Anniston, AL
On Mother’s Day, May 14, 1961, the Greyhound bus departed Atlanta, GA early that morning and later arrived at the Anniston, Alabama, bus station shortly after 1 pm to find the building locked shut. An angry mob of Whites surrounded the bus. Two undercover Alabama Highway Patrol officers on the bus quickly locked the doors. Led by Ku Klux Klan leader William Chapel, the mob of 50 men armed with pipes, chains, and bats smashed windows, slashed tires, and dented the sides of the Riders’ bus. Though warned hours earlier that a mob had gathered at the station, local police did not arrive until after the assault had begun.
Once the attack subsided, police pretended to escort the crippled bus to safety, but instead abandoned it at the Anniston city limits. Soon after the police departed, another armed White mob surrounded the bus and began breaking windows. The Freedom Riders refused to exit the vehicle but received no aid from two watching highway patrolmen. The mob beat the riders after they got out. Warning shots which were fired into the air by highway patrolmen were the only thing which prevented the riders from being lynched.
When a member of the mob tossed a firebomb through a broken bus window, others in the mob attempted to trap the passengers inside the burning vehicle by barricading the door. The riders climbed out through windows and the doors, barely escaping with their lives. An undercover officer fired his gun into the air and they fled when a fuel tank began to explode. The Riders were able to escape the ensuing flames and smoke through the bus windows and main door, only to be attacked and beaten by the mob outside.
After police finally dispersed their attackers, the Freedom Riders received limited medical care. They were soon evacuated from Anniston in a convoy organized by Birmingham Civil Rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. When the Trailways bus reached Anniston and pulled in at the terminal an hour after the Greyhound bus was burned, it was boarded by eight Klansmen. At first, the White supremacists merely taunted the riders with warnings about the violence that awaited them in Birmingham. But when the riders sat in the White section of the bus, they beat the Freedom Riders and left them semi-conscious in the back of the bus.
The bus manages to escape Anniston, and continued to Birmingham, where a mob of additional Klan members, armed with blunt weapons, attacked the Freedom Riders. Photographs of the burning Greyhound bus and the bloodied riders appeared on the front pages of newspapers throughout the country. Around the world the next day, it drew international attention to the Freedom Riders’ cause and the state of race relations in the United States.
The man with his back to the camera (center right) is FBI undercover agent Gary Thomas Rowe
Birmingham, AL
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, a known opponent of the Civil Rights Movement, informed the Birmingham Police Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene “Bull” Connor of the itinerary of the Freedom Riders arriving in the city. At the time it was viewed as a warning to Connor, but today, we see it as a tip to incite violence upon the Freedom Riders. Bull Connor called the Imperial Wizard of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan and guaranteed them fifteen minutes alone with the Freedom Riders with no police.
When the bus arrived in Birmingham, it was attacked by a mob of KKK members aided and abetted by police under the orders of Eugene “Bull” Connor. Connor carried out his plan not to post officers at the Birmingham bus station. As the riders exited the bus, they were beaten by the mob with baseball bats, iron pipes and bicycle chains. Among the attacking Klansmen was Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informant. The beatings were not just perpetrated against African-American riders; in fact, some White Freedom Riders were singled out and attacked more brutally.
James Peck required more than 50 stitches to the wounds in his head. Peck was taken to Carraway Methodist Medical Center, which refused to treat him. He was later treated. Peck later told a reporter that he endured the violence courageously to “show that nonviolence can prevail over violence.” The police finally showed up after the allotted 15 minutes but made no arrests. James Peck was arrested when he had participated in the Journey of Reconciliation, also called “First Freedom Ride”, fourteen years earlier. Other riders escaped, and they all met at Reverend Fred Shuttleworth’s church. Despite the certainty of more violence to come at future destinations, the Freedom Riders continued their journey.
Americans across the country learned about the violence as the images of burning buses and beaten riders were broadcast on television and printed in newspapers. President John Kennedy was preparing for a foreign summit and wanted the freedom riders to stop causing controversy. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy tried to persuade the Alabama governor, John Patterson, to protect the riders but was frustrated in the attempt. Also exasperated by Greyhound’s unwillingness to provide a new bus for the riders, the attorney general sent one federal official, John Seigenthaler, to the riders in Birmingham.
