On the morning of May 4, 1961, fourteen ordinary citizens in Atlanta separated into two integrated groups and boarded two buses for a journey in search of simple justice, planning under CORE to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 17, the seventh anniversary of the Brown decision outlawing segregated schools. Seven Riders boarded the Greyhound bound for Anniston: Albert Bigelow, Ed Blankenheim, Genevieve Hughes, Jimmy McDonald, Mae Frances Moultrie, Joseph Perkins, and Hank Thomas. Also aboard were five regular passengers, two journalists, Charlotte Devree and Moses Newson, Greyhound regional manager Roy Robinson, and two undercover plainclothes Alabama Highway Patrol agents, Corporals Ell Cowling and Harry Sims, though the Riders did not know the latter had boarded. Seven other Riders took a Trailways bus scheduled to arrive in Anniston an hour later than the Greyhound. The journey ended abruptly in Anniston on Mother's Day, May 14, 1961.