Not content with simply advocating for civil rights locally, these civil rights activists of mixed race got on a bus and drove it to the South to actively protest seating segregation under the Jim Crow laws. Freedom rides were the name of these trips that not only broke and confronted societal standards in the South but often broke the law. Their act of mixed racial bus riding and activism directly challenged and confronted the racial segregation and inequality under these laws. Not only was governmental law challenged by these individuals, but they also confronted the public of the south by forming a counterpublic for those oppressed by the racial inequality, fighting the oppressive racial and governmental structures in place by the dominant. The freedom riders helped bring a new power to the civil rights movement through their democratically artful bus rides.