On May 4, 1961, a year after the Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public transportation, 13 young idealists set off on a bus tour of the Deep South to expose and challenge state segregation laws still in place. Within seven months, some 300 "Freedom Riders," both black and white, had joined the movement--enduring firebombing, mob violence, and ultimately, arrest, to have their voices heard. As Martin Luther King Jr., put it at the time, "These courageous freedom riders have faced ugly and howling mobs in order to arouse the dozing conscience of the nation ... One day all of America will be proud of their achievements."
Nearly 50 years later, King was right, and a 2008 book by Eric Etheridge, "Breach of Peace," pays tribute to many of those brave men and women. Through mug shots and present-day portraits, Etheridge has documented all 323 of the men and women arrested in Jackson, Miss., that year. A look at a few of them:
