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Bayard Rustin (fourth from right) with other members of the Congress for Racial Equality who participated in "The Journey of Reconciliation freedom ride.
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Bayard Rustin (fourth from right) stands with a group of people, some holding baggage, posing for a departure photo.

Credit: Courtesy of Estate of Bayard Rustin.

After the Supreme Court in 1947 outlawed segregation in public transportation, Bayard Rustin participated in the first "freedom ride" to protest its continuation in the South. Forced to serve 22 days on a chain gang in North Carolina, Rustin wrote an account of his experiences serialized in The New York Post, which spurred an investigation and contributed to the abolition of chain gangs in that state.

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