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PAGE 6—JUNE 1961—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
ALABAMA
School Issues Secondary As \iolence Follows ‘Riders
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
T he aeek of racial violence
that occurred in Alabama May
14-21 reached a peak greater than
during the Autherine Lucy riots
at the University of Alabama in
1956, the long Montgomery bus
boycott or in any other racial inci
dent in recent years.
After the Montgomery violence Sat
urday, May 20, President John F. Ken
nedy instructed Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy to take whatever
steps necessary to protect interstate
passengers in Alabama.
Hundreds of U S. marshals (at a peak
strength of 666) were ordered to Ala
bama, led by Deputy Attorney General
Byron L. (Whizzer) White. Gov. John
Patterson called out the National Guard
Sunday night, May 21, and declared
Montgomery under “qualified martial
rule.”
This action was taken when Mont
gomery police and U.S. marshals could
not control adequately a mob that
gathered outside the (Negro) First Bap
tist Church, where a crowd of some
1,000, including some of the battered
“freedom riders,” convened to hear the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of Atlanta
and Alabama Negro leaders discuss the
situation. Patterson kept the city under
martial law until midnight, May 28.
Began May 14
It began with the long-heralded ar
rival of freedom riders in Anniston
Sunday, May 14. A mob met the two
buses there, slashed the tires and
smashed the windows of one. Riders
were kept on the buses. A few miles
outside the city, two tires went flat and
the bus was forced to stop. Men pur
suing in cars overtook the bus. Some
one threw an incendiary bomb into it.
Passengers were forced out by the
smoke. The bus then burst into flame
and was destroyed. A dozen passengers
were treated in an Anniston hospital
for smoke inhalation, but none was se
riously injured.
Entrance Barred
A state investigator aboard the bus
had prevented whites in the mob from
entering the bus before the fire; two
highway patrolmen summoned to the
scene fired their revolvers in the air
to quell the mob. The “freedom riders”
aboard later journeyed to Birmingham
in secrecy.
More serious violence was still to
come. When the Trailways bus bearing
the other riders arrived at the ter
minal in Birmingham, a crowd of 20
whites was waiting. They attacked the
disembarking riders and struck them
repeatedly with fists and pipes. Most
seriously injured was James A. Peck of
New York, a group leader for the Con
gress of Racial Equality, who was hos
pitalized with severe cuts about the
head. He was given emergency treat
ment in a Birmingham hospital and re
leased. Birmingham News Reporter Tom
Lankford, on the scene, described the
violence:
“A giant of a man, bloody from
slugging individuals while his gang
held them, led the attacks, crazily
swinging blackjacks and lengths of pipe;
about eight of them pounded a white
man and a Negro to the concrete floor
of the bus station.”
Others Injured
Briefly hospitalized along with Peck
was Charles Parsons, a Negro member
of the group. Others suffered lesser cuts
and bruises.
Although the bus terminal is only
two blocks from the Birmingham city
hall and police station, police did not
arrive until it was all over. The Birm
ingham News, in a page one editorial,
demanded, “Where were the police?”
The News May 15 editorial observed:
“Harrison Salisbury of The New
York Times last year came to Birming
ham and wrote two articles about us
which said, in substance, that ‘fear and
hatred’ stalked our streets.
“The Birmingham News and others
promptly challenged this assertion
(city officials filed libel suits against the
Times) . . . But yesterday . . . was a day
which ought to be binned in Birming
ham’s conscience.
“Fear and hatred did stalk Birming
ham’s streets yesterday.”
Fighting En Route
There were also reports of fighting
aboard the Trailways bus before it ar
rived. White men, who reportedly
boarded in Anniston, beat and pushed
the passengers around, at one point
piling some of them on Peck, according
to the injured leader.
Others injured at the Birmingham
terminal included Birmingham Post-
Herald, Photographer Tom Longston,
severely beaten, and Clancy Lake,
National Guardsmen Patrol in Montgomery
The detachment marches by the Negro First Baptist Church during the period
when martial law was declared because of racial riots.
Alabama Highlights
A week of the bloodiest racial
violence in recent Alabama history
was sparked by the well-advertised
arrival of a group of “freedom
riders” in the state May 14.
A Greyhound bus carrying one
contingent of the riders was burned
near Anniston that day; white toughs
met the other in Birmingham shortly
after, beating the riders, newsmen
and bystanders.
After a week of tension, the worst
came when a replacement group of
riders from Birmingham, was met at
a Montgomery bus station and
beaten with fists and bludgeons. A
personal representative of President
John Kennedy was knocked sense
less; newsmen and bystanders were
beaten in a series of riots that raged
sporadically for hours.
The Justice Department responded
to the Montgomery violence by dis
patching hundreds of U.S. marshals
to the state, led by Deputy Attorney
General Byron (Whizzer) White.
But even the marshals could not con
trol a menacing crowd of whites
gathered outside a local Negro
church Sunday night, May 21.
Gov. John Patterson called out the
National Guard, declaring Mont
gomery under “qualified martial
rule.” Protected by Guard bayonets,
the group assembled inside the
church, led by the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr., was required to re
main in the building until dawn,
when guardsmen escorted them safe
ly to their homes.
The impact the week of crisis
might have on future race relations
in the state, including school de
segregation, could only be guessed.
But civic and religious groups united
as never before to denounce mob
action and demand law enforcement.
juries. The CORE members had scat
tered when the violence began.
Police began an investigation which
resulted in the arrest of several white
men, including an admitted Klansman,
Jesse Oliver Faggard, 20, who said he
had been instructed by his Klan group
to be at the bus terminal for “action.”
His father, Jesse Thomas Faggard, 48,
was also arrested. Both were identified
from a Post-Herald picture of the
violent scene.
Police Commissioner Eugene (Bull)
Connor had summoned extra police and
had police dogs standing by in city hall
after learning of the Anniston bus
burning. He had been on duty since 11
a.m. at city hall; the violence occurred
after the bus arrived at 4:20 p.m. Re
porters on the scene said white toughs
roamed the streets between the two
terminals, a distance of two blocks,
from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Connor expressed shock at the hap
pening, but put the blame on “out-of-
town meddlers.” He said his police staff
was reduced because it was Mothers
Day.
Original ‘Riders’ Leave;
Others Take Their Place
WAPI-TV news director, dragged from
his mobile broadcasting unit after the
windows were smashed and the micro
phone tom out. He was cuffed around
until he escaped. Four reporters from
the News were backed into an alley,
their cameras seized and film de
stroyed.
Several bystanders, white and Ne
gro, also were chased and beaten. Of
a score of painfully injured, only two
were “freedom riders,” though all but
one of their number suffered some in
After reaffirmations of their intentions
to travel by bus to Montgomery, thence
through Mississippi to New Orleans,
the riders reconsidered, after conferring
with Justice Department officers, in
cluding Attorney General Robert Ken
nedy. Delayed by an airport bomb
scare, they finally flew to New Orleans.
They were replaced by other “riders,”
chiefly from Nashville, although the
new demonstrators were delayed sev
eral days in their departure from Bir
mingham for Montgomery when drivers
refused to make the trip as mobs con
tinued their threats. This time, how
ever, more police activity was in evi
dence. Finally, the group caught a bus
to Montgomery Saturday morning, May
20. They made it safely out of Birming
ham and the rest of the trip was un
eventful.
On arrival at Montgomery, however,
they were met by whites who at first
seemed content with taunts. After push
ing and beating newsmen, the whites
then attacked the riders, some 20 in all.
In the course of several hours, those
attacked also included bystanders and
passersby in the bus terminal area in
downtown Montgomery.
Mobs Swarm
In YOUR Hands
The bus arrived at 10:23 a.m., three-
quarters of an hour ahead of schedule.
By mid-afternoon, mobs of bat-swing
ing, brick- and bottle-throwing white
men, women and teenagers had swarm
Sucker Bait
ed about the bus station and on sur
rounding streets, beating the riders,
newsmen and others who presented a
target.
It was considered a full-scale race
riot, though a unilateral one. So far as
could be determined, neither riders nor
bystanders retaliated.
Once the first blows were struck—at
newsmen—the screaming, howling mob
that materialized did not discriminate
between “agitators” and others. Police
were not on the scene when the bus
arrived, though they arrived 10 minutes
later, backed by state patrolmen.
Mounted deputies from the Mont
gomery County Sheriff’s office arrived
more than an hour later.
At Least 20 Beaten
By 3:30 p.m., when the situation
seemed under control, at least 20 peo
ple—riders, newsmen, passersby—had
been beaten. Many had been left lying
around, including John Seigenthaler, 32,
of the U.S. Justice Department, who had
been designated as representative of
President Kennedy. He was bludgeoned
into semi-consciousness in the early
skirmish while attempting to save a
white rider from the mob. Earlier,
Seigenthaler had conferred with Gov.
John Patterson, pursuing the Justice
Department’s week-long attempt to in
sure safe passage.
Patterson had announced that he
would protect the riders, then in Bir
mingham, to the nearest state border
but could not guarantee their safety
otherwise. Birmingham police commis
sioner Connor had arrested the group
and, at night, taken them to the Ten
nessee line. They told him they would
be back; they were, in a trip which
culminated in the Montgomery dis
orders.
