<P> When reports of the bus burning and beatings reached US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he urged restraint on the part of Freedom Riders and sent an assistant, John Seigenthaler, to Alabama to try to calm the situation . </P> <P> Despite the violence suffered and the threat of more to come, the Freedom Riders intended to continue their journey . Kennedy had arranged an escort for the Riders in order to get them to Montgomery, Alabama, safely . However, radio reports told of a mob awaiting the riders at the bus terminal, as well as on the route to Montgomery . The Greyhound clerks told the Riders that their drivers were refusing to drive any Freedom Riders anywhere . Recognizing that their efforts had already called national attention to the civil rights cause and wanting to get to the rally in New Orleans, the Riders decided to abandon the rest of the bus ride and fly directly to New Orleans from Birmingham . When they first boarded the plane, all passengers had to exit because of a bomb threat . </P> <P> Diane Nash, a Nashville college student who was a leader of the Nashville Student Movement and SNCC, believed that if Southern violence were allowed to halt the Freedom Rides the movement would be set back years . She pushed to find replacements to resume the rides . On May 17, a new set of riders, 10 students from Nashville who were active in the Nashville Student Movement, took a bus to Birmingham, where they were arrested by Bull Connor and jailed . </P> <P> The students kept their spirits up in jail by singing freedom songs . Out of frustration, Connor drove them back up to the Tennessee line and dropped them off, saying, "I just couldn't stand their singing ." They immediately returned to Birmingham . </P>

Who were the freedom riders and what did they accomplish