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Ground is Broken for Freedom Riders Park

Stephen Gross/Anniston Star

Crews broke ground on a park aimed at illustrating the violence as well as the hope embodied following a 1961 attack on civil rights workers.

The Anniston Star reports (http://bit.ly/RMX0Eh) that the groundbreaking was held Thursday at Freedom Riders Park in the Anniston area.

The park commemorates a brutal attack on civil rights activists 51 years ago and the progress made since then.

A mob attacked a bus carrying civil rights activists known as Freedom Riders just outside Anniston on May 14, 1961 as they were traveling to test a Supreme Court decision desegregating travel stops. The attack didn't discourage integration as the mob intended, but rather firmed up resolve to enforce the Supreme Court rulings throughout the South.

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Information from: The Anniston Star, http://www.annistonstar.com/

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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