Alabama marks 65 years since Freedom Riders bus attack

Anniston plans daylong event in May

Freedom Riders National Monument in Anniston, Ala., will hold a 65th anniversary event on Saturday, May 9, 2026.

The commemoration honors the civil rights activists who were violently attacked on May 14, 1961, a date that fell on Mother’s Day.

The actual anniversary lands on a Thursday this year, so the National Park Service moved the public program to the Saturday before.

The day spans three locations, with speakers, ranger-led walks, and a bell-ringing ceremony.

Morning starts at the Greyhound depot

The day kicks off at 8 a.m. at the Greyhound Bus Depot, 1031 Gurnee Ave. in Anniston. Speakers and park rangers will be on-site until noon.

Rangers will lead groups on a walk from the depot to the Trailways Mural, about three blocks away. Both stations saw violence on that day in 1961.

A mob attacked the first bus of Freedom Riders at the Greyhound station, and a second group was beaten at the Trailways station the same afternoon.

Afternoon moves to the bus burning site

From 1:30 to 4 p.m., the ceremony shifts to the bus burning site on Highway 202 outside Anniston. The monument superintendent and other speakers will address the crowd about what happened on May 14, 1961.

A bell-ringing ceremony will honor the CORE riders who were aboard the Greyhound bus that day.

The site sits about six miles from downtown Anniston, right where the bus was firebombed after its slashed tires finally gave out.

Community gathering closes the evening

From 5 to 8 p.m., a community-led event will take place at Zinn Park in Anniston. Organizers have not yet announced all the details for the evening gathering.

The National Park Service is encouraging visitors to check back for updates as planning continues.

The three-part schedule gives people a chance to visit all the key sites tied to the 1961 attack, from downtown Anniston to the roadside where the bus burned.

Activists tested the South on buses

The Freedom Riders were a group of Black and white civil rights activists who rode interstate buses together through the South in 1961.

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), led by national director James Farmer, organized the rides.

Their goal was to test whether Southern states were actually following Supreme Court rulings that banned segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals.

Thirteen original riders left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, on Greyhound and Trailways buses headed for New Orleans.

A mob waited at the Anniston station

When the Greyhound bus pulled into the Anniston station around 1 p.m. on May 14, a mob of armed men was waiting. They smashed windows, slashed the bus’s tires, and attacked the vehicle with pipes, bats, and chains.

Police stepped in briefly, and the bus managed to pull away, but the mob followed in cars. Six miles outside town, the slashed tires gave out and the bus was forced to stop on the side of the road.

A firebomb turned the bus into an icon

After the bus stopped, someone in the mob smashed a window and threw a firebomb inside. Members of the mob held the doors shut, trying to trap the riders in the burning vehicle.

A fuel tank explosion forced the crowd back, and the riders escaped through windows and the door.

Freelance photographer Joseph Postiglione captured the burning bus in an image that became one of the most recognized photographs of the civil rights movement.

A 12-year-old girl defied the mob

As injured riders lay on the ground coughing and bleeding, a 12-year-old white girl named Janie Forsyth brought them water.

She carried a bucket back and forth from her family’s nearby grocery store, Forsyth and Son, while Klansmen taunted and threatened her.

Her family was later shunned by the community and eventually had to leave Anniston because of what she did. Plans for the monument include a statue showing Forsyth giving water to injured Freedom Rider Hank Thomas.

A second bus brought more violence

A Trailways bus arrived in Anniston about an hour after the Greyhound.

Klansmen who had boarded the bus back in Atlanta beat the riders and forced them to separate by race. The battered riders continued on to Birmingham, where another mob attacked them at the bus terminal.

Birmingham’s public safety commissioner had secretly arranged with the Klan to give the mob 15 minutes to attack the riders before police would show up.

The violence forced the federal government to act

The attacks in Anniston and Birmingham drew massive national and international media attention.

Attorney General Robert Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) on May 29, 1961, to enforce bans on segregation in interstate travel.

The ICC issued new rules in September, and on Nov. 1, 1961, segregation on interstate buses and in terminal facilities was officially banned.

Over the course of 1961, more than 400 Freedom Riders took part in at least 60 separate rides across the South.

Obama created the monument in 2017

President Barack Obama established the Freedom Riders National Monument on Jan. 12, 2017, using the Antiquities Act.

The monument covers two sites: the former Greyhound Bus Depot in downtown Anniston and the bus burning site on Highway 202.

It was the first national monument in America dedicated to telling the story of the Freedom Rides. Hank Thomas, now 84, is the only surviving member of the original 13 riders after Charles Person died in January 2025.

Three stops make up the May 9 schedule

The morning program begins at 8 a.m. at the Greyhound Bus Depot, 1031 Gurnee Ave. in Anniston, Ala. The afternoon ceremony starts at 1:30 p.m. at the bus burning site, at the corner of Highway 202 and Old Birmingham Highway just outside town.

The evening community event runs from 5 to 8 p.m. at Zinn Park. All events are free and open to the public.

Visitors can check for updates through the National Park Service.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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