The burning Greyhound bus pictured here carried Freedom Riders into Anniston on May 14, 1961, as part of an effort to test a newly enacted integration law regarding bus stations in the South. The Ku Klux Klan attacked the riders when they arrived at the station in Anniston. Later, the bus was firebombed after breaking down several miles outside the city. Many of the riders were beaten, with several being severely injured, by a white mob as they departed the bus.
Attack on Freedom Riders in Anniston
Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Public Library Archives
