Freedom Riders National Monument
The Freedom Riders National Monument is an American national monument in Anniston in Calhoun County and is located in northeast Alabama . It was designated by President Barack Obama by a Presidential Proclamation on January 12, 2017 with an area of 7.83 acres (= approximately 3.17 hectares ). It is reminiscent of the Freedom Rides as part of the American civil rights movement . The National Monument has two parts. Once a former greyhound station ( 33 ° 39 ′ 28.5 ″ N , 85 ° 49 ′ 51.8 ″ W ), where on May 14, 1961 a white mob fighting for racial segregation on interstate buses took a civil rights bus with it attacked white and black occupants and damaged the bus.
Second place on the Old Birmingham Highway (near State Route 202) is 6 miles west of the bus station. There the civil rights movement bus, which had broken down because of a flat tire, was set on fire by the mob ( 33 ° 38 ′ 43.5 ″ N , 85 ° 52 ′ 32.9 ″ W ). The Freedom Riders National Monument is under the administration of the National Park Service .
Web links
- National Park Service : Freedom Riders National Monument (official site )
- Freedom Rides in the Encyclopedia of Alabama