In May of 1961, a mixed group of civil rights activists boarded two buses in Washington, D.C. in order to "test" enforcement of a recent Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in bus terminals.  Their destination was New Orleans, where they would celebrate the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Board of Education.  At various bus terminals, the black "Freedom Riders" would go to the white dining areas and waiting rooms while the white "Freedom Riders" would go to the area reserved for blacks.  Over the course of the journey, the Freedom Riders and sympathizers (including a representative of the Justice Department dispatched by Attorney General Robert Kennedy) were beaten at an Alabama bus terminal and one of their buses was firebombed.