The Segregationists

By mid-April, the Alabama Knights of the Ku Klux Klan knew the Freedom Ride's city-by-city itinerary through FBI memos forwarded to the Birmingham Police Department, and in secret meetings in April and mid-May they planned attacks on the Riders. Working with Birmingham commissioner of public safety Eugene "Bull" Connor, the Klan was told by police sergeant Tom Cook that they would have 15 minutes to attack without arrests. Informants passed this information to the FBI, but the bureau watched and waited to avoid exposing its sources. On May 13, at a meeting of the Alabama Klan's board of directors in Tuscaloosa, the attack on the CORE "outside agitators" was approved, with an initial assault planned for Anniston and a follow-up action in Birmingham. The Anniston klavern, led by Kenneth Adams, was not part of the Alabama Knights confederation but agreed to assist. Adams was a notorious racist who had beaten singer Nat King Cole during a performance in Birmingham in 1956. Because conspirators in Birmingham doubted Adams' planning, Connor sent Cook to Anniston on May 12 to make sure preparations were in order, and Cook then went to Atlanta to inspect the bus stations from which the Freedom Riders were to depart on May 14.

Anniston, Alabama · United States