Trailways Bus Station Attack

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, race relations in the South were dominated by local "Jim Crow" laws. Although in 1960 the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation violated the Interstate Commerce Act, local laws persisted. When a desegregated bus carrying black and white "Freedom Riders" arrived at the Trailways Bus Station in Anniston on this date, a group of young white men came aboard to enforce segregated seating, with whites in front and blacks in back. The men beat the Riders and forced them to segregate. After police intervened, the bus continued to Birmingham with the badly injured Freedom Riders kept separated by their attackers.

Anniston, Alabama · United States