Freedom Rider "Rip" Patton Tells His Story

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Intro and Outro

Half a century ago, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives simply by traveling together on buses and trains in an attempt to integrate the Deep South. Freedom riders met with heavy and sometimes violent resistance, some were attacked and beaten and one of their buses was torched. Rip Patton was in one of the early waves of riders. He told Candice Ludlow he boarded a bus in Montgomery and rode to Jackson, Mississippi where he was arrested.