These terrorists, who called themselves "Christians," didn't care that it was a Sunday. They didn't even care that it was Mother's Day.
The Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States, in 1961 and subsequent years, to challenge the non-enforcement of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions Morgan v. Virginia in 1946, and Boynton v. Virginia in 1960.
In Morgan, the Court ruled 7–1 that Virginia's State law enforcing segregation on interstate buses was unconstitutional. In a 7-2 ruling, Boynton outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed State lines, since it violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States.
The Southern States had ignored the rulings, and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. The Freedom Riders challenged this status quo by riding interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups, to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation in seating. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsored most of the Rides, but some were also organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. Southern local and State police considered the actions of the Freedom Riders to be criminal, and arrested them in some locations. In some localities, such as Birmingham, Alabama, the police cooperated with Ku Klux Klan chapters and other white people opposing the actions, and allowed mobs to attack the riders.
On Sunday, May 14, in Anniston, Alabama, a mob of Klansmen, some still in church attire, attacked the first of the two Greyhound buses. The driver tried to leave the station, but he was blocked until KKK members slashed its tires. The mob forced the crippled bus to stop several miles outside town, and then threw a firebomb into it. As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intending to burn the riders to death.
Sources disagree, but either an exploding fuel tank or an undercover State investigator who was brandishing a revolver caused the mob to retreat, and the riders escaped the bus. The mob beat the riders after they got out. Warning shots, which were fired into the air by highway patrolmen, were the only thing which prevented the riders from being lynched.
When reports of the bus burning and beatings reached the U.S. Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy -- brother of the President, John F. Kennedy -- he urged restraint on the part of Freedom Riders, and sent an assistant, a Southerner, Nashville native John Seigenthaler, to Alabama to try to calm the situation.
Despite the violence suffered, and the threat of more to come, the Freedom Riders intended to continue their journey. RFK had arranged an escort for the Riders in order to get them to Montgomery, Alabama safely. However, radio reports told of a mob awaiting the riders at the bus terminal, as well as on the route to Montgomery. The Greyhound clerks told the Riders that their drivers were refusing to drive any Freedom Riders anywhere.
Recognizing that their efforts had already called national attention to the civil rights cause and wanting to get to the rally in New Orleans, the Riders decided to abandon the rest of the bus ride, and fly directly to New Orleans from Birmingham. When they first boarded the plane, all passengers had to exit because of a bomb threat.
Upon arriving in New Orleans, local tensions prevented normal accommodations. Norman C. Francis, president of Xavier University of Louisiana, decided to house them on campus in secret at a dormitory, St. Michael's Hall.
The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement. They called national attention to the disregard for the federal law and the local violence used to enforce segregation in the Southern United States. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 put teeth into the enforcement of desegregation laws.
Among the participants in the Freedom Rider were: James Farmer, founder of CORE and organizer of the Rides; John Lewis, chairman of SNCC from 1963 to 1966, who went on to speak at the March On Washington, was nearly beaten to death at the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965, and later served Georgia in Congress for 32 years; Stokely Carmichael, who succeeding Lewis as SNCC chair, then joined the Black Panther Party, changing his name to Kwame Ture; Fred Shuttlesworth, a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; C.T. Vivian, an early SCLC official whom Martin Luther King called "the greatest preacher ever to live"; Wyatt Tee Walker, Dr. King's chief of staff; William Sloane Coffin, chaplain at Yale University; and Tom Hayden, one of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society, and later one of the Chicago Eight, and elected to both houses of California's legislature.
The roadside site in Anniston and the downtown Greyhound station were preserved as part of the Freedom Riders National Monument in 2017.
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May 14, 1961 was, as I said, a Sunday, and Mother's Day. Football was out of season. The NBA and the NHL had finished their seasons the previous month. These baseball games were played, including some Sunday doubleheaders:
* The New York Yankees swept a doubleheader from the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 and 8-6 at Yankee Stadium. Yogi Berra won the opener with a pinch-hit RBI single in the bottom of the 11th inning, making a winning pitcher of Jim Coates, in relief of Whitey Ford. The Yankees scored 7 runs in the 1st 2 innings of the nightcap, and hung on to win.
Over the 2 games, Berra went 3-for-6 with 2 RBIs, Mickey Mantle went 5-for-8 with 2 walks and an RBI, and Roger Maris went 2-for-9 with a walk and an RBI. For the Tigers, Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with a walk in the 1st game, and didn't play in the 2nd.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Stan Musial did not play.
* The Washington Senators swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox, 3-0 and 2-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Joe McClain pitched a 5-hit shutout in the 1st game. Rookie Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4 in each game.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Frank Robinson hit 2 home runs. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4.
* The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the Baltimore Orioles, 1-0 and 6-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. In the 1st game, Billy Hoeft of Baltimore pitched 9 innings of 8-hit shutout ball, and Jim Perry of Cleveland pitched 8 innings of 9-hit shutout ball. In the bottom of the 15th inning, Bob Hale seemed to have grounded into a double play, but, after getting the 1st out, shortstop Jerry Adair threw the ball away, and the Indians won. Frank Funk pitched 7 innings of 4-hit shutout ball to win, while Jack Fisher was the losing pitcher. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-10 in the twinbill.
* A doubleheader was split at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Chicago White Sox won the 1st game, 6-1. The Kansas City Athletics won the 2nd game, 5-3.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Los Angeles Angels, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-4.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 10-8 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Don Drysdale pitched 8 innings, struck out 10 batters, and hit a home run. But Dodger manager Walter Alston relieved him with Turk Farrell, and he fell apart in the 9th, and allowed the winning run in the top of the 11th, on a single by Ron Santo. Ernie Banks went 3-for-5 with a walk and an RBI.
* And the San Francisco Giants, beat the Milwaukee Braves, 8-7 at Candlestick Park San Francisco. Lee Maye tied the game with a home run in the top of the 9th, but, to start the bottom of the 9th, Brave shortstop Roy McMillan mishandled Orlando Cepeda's grounder. Felipe Alou bunted Cepeda over. Ron Piche then walked Ed Bailey and José Pagán to load the bases, and walked Matty Alou to force Cepeda home with the winning run, Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with 2 walks. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4 with an RBI.
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