Diary Entries

1960 Diary Entries

Dear Diary

I have been riding the freedom ride bus for several days now, I am one of the six whites riding along with seven blacks to New Orleans, Louisiana for the anniversary or the segregation in public schools was an unconstitutional ruling. Our trip began in Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961 so far the trip has been uneventful we have traveled through Virginia and North Carolina with hardly any public notice. The south is still practicing segregation so on our trip we will attempt to use whites-only restrooms, waiting areas and lunch counters. Today is May 14, we entered South Carolina two days ago and encountered some notice. Our first stop was in Rock Hill, a few of our riders were viciously attacked at a whites-only waiting area. This brutal attack was terrifying, the following day we reached Atlanta GA and some of our riders parted with us boarding a Trailways bus. Our bus was the first to arrive in Alabama, we came into the town of Anniston and this is where we first saw massive violence, as the bus approached the bus station we could see a mob of people. There were about 200 angry white people as the bus got closer the people surrounded us, yelling, hitting and kicking the bus. They were throwing things, the mob was very upset at our arrival luckily the bus driver didn’t stop at the station. As we continued down the road the mob got in their cars and followed we could hear the ruckus of horns and yelling as we traveled down the road. Next our luck ran out, the tires on the bus blew out we were forced to stop. We sat scared and terrified of what would happen next, something was thrown in the bus a man towards the back of the bus announced “it was a bomb!” Everyone scurried to get off the bus we escaped just as the bus exploded and was consumed by flames. We weren’t safe though the mob was waiting and they began to beat us, we were beaten to bloody pulps and left lying lifeless on the ground scattered around the burning bus.

Dear...