#ResistanceRoots Today in history, 1961: A mob of KKK members bombs a bus ridden by Freedom Riders when it arrives in Anniston, Ala. After the Freedom Riders exited the bus, the mob beat them with baseball bats and iron pipes. Several of the Freedom Riders were seriously injured. /1 - ThreadSky

bambooshooti.bsky.social • 1 day ago

#ResistanceRoots

Today in history, 1961: A mob of KKK members bombs a bus ridden by Freedom Riders when it arrives in Anniston, Ala. After the Freedom Riders exited the bus, the mob beat them with baseball bats and iron pipes. Several of the Freedom Riders were seriously injured. /1

Comments

marcothemaker.bsky.social•1 day ago

We aren't removed from this. Not one bit.

warnsperger.bsky.social•23 hours ago

AND NOW THAT SAME ILK IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY..

finikymorris.bsky.social•22 hours ago

If we don’t stop this administration NOW history will repeat IMPEACH 47

violetyhaze.bsky.social•1 day ago

Why @pbs.org matters! https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/freedomriders/

thejenniwren.teamlh.social•1 day ago

Horrific. And white people wonder why Black & Brown people don’t trust police. Or why they’re aiding “ICE”

beaujeu.bsky.social•12 hours ago

No words come for such a heinous crime. A crime against humanity.

concerned2.bsky.social•1 day ago

Horrible

bambooshooti.bsky.social•1 day ago

The attack was planned by the Birmingham, Ala., Police commissioner and a police sergeant who was an avid KKK supporter. They told the most violent KKK group in Alabama that they’d have 15 minutes to attack the Freedom Riders in Anniston without being arrested. /2

jdp238.bsky.social•1 day ago

Horrific and not that long ago.

bambooshooti.bsky.social•1 day ago

It was Mother’s Day, and some of the mob arrived in church attire. The mob slashed the tires of the first of two Greyhound buses, then forced the bus off the road outside of town. They threw a firebomb through a window and blocked the exits, threatening to burn the riders alive. /3

bambooshooti.bsky.social•1 day ago

Something caused the mob to retreat, either an exploding fuel tank or an undercover officer brandishing a pistol. This allowed the riders to escape the bus, but they were then beaten by the mob. Highway patrolmen fired warning shots, which kept the mob from lynching the Freedom Riders. /4

bambooshooti.bsky.social•1 day ago

Most riders were refused medical aid or removed from the hospital. When a companion bus arrived in Anniston an hour after the first bus was bombed, there was no police protection. Klansmen beat those riders and left them semi-conscious in the back of the bus. /5

bambooshooti.bsky.social•1 day ago

The first bus was completely destroyed and unable to continue the journey. The second bus made it to Birmingham but was attacked there by a KKK mob, again aided and abetted by the police commissioner. White Freedom Riders were subjected to some of the worst beatings. /end

joneson.bsky.social•1 day ago

Just awful! It’s disgusting that people would treat others like that! But here we are again in the year 2025 with racism being alive and well.

bambooshooti.bsky.social•1 day ago

Side note: The Freedom Riders' bus was firebombed in front of the home of 12-year-old Janie Forsyth McKinney. Horrified by what she saw, she defied the mob and brought water to the injured riders and comforted them as best she could. She was ostracized in the community because of her act of courage.