ST. LOUIS One of the original Freedom Riders who in 1961 challenged U.S. Supreme Court decisions striking down segregated bus travel and challenged segregated public facilities will speak today at U.S. District Court downtown.

Reverend Dr. John C. Raines and four others traveled by bus from St. Louis to Little Rock, Ark. on July 10, 1961, Raines and the others - civil rights activist Rev. Benjamin Elton Cox, New York artist Janet Reinitz and public school teacher Bliss Anne Malone and student Annie Lumpkin, both of St. Louis - were arrested after refusing to leave the bus terminal. They were released later that week and continued on to New Orleans.

Raines was from Long Island at the time. He is currently a professor emeritus at Temple University.

The program starts at 12:15 p.m. with a reception. The final events consist of optional tours of the Freedom Riders exhibit at the courthouse, as well as the building's Judicial Learning Center. Speakers scheduled to appear include Raines, longtime St. Louis lawyer and civil rights pioneer Frankie Muse Freeman and Adjoa A. Aiyetoro, the founding director of the University of Arkansas - Little Rock Institute on Race and Ethnicity.

The event is free. To make a reservation got to JudicialLearningCenter.org/event-registration/.

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Freedom Rider to speak today in St. Louis