Remembering The Freedom Rides 65 Years Ago
The Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks occurred 65 years ago this coming Thursday. They took place on May 14, "Mother's Day" in 1961, at the peak of the "Freedom Rides". An interracial group of volunteers were traveling together through the heart of the Jim Crow era deep south, hoping to provoke a violent reaction from segregationists that would force the federal government to step in. They got what they were seeking.
The U.S. Supreme Court had issued a decision that prohibited discrimination in interstate passenger travel and the Freedom Riders set out on Greyhound and Trailways busses from Washington D.C. to New Orleans to test the reaction in the south.
The travelers were met with violence in South Carolina but nothing like what happened in Alabama. The found the Greyhound station in Anniston locked and empty but were met with a mob of white men who attacked them and their bus with baseball bats and metal pipes. Police arrived and escorted the riders to the city limits where they were again attacked while State Troopers watched.
A firebomb was thrown through one of the busses windows and the attackers attempted to trap the riders inside until the busses fuel tank exploded. Some of the Freedom Riders were injure but received little medical care until they were evacuated to Birmingham in an armed motorcade organized by civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.
The Freedom Riders on the Trailways bus encountered a similar attack in Anniston but and even worse one in Birmingham as Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor held a police response to an attack on the riders for 15 minutes, allowing the white mob to beat them.
President Kennedy had sought assistance in protecting the riders from then Alabama Gov. John Patterson, but he infamously told the president the riders were responsible for any violence.
This weekend the "Freedom Riders" are being remembered with several events.
Last night, the Carver Theater in Birmingham hosted the production “We Shall Someday” on Thursday and Friday. It documents the history and the fight for freedom of the Freedom Riders back in the '60s. Other events are scheduled across the state through Monday.
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