Genevieve Hughes Houghton ("HOW-ton"; 1932–2012) was known as one of three female participants in the original 13-person CORE Freedom Rides.
She studied at Cornell University and, upon her graduation, moved to New York City to work as a stock analyst.
In the late 1950s she became involved in the New York chapter of CORE, and she organized a boycott of dime stores that worked with chain restaurants that resisted the sit-in movements in the South.
Hughes started to become ostracized from her colleagues on Wall Street, and she decided to work full time to end racism.
"[2] During the journey from Washington, DC, to New Orleans, she and the other Freedom Riders encountered many acts of violence towards them, particularly in Anniston, Alabama, where their Greyhound bus was engulfed in flames by angry mobs.