On this day, May 14, in 1961, a bus filled with Freedom Riders was fire-bombed on Mother’s Day near Anniston, Ala. Ten days earlier, 13 people — seven blacks and six whites — left D.C. in two buses to challenge segregated bus facilities in the South.
In Alabama, members of the KKK surrounded a bus and lit it on fire. The gas tank on the bus exploded.
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The Riders survived but were severely beaten hours later when they reached Birmingham.
Bull Connor, head of Birmingham’s police, ensured the Klan that the police would stay away from city’s bus terminal for 15 minutes after the Freedom Riders arrived.
The violence inspired hundreds of more Freedom Riders, forcing the federal government to enforce new laws to integrate bus stations.
— Scott McCabe
