The Fire in Anniston: A Freedom Riders Story

The Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks, which occurred on May 14, 1961, in Anniston and Birmingham, both Alabama, were acts of mob violence targeted against civil rights activists protesting against racial segregation in the Southern United States. They were carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the National States' Rights Party in coordination with the Birmingham Police Department. The FBI did nothing to prevent the attacks despite having foreknowledge of the plans. Although the United States Supreme Court had ruled in 1946 and 1960 that segregation on interstate public transport was unconstitutional, southern Jim Crow states continued to enforce it. To challenge this, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized for an interracial group of volunteers – whom they dubbed "Freedom Riders" – to travel together through the Deep South, hoping to provoke a violent reaction from segregationists that would force the federal government to step in. Traveling in two groups on Greyhound and Trailways bus lines, they would pass through the segregationist stronghold of Alabama, where Birmingham Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor conspired with local chapters of the Klan to attack the Riders. On May 14, the Greyhound group was swarmed by a mob in Anniston. While police turned a blind eye, their bus was firebombed and the passengers physically assaulted. When armed Alabama Highway Patrol agents prevented the Freedom Riders from being lynched, the attackers dispersed and left the passengers to seek medical attention. The Trailways group reached Anniston approximately one hour later, where Klansmen assaulted the Riders and forced the black passengers to move to the back of the bus. They continued to Birmingham, where a mob of additional Klan members, armed with blunt weapons, attacked the Freedom Riders in a fifteen-minute frenzy of violence, during which the area was deliberately vacated by the police. Although there were no fatalities, several of the Riders – as well as a number of news reporters, multiple black bystanders, and a Klansman who was accidentally beaten by his own accomplices – required hospital treatment. After regrouping with the aid of Fred Shuttlesworth, most of the Freedom Riders opted to continue to New Orleans via plane, although some stayed in Birmingham in order to organize a new Freedom Ride with fresh recruits. The attacks caused shock throughout the country and brought the issue of segregation under an international spotlight, embarrassing the United States during the height of the Cold War. By orchestrating them, Connor and the Klan had intended to deter future Rides, but they had the opposite effect and inspired hundreds of volunteers to spend the summer of 1961 traveling across the South facing arrest and mob violence. This galvanized public support and put immense pressure on President John Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy to act. In late September, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations