New Monuments to Tell Story of Alabama's Civil Rights History
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A wide spot on Highway 202 between Atlanta and Birmingham marks the place where an act of violence fueled the nation's civil rights movement.
And now, a national monument there will tell the story.
It was May 14, 1961, when activists known as Freedom Riders, on a journey challenging segregated transportation, were attacked in Anniston by an angry mob that assaulted them and torched their bus on the roadside.
Charles Person was a Freedom Rider on another bus that stopped in the town not long after.
"We were being beaten by a bunch of Ku Klux Klansman determined that they were not going to move the bus until we were in the back,” Person relates. “And they threw us to the back of the bus. And when the white Freedom Riders came to aid the black students, they became even more ferocious. It was a rough day."
But it was also a day that Person says united those fighting for equal rights.
President Barack Obama on Thursday announced the designation of the Freedom Riders National Monument, as well as the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument.
The Antiquities Act grants presidents executive power to protect natural and historic areas. Nearly every president since Theodore Roosevelt has used the act to protect places, including the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty.
Pete Conroy, co-chair of the Freedom Riders Park Committee, says the Antiquities Act is preserving important historical, cultural and ecological sites around the country. And he maintains the new monuments will solidify Alabama as part of the living history of the civil rights era.
"The establishment of a national park dedicated to the Freedom Riders, and this series of national parks, really creates a wonderful new trend in telling a part of America's story that had not been told adequately in the past," Conroy states.
Conroy notes the Anniston and Birmingham monuments would not have happened without the strong support of Alabama's congressional delegation.
During his time in office, Obama has designated many other national monuments that commemorate human rights leaders and places, including César E. Chávez National Monument in California and Stonewall National Monument in New York.
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