Ministerial Student
Worst hurt of the riders was Jim
Zwerg, 21-year-old ministerial student
from Appelton, Wis., who was beaten
senseless.
Three white men held Zwerg up after
his legs had collapsed while a white
woman beat him in the face and kicked
him in the groin. After a while, Zwerg
was allowed to slip to the ground where
he was kicked and stomped in the face
and groin. Finally struggling to his feet,
he was seized again and thrown from a
loading ramp, landing on his head. His
condition was described by hospital au
thorities afterwards as “satisfactory.”
All this happened before police ar
rived. The police station is several
blocks from the bus terminal.
Lying In Street
Seigenthaler remained lying in the
street in the midst of traffic for 25
minutes before a police car took him to
a hospital. He suffered a “mild con
cussion,” doctors said.
Alabama Public Safety Director Floyd
Mann plunged through the mob to save
a rider, already unconscious on the
ground. Straddling the rider, he pulled
his pistol, grabbed a bat from one of the
assailants and ordered the mob to “get
out of here.” His voice quivering and
his face tense with fury, he screamed,
“We’U not have any killing on these
streets!”
Mann was the only officer who per
formed in such a fashion.
Other Outbreaks
Even after order had been restored,
violence broke out time and again in
surrounding areas as whites jumped any
Negro they could find. One had his face
bashed with a brick; another was beat
en senseless.
Mann ordered highway patrolmen to
the scene. At 11:35, seven carloads of
them arrived; 10 minutes later, 11 more
carloads. Three hours after the bus ar
rived, police used tear gas.
“Oh, ‘Rioters’—At First I
Thought You Said ‘Riders!’”
Student Beaten
Jim Zwerg, the only white male
traveling with the first “freedom riders,
stands in Montgomery after he wa:
beaten and his teeth knocked out
In response to questions about the late
arrival of police, Montgomery Police
Commissioner L. B. Sullivan said:
“We respond to calls here (at the bus
station) just like any place else. But we
have no intention of standing guard for
a bunch of trouble makers coming into
our city and making trouble.”
List of Injured
How many were injured and to what
extent may never be known, but the
following is the best available count:
John Seigenthaler, 32, Washington, I
U.S. Justice Department representative, |
white.
Jim Zwerg, 21, Appleton, Wis., min
isterial student at Fisk University,
Nashville, white.
Susan Wilbur, Nashville, college stu
dent, white.
Susan Herrman, Nashville student,
white.
Norman Ritter, Life magazine, white.
Don Uhrbrock, Life Magazine, white
Moe Levy, NBC, New York, white.
Jim Atkins, WAPI-TV, Birmingham,
white.
Paschal Pike, Montgomery, white.
John Lewis, Nashville college student
Negro.
William Barbee, 19, Nashville, Negro
James Henry, Montgomery, Negro.
And eight unidentified—mostly, if n0 ‘
all, local—Negroes.
Violence Not Over
But the violence was not over. Sun
day, May 21, was peaceful until aft#
dark. Marshals wearing yellow
bands guarded bus stations and patrol-
streets nearby.
Shortly after dark, whites began as I
sembling outside the First Bap
Church, where Dr. King was to lead |
mass meeting at 8 pun. Only U.S. ^
shals were on hand at first when ,
tense situation erupted into violence.
A car was overturned and set a£j^
Barrages of rocks, bricks and botu I
hurled at the marshals, ,
Mars^
were
church, Negro homes and cars.
John M. Holt of Montgomery was tW
pitalized after being hit in the
with a brick.
City and state officers arrived
tried desperately to disperse the 10
now several hundred strong. Tear
blanketed the area, forcing
retreat, but not to give up. %
roamed surrounding neighborly ^ |
stoning Negro homes and cars. s ^ I
various parts of the city came |
of houses shot into, automobile ^
shields smashed. Two fire bombs
tossed.
Proclaims Marital Law
Gov. Patterson then proclaim®
emergency ... a state 0
s,” called out the National ^
staw.
and declared the city under a s ^
“qualified martial law.” He blam
situation on “outside agitators.
Guardsmen with fixed bayonet 5 ^
gan arriving at the church shortly jjjii
10 p.m. The governor’s proclaw ^
was read to those in the
were ordered to remain in the Mob*
Birmingham News
Memphis Commercial Appeal
until dawn for their safety-
kitchen units provided the bele®^ ^
audience with coffee, doughnu^ fj
sandwiches through the long d'U •ff
dawn, Negroes were escorted
homes in National Guard trucks-
Gang activity was report® I
many sections of town through ^
the night. Twenty-six arrests
(See ALABAMA, Page 7)