Freedom Riders Firebombed at Anniston and Beaten at Birmingham

On Mother's Day, a Freedom Rider bus was firebombed by Klan members outside Anniston, Alabama. Riders who escaped were beaten with pipes. A second bus reached Birmingham, where Commissioner Bull Connor arranged police absence; riders were beaten by Klan members with baseball bats, metal pipes, and chains. FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe participated in the Birmingham beatings.