Even though FBI knows in advance that the two busses are going to be attacked in Anniston and Birmingham, but they do nothing to prevent the violence, do nothing to protect the Riders from assault, do nothing to enforce the Supreme Court ruling. Despite the violence suffered and the threat of more to come, the Freedom Riders intended to continue their journey. Kennedy had arranged an escort for the Riders in order to get them to Montgomery, Alabama, safely. However, radio reports told of a mob awaiting the riders at the bus terminal, as well as on the route to Montgomery.
Attorney General Robert Kennedy calls for a “cooling off period” (meaning that CORE should halt the Freedom Ride). He blames “extremists on both sides” for the violence. Freedom Movement activists are both dumbfounded and outraged. Yes, clearly, smashing peoples’ skulls with baseball bats and trying to burn them alive in a hijacked bus are the acts of extremists. But the nonviolent Freedom Riders are peaceful, and their actions are entirely legal under Federal law. By what measure of justice and common sense can they be labeled “extremists?”
When the riders attempted to resume their journey, they were unable to find a bus driver who was willing to take them to Montgomery. The series of attacks prompted James Farmer of CORE to end the campaign to attend a previously scheduled rally at which he was the main speaker. Bomb threats prevent the plane from taking off, and they are harassed by another Klan mob as they wait hour after hour at the airport. Finally, under pressure from Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the airline manages to get a flight off the ground in the dead of night, and the CORE riders flew to New Orleans, bringing to an end the first Freedom Ride of the 1960s.
Nashville students pick up the Freedom rides
The first group of Freedom Riders, sponsored by CORE and traveling in two groups on Trailways and Greyhound buses, was met with so much violence that the rides were abandoned. However, the students in Nashville, Tennessee, who had felt that to give up in the face of violence was an unacceptable surrender that hurt the Movement. The decision to end the ride frustrated student activists, such as Diane Nash, who argued in a phone conversation with Farmer: “We can’t let them stop us with violence. If we do, the movement is dead. We are coming into Birmingham to continue the Freedom Ride.”
Under the auspices and organizational support of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Freedom Rides continued. SNCC mentors were wary of this decision, including King, who had declined to join the rides when asked by Nash and Rodney Powell. They were well aware of the risk, and the Nashville coordinator Diane Nash found herself very emotional during the time “because… I was very well aware of the fact that … some of the [people I loved the most] might not be alive the next night.”
On May 17th, Nash coordinated additional freedom rides to desegregate interstate travel. These Tennessee college students, known as the Nashville Student Movement, proceeded from Nashville to Birmingham to finish the ride. Eugene “Bull” Connor had them arrested. The riders went on a hunger strike while in jail. Bull Connor had them arrested and taken back to the Tennessee state line, leaving them on the side of the highway. Instead of abandoning the campaign, Nash led the resilient activists 100 miles back to Nashville to regroup. With fractured support, the organizers had a difficult time securing financial resources.
They attempted to board a bus for Montgomery, but the terrified driver refused to let them on. “I have only one life to give, and I’m not going to give it to NAACP or CORE,” says one driver. All night — hour after hour — the Riders wait for a bus while constantly harassed and besieged by a racist mob led by Robert Shelton, Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. The Kennedy administration negotiated a settlement in which the state police were to protect the bus bound for Montgomery. On 17 May 1961, seven men and three women rode from Nashville to Birmingham to resume the Freedom Rides.
Just before reaching Birmingham, the bus was pulled over and directed to the Birmingham station by the police. Once they reached the station, the police cars disappeared. All of the riders were arrested for defying segregation laws. The students kept their spirits up in jail by singing freedom songs. The riders went on a hunger strike in jail and were dumped on the side of the road more than 100 miles away in Tennessee before sunrise on Friday. However, they simply drove back to Birmingham.
The arrests, coupled with the difficulty of finding a bus driver and other logistical challenges, left the riders stranded in the city for several days. U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, began negotiating with Governor John Patterson of Alabama and the bus companies to secure a driver and state protection for the new group of Freedom Riders. The rides finally resumed, on a Greyhound bus departing Birmingham under police escort, on May 20th.
Montgomery, AL
In answer to SNCC’s call, Freedom Riders from across the Eastern US joined John Lewis and Hank Thomas, the two young SNCC members of the original Ride, who had remained in Birmingham. On May 19, they attempted to resume the ride, but, terrified by the howling mob surrounding the bus depot, the drivers refused. Harassed and besieged by the mob, the riders waited all night for a bus. Under intense public pressure from the Kennedy administration, Greyhound was forced to provide a driver.
