What happened on May 14 in Anniston?
On Sunday, May 14, Mother’s Day, in Anniston, Alabama, a mob of Klansmen, some still in church attire, attacked the first of the two Greyhound buses. The driver tried to leave the station, but he was blocked until KKK members slashed its tires. Some injured riders were taken to Anniston Memorial Hospital.
What happened in Anniston in May 1961?
In 1961, a group of civil rights activists known as the Freedom Riders began a desegregation campaign. Once the attack subsided, police pretended to escort the crippled bus to safety, but instead abandoned it at the Anniston city limits. …
What happened as a result of the Freedom Riders?
The riders sang songs, made signs, and refused to move even though facing arrest, assault, and possible death. Three years after the first Freedom Ride, the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, outlawing segregation in public facilities in all parts of the United States.
Why did the Freedom Riders come to Alabama?
They aimed to test the enforcement of the 1960 Supreme Court Bruce Boynton v. Virginia ruling that required desegregation of interstate bus seating and Freedom Riders Jim Zwerg and Paul Brooks terminal facilities.
What happened to the Freedom Riders in Birmingham Alabama?
The Freedom Riders escaped the bus as it burst into flames, only to be brutally beaten by members of the surrounding mob. The second bus, a Trailways vehicle, traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, and those riders were also beaten by an angry white mob, many of whom brandished metal pipes.
What were the freedom riders protesting?
Freedom Rides, in U.S. history, a series of political protests against segregation by Blacks and whites who rode buses together through the American South in 1961.
What were the freedom riders fighting for?
The 1961 Freedom Rides sought to test a 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia that segregation of interstate transportation facilities, including bus terminals, was unconstitutional as well.
What happens to the Freedom Riders in Alabama?
Freedom Riders Face Bloodshed in Alabama The mob followed the bus in automobiles, and when the tires on the bus blew out, someone threw a bomb into the bus. The Freedom Riders escaped the bus as it burst into flames, only to be brutally beaten by members of the surrounding mob.
What methods did the Freedom Riders use?
This tactic—nonviolent direct action—utilized sit-ins, strikes, and boycotts to confront injustice. The action was “direct” in the way it confronted and disrupted discriminatory practices such as “whites only” lunch counters and bus terminals and discriminatory hiring practices.