FREEDOM RIDERS BRUTALLY ATTACKED BY MONTGOMERY MOB
Montgomery, Alabama (JFK+50) On May 20, 1961, a bus load of "Freedom Riders*," were attacked by segregationists here in Alabama's state capital, Montgomery.
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy requested that the Greyhound Bus Company transport the group to Montgomery from Birmingham.
When the bus pulled into the downtown terminal, three hundred segregationists appeared. Future Congressman John Lewis later said...
"An angry mob came out of nowhere, hundreds of people, with bricks and balls, chains."
Mr. Lewis was severely injured along with others including Jim Zwerg, a college student and John Siegenthaler, an aide to the Attorney General.
President John F. Kennedy called upon Alabama Governor John Patterson to exercise his authority to prevent further violence.
*Freedom Riders were groups of black & white civil rights activists who rode buses into the South to protest segregated bus terminals.
JFK+50 NOTE
After the first attacks on Freedom Riders in Birmingham, Alabama on May 16, 1961, the Freedom Rides, initially sponsored by CORE (Congress of Racial Authority) continued under direction of the Nashville Student Movement, 22 Tennessee college students.
SOURCE
"White Mob Attacks Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama," A History of Racial Justice, www.eji.org/
