The state has approved a historical marker for the bus stop across West Franklin Street from the old bus station, where the Franklin Hotel now stands.

The marker will honor the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, and the first Freedom Riders in 1947.

"The First Freedom Ride," known as The Journey of Reconciliation, was meant to test a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down Jim Crow laws on interstate buses and trains as unconstitutional.

Black and white Freedom Riders, trained in non-violence, were arrested at the Chapel Hill bus station and a mob beat James Peck. The Rev. Charles Jones gave them refuge. Courts sentenced Bayard Rustin and three friends to 30 days on a chain gang.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and the Community Church of Chapel Hill proposed the historical marker, which the Town Council strongly endorsed.