After direct intervention by Byron White of the Attorney General’s office, Alabama Governor John Patterson was forced to provide the Freedom Riders a police escort. On May 20th, the Freedom Rides resumed with a new group, and the students made their way to Montgomery, Alabama. The Highway Patrol abandoned the bus and riders at the Montgomery city limits. All the cops who had been guarding the Greyhound terminal also disappear. A White mob was waiting for the riders at the Montgomery bus station on South Court Street.
As the riders departed from the bus, an angry gang swarmed, beating the passengers screaming “Get the niggers!”. They attacked SNCC activists John Lewis and Jim Zwerg, who both sustained severe injuries. Justice Department official John Seigenthaler tries to rescue two of the women riders, but he too is beaten unconscious and left bloody on the pavement. The two female riders were pummeled, one by a woman swinging a purse and repeatedly hitting her in the head, the other by a man punching her repeatedly in the face.
The local police allowed the beatings to go on uninterrupted. Many were injured, some severely, before Black residents of Montgomery stepped in to rescue the Freedom Riders from further violence. The following night, Sunday, May 21, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led a service at Reverend Abernathy’s First Baptist Church in Montgomery. More than 1,500 people gathered at First Baptist Church on Ripley Street to hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders speak in defense of the Freedom Riders.
He told the assembly, “Alabama will have to face the fact that we are determined to be free. The main thing I want to say to you is fear not, we’ve come too far to turn back . . . We are not afraid and we shall overcome.” A riot was ensuing outside the church. A mob of more than 3,000 White people heckle and harass the Black attendees. There were only a handful of the United States Marshals Service protecting the church from assault and fire bombs. While the U.S. Marshals Guard was present, the local and state police made little effort to contain the violence.
Dr. King went down to the basement of the church and called Robert Kennedy to ask for protection and negotiate safe passage to Jackson, Mississippi. Reluctantly, President Kennedy threatened to intervene with federal troops if the governor would not protect the people. Kennedy summoned the federal marshals, who used tear gas to disperse the White mob. Governor Patterson ordered the Alabama National Guard to disperse the mob and declared martial law in the city. The Alabama National Guard finally arrived in the early morning to disperse the mob and safely escorted all the people from the church.
The next day, Monday, May 22, more Freedom Riders arrived in Montgomery to continue the rides through the South and replace the wounded riders still in the hospital. Behind the scenes, the Kennedy administration arranged a deal with the governors of Alabama and Mississippi, agreeing that the National Guard would protect the Riders from mob violence. A compromise was worked out two days later to get the riders out of Alabama and send them to Mississippi. In return, the federal government would not intervene to stop local police from arresting Freedom Riders for violating segregation ordinances when the buses arrived at the depots.
Jackson, MS
On Wednesday morning, May 24, the Freedom Riders board a Trailways bus and departed for the 250 mile journey to Jackson, MS with the National Guard as an escort. To the riders, the Alabama National Guard escort defeated the purpose of challenging segregated seating on the bus. When the 27 weary riders arrive in Jackson and attempt to use “White only” restrooms and lunch counters they are immediately arrested. The group included nine Black men, a White man, and two Black girls. They were charged with “breach of the peace, disobeying an officer, and attempting to incite a riot.“
That same day, U.S. Attorney General Kennedy issued a statement urging a “cooling off” period in the face of the growing violence:
“A very difficult condition exists now in the states of Mississippi and Alabama. Besides the groups of ‘Freedom Riders’ traveling through these states, there are curiosity seekers, publicity seekers and others who are seeking to serve their own causes, as well as many persons who are traveling because they must use the interstate carriers to reach their destination. In this confused situation, there is increasingly possibility that innocent persons may be injured. A mob asks no questions. A cooling off period is needed. It would be wise for those traveling through these two Sites to delay their trips until the present state of confusion and danger has passed and an atmosphere of reason and normalcy has been restored.”
During the Mississippi hearings, the judge turned and looked at the wall rather than listen to the Freedom Riders’ defense. They were convicted and fined $200 each. When the riders refused to pay, the judge sentenced them to 90 days in jail. Says Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett in defense of segregation: “The Negro is different because God made him different to punish him.” In an effort to intimidate the marchers, Mississippi officials transferred the now nearly one hundred men and women freedom riders to the state penitentiary at Parchman. They were subject to beatings and inedible food and repeatedly strip searched.
Prison officials confiscated the blankets and mattresses of all of the activists. When other demonstrators arrived in Jackson they were also arrested and sent to Parchman where they faced similar conditions. From lockup, the Riders announce “Jail No Bail” — they will not pay fines for unconstitutional arrests and illegal convictions — and by staying in jail they keep the issue alive. While in Jackson, Freedom Riders received support from local grassroots civil rights organization “Womanpower Unlimited“, which raised money and collected toiletries, soap, candy and magazines for the imprisoned protesters.
