The Freedom Rides began in May 1961 when the Congress of Racial Equality decided to test a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregation in depot restaurants and restrooms serving interstate passengers. CORE had previously organized a 1947 bus trip called the Journey of Reconciliation to test a 1946 high court decision that ruled segregated seating unconstitutional. During that 1947 trip, an interracial group of 16 men and women spent two weeks traveling by bus through four states in the Upper South; Jim Peck, a white participant, received the only beating of the trip, but eight riders served jail time and several were forced to work on a chain gang for breaking state segregation laws. No other tests followed until James Farmer, CORE director and a participant in the 1947 ride, called for a test of Southern compliance with the 1960 ruling. He said the intention was to provoke southern authorities into making arrests and thereby prod the Justice Department into enforcing the law. The new effort became known as a Freedom Ride because, in Farmer's view, the name expressed the determination to put the movement on wheels, cut across state lines, and assert the right to act anywhere in the country. In early April 1961, planners developed the route and lined up sponsors in communities along the way, including Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to test Deep South compliance.