Final answer:
The Freedom Riders, organized by CORE, were sent on public buses to the Deep South to challenge segregation on interstate transportation and to put pressure on the federal government to enforce civil rights laws.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized the 1961 Freedom Rides as a form of nonviolent protest against segregated bus terminals and to challenge the segregation policies on interstate transportation as prohibited by the U.S. Supreme Court. These Freedom Riders, both African American and white, rode on public buses into the Deep South to directly confront and test the enforcement of these desegregation laws. They planned to exhibit a non-segregated bus experience where whites would sit in the back and African Americans in the front or share the same seats, which directly violated the existing Jim Crow laws. Encountering severe violence in some areas, the Freedom Rides generated national attention and increased pressure on the federal government to enforce civil rights laws.