dooky Chase’s Restaurant
New Orleans, LA
At each stop, artists and muralists join forces with the Art Bus team. Cookouts, church gatherings, HBCU convenings and roller-rink parties await; a piece of the movement is left behind in every community.
Metropolitan A.M.E. Church
Washington, D.C.
Foot Soldiers Park & Educational Center
Selma, AL
New Orleans African American Museum
New Orleans, LA
Studio BE
New Orleans, LA
Full routing and stop-level detail, including hotel information, will be shared with registered riders ahead of the tour.