In 1961, civil rights activists known as Freedom Riders traveled on public buses along interstate routes through the Southeast to test rulings that outlawed racial segregation. A route that departed Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961 and was bound for New Orleans, Louisiana, passed through Villa Rica, where the bus station then stood on this site. Although the Freedom Riders faced violence elsewhere, they passed through Villa Rica without serious incident on May 14, 1961.