Digital Media Center
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Gate 61
920 Paul Bryant Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0370
(800) 654-4262

© 2024 Alabama Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

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.

___

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

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you.