May 14, 1961: Segregationists firebomb a Freedom Riders bus in Alabama

In May 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality sent racially mixed groups on buses through the South in response to the states' disregard for the Supreme Court's ban of segregated interstate travel. The nonviolent ''Freedom Riders'' met little opposition until they reached Anniston, Ala. Segregationists firebombed the bus, and Ku Klux Klan members attacked the riders as they exited the bus in Birmingham. The violence continued into Montgomery, the hometown of Martin Luther King Jr., and did not end until the Alabama National Guard escorted the passengers into Mississippi.

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