"You Would Never Believe People Would Do People Like That"

"Half a century ago, when the Greyhound bus carrying some of the Freedom Riders pulled into Anniston, in the foothills of the Appalachians, a crowd awaited. Klan members pummeled the vehicle and slashed its tires. It limped away 20 minutes later, and a convoy of cars followed. Six miles later, the bus stopped with a flat.
"Bernard Emerson still lives on a hill overlooking the spot, which now bears a historic marker. Someone had tossed burning rags through a smashed bus window. 'The smoke was getting pretty thick,' he recalls. 'One lady was coming out of the window. She got her foot caught, and she was kind of hanging there.'"

Larry Bleiberg in the Los Angeles Times follows the route of the 1961 Freedom Rides.