Which 1960 U.S. Supreme Court case struck down racial segregation in interstate bus and train terminals?

Boynton v. Virginia was the 1960 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down racial segregation in interstate bus and train terminals.

The case began when Bruce Boynton, a Black student, was arrested after sitting in a whites-only section of a Trailways bus terminal restaurant in Richmond, Virginia, in 1958. He was traveling from Washington, D.C., to Montgomery, Alabama, during a Christmas break.

On December 5, 1960, the Supreme Court ruled that companies and facilities serving interstate passengers could not segregate their services. The decision interpreted the Interstate Commerce Act as prohibiting racial discrimination in interstate transportation facilities, even when those facilities were privately operated.

The ruling became a legal foundation for the 1961 Freedom Rides. Activists tested whether bus companies and terminal operators were obeying the decision by traveling through the South together. A common mix-up is confusing Boynton with Morgan v. Virginia, a 1946 case that struck down segregation on interstate buses themselves; Boynton specifically addressed terminal facilities.