FREEMAN: In 1961, the government had outlawed segregation, but most places in the South simply did not comply with it.

And the Freedom Riders decided to challenge these practices, and they got on a Greyhound bus as an integrated group and rode throughout the Deep South.

My name is JoyEllen Freeman, and I was a participant in the 2011 Student Freedom Ride.

It was basically a way to allow 40 college students from across the nation to retrace the steps of the original 1961 Freedom Riders.

I had been struggling with, you know, self-doubt, with wanting to be courageous but not knowing how, so I decided to interview Ernest "Rip" Patton, one of the original Freedom Riders.

FREEMAN (interviewing): I was just wondering, as a Freedom Rider, did you ever deal with those types of feelings of not being able to accomplish your goal?

FREEMAN: And he said, you know, "I always have continuous courage, "and I gained this courage from the word of God, from Romans chapter 12 verses one through two," and he started to say the verse.

PATTON: Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the, uh...

FREEMAN: And I said, "By the renewing of your mind," and he said, "Yes, that one, that's it!"

And it just felt like so many emotions were coming down on me at once, and I literally just had to stop the tape and I started bawling.

And he just hugged me for three minutes straight.

It was almost like an emotional cleansing from a lot of things that I'd been feeling.

I literally felt renewed.

I feel eternally grateful to WGBH and American Experience for the 2011 Student Freedom Ride.

I got a new definition of courage.

I can make a difference in my world.

I can.

And that's really what I'm trying to live by now.