FREEDOM RIDERS BUS FIREBOMBED
Anniston, Alabama (JFK+50) The first bus of freedom riders* arrived here in Anniston on May 14, 1961 but their Greyhound bus was forced to go past the bus station and was then attacked by a mob of angry white segregationists. The bus carried 13 freedom riders, seven blacks and six whites, and had left Washington, D.C. on May 4.
The whites followed the bus in 30 cars and trucks. Thrown rocks and bricks broke out bus windows and a firebomb was thrown inside. The bus door was blocked to prevent the freedom riders escape, but when state troopers began to arrive, the riders were able to escape the bus. Many of them were beaten with iron pipes and baseball bats.
*Freedom Riders were young people who challenged racial laws in the American South during the early 1960s, originally by refusing to abide by laws directing segregated seating by race on public buses. Their purpose was to test Supreme Court decisions which held that segregated buses were unconstitutional and illegal.
SOURCES
"Buses Are A Comin, Freedom Riders 1961", The Pop History Dig, www.pophistorydig.org/
"Freedom Riders Attacked in Alabama", by Marian Smith Holmes, Smithsonian Magazine, February 2009.
"Freedom Riders", www.history.com/
Anniston, Alabama (JFK+50) The first bus of freedom riders* arrived here in Anniston on May 14, 1961 but their Greyhound bus was forced to go past the bus station and was then attacked by a mob of angry white segregationists. The bus carried 13 freedom riders, seven blacks and six whites, and had left Washington, D.C. on May 4.
The whites followed the bus in 30 cars and trucks. Thrown rocks and bricks broke out bus windows and a firebomb was thrown inside. The bus door was blocked to prevent the freedom riders escape, but when state troopers began to arrive, the riders were able to escape the bus. Many of them were beaten with iron pipes and baseball bats.
*Freedom Riders were young people who challenged racial laws in the American South during the early 1960s, originally by refusing to abide by laws directing segregated seating by race on public buses. Their purpose was to test Supreme Court decisions which held that segregated buses were unconstitutional and illegal.
SOURCES
"Buses Are A Comin, Freedom Riders 1961", The Pop History Dig, www.pophistorydig.org/
"Freedom Riders Attacked in Alabama", by Marian Smith Holmes, Smithsonian Magazine, February 2009.
"Freedom Riders", www.history.com/
Freedom Riders Plaque
Birmingham, Alabama (2010)
Photo by Kevin from Astoria NY