Upon the Freedom Riders’ release, Womanpower members would provide places for them to bathe while offering them clothes and food. A bomb threat preceded the arrival of the second bus at Meridian, just over the State line in Mississippi. General W. P. Wilson, the State’s Attorney-General, said that a report had been received that a stick of dynamite would be hurled into the bus when it stopped at the state line. The bus did not stop. It passed straight through Meridian, where the terminal was surrounded by armed National Guards and many armed city police.
Intending to pacify the situation, Justice Department officials convinced the Interstate Commerce Commission to issue a regulation prohibiting separate facilities for Blacks and Whites in bus and train terminals. Unlike the earlier Supreme Court rulings which segregationists largely ignored, the ICC immediately imposed sanctions and penalties for the violation of its order. On 29 May 1961, as a consequence of their actions, the Kennedy administration announced that it had directed the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), to ban segregation in all facilities under its jurisdiction.
Still, the rides continued. Students from all over the country purchased bus tickets to the South and crowded into jails in Jackson, Mississippi from May to September. They came by bus and by airplane. Each in turn was arrested and photographed. Governor Ross Barnett told the prison warden to “break their spirits not their bones.” Most of them served their time in prison and returned to ordinary lives. With the participation of northern students came even more press coverage. The Freedom Riders failed to reach New Orleans, Louisiana.
On November 1, 1961, the new order went into effect across the nation, although defiance continued in many southern communities and rides continued throughout the summer. Mississippi failed to break the Riders. They emerge from prison — Parchman and Hinds County Jail —stronger and more committed than before. By the end of the summer over 300 women and men were incarcerated in Jackson. And for many of them, what began as a simple protest has been forged into a vocation, a commitment to freedom and justice that shapes the rest of their lives. Over the next few years, civil rights activists directly confronted segregation through nonviolent tactics at places like Birmingham and Selma to arouse the national conscience.
The Kennedys again call for a “cooling off period” and condemn the Riders as “unpatriotic” because they embarrass the nation on the world stage. Attorney General Robert Kennedy — the chief law enforcement officer of the land — is quoted as saying that he, “Does not feel that the Department of Justice can side with one group or the other in disputes over Constitutional rights“. Civil rights supporters across the nation retort that defending the constitutional rights of American citizens is part of the department’s job. That is why it is called the “Justice” Department.
Throughout the spring and summer the Freedom Rides continued, with more than sixty rides traveling across the South. Defying the Kennedys, CORE, SNCC and the SCLC rejected any “cooling off” period. They formed a Freedom Riders Coordinating Committee to keep the Rides rolling through June, July, August, and September. During those months, more than 60 different Freedom Rides criss-crossed the South, most of them converging on Jackson, where every Rider was arrested.
By the end of the summer over 300 women and men were incarcerated in Jackson. And for many of them, what began as a simple protest has been forged into a vocation, a commitment to freedom and justice that shapes the rest of their lives. Over the next few years, civil rights activists directly confronted segregation through nonviolent tactics at places like Birmingham and Selma to arouse the national conscience. One of the major effects of the Freedom Rides was to inspire and shape the consciousness of young people, which led to a great expansion of SNCC’s work, and that of CORE as well.
During the summer of 1961, Freedom Riders also campaigned against other forms of racial discrimination. They sat together in segregated restaurants, lunch counters and hotels. This was especially effective when they targeted large companies, such as hotel chains. Fearing boycotts in the North, the hotels began to desegregate their businesses. In mid-June, a group of Freedom Riders had scheduled to end their ride in Tallahassee, Florida, with plans to fly home from the Tallahassee Municipal Airport. They were provided a police escort to the airport from the city’s bus facilities. At the airport, they decided to eat at the Savarin restaurant that was marked “For Whites Only”.
The owners decided to close rather than serve the mixed group of Freedom Riders. Although the restaurant was privately owned, it was leased from the county government. Canceling their plane reservations, the Riders decided to wait until the restaurant re-opened so they could be served. They waited until 11:00 pm that night and returned the following day. During this time, hostile crowds gathered, threatening violence. As a result 10 Freedom Riders, later known as the Tallahassee Ten, were arrested for unlawful assembly and taken to the city jail. They were convicted and sentenced later that same month; legal appeal of the airport arrests continued for years.