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14 <br /> 1 May 14, 1961 -Anniston officials give Klu Klux Klan permission to attack riders <br /> 2 without consequences. The Greyhound bus door was held closed outside <br /> 3 Anniston, Alabama while the Freedom Riders were inside and the mob fire <br /> 4 bombed the bus. The mob then attacked the Riders as they fled the bus. <br /> 5 <br /> 6 When the Trailways bus reached Anniston, eight Klansman boarded the bus, <br /> 7 attacked and beat the Freedom Riders. In Birmingham, Alabama, the riders were <br /> 8 attacked as police and local officials watched as the mob beat the non-violent <br /> 9 Freedom Riders with baseball bats, iron pipes and bicycle chains. <br /> 10 <br /> 11 May 20, 1961 - Police escort abandons Freedom Riders. The Riders attacked <br /> 12 again in Montgomery, Alabama leaving Congressman Lewis unconscious in a <br /> 13 pool of blood outside the Greyhound bus terminal. Compounding all of this was <br /> 14 a lack of medical assistance that Black bus riders could receive for injuries <br /> 15 received. <br /> 16 <br /> 17 May 23, 1961 - The Riders board buses from Montgomery to Jackson, MS under <br /> 18 National Guard escort. They are jailed upon arrival under the formal charges of <br /> 19 incitement to riot, breach of the peace, and failure to obey a police officer. <br /> 20 <br /> 21 June 1961 - Freedom Riders are transferred to Mississippi's notorious Parchman <br /> 22 State Prison Farm. Segregationist authorities attempt to break their spirits by <br /> 23 removing mattresses from the cells. New Freedom Riders continue to arrive in <br /> 24 Jackson, MS and be jailed throughout summer. <br /> 25 <br /> 26 Approximately 450 women and men, from May 4 through December 10, 1961, participated in <br /> 27 the Freedom Rides. The Freedom Riders persisted in their fight for justice, and eventually their <br /> 28 activism influenced and changed the landscape of race relations, civil rights, and human rights <br /> 29 in the United States. The success of the Freedom Rides showed that nonviolent direct action <br /> 30 could do more than simply claim the moral high ground; in many situations, it could deliver <br /> 31 better tactical results than either violent confrontation or gradual change through established <br /> 32 legal mechanisms. <br /> 33 <br /> 34 Chair Price read the proclamation: <br /> 35 <br /> 36 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br /> 37 A PROCLAMATION <br /> 38 COMMEMORATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FREEDOM RIDES <br /> 39 <br /> 40 WHEREAS, on May 4, 1961, thirteen Black and white civil rights advocates boarded Greyhound <br /> 41 and Trailways buses in Washington, DC, to begin a journey to New Orleans, Louisiana, riding <br /> 42 side by side, on interstate highways through the Jim Crow South —through Virginia, North <br /> 43 Carolina, South Carolina Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana; and <br /> 44 <br /> 45 WHEREAS, the Freedom Rides involved approximately 450 women and men, from May 4 <br /> 46 through December 10, 1961, who sought to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States <br /> 47 Supreme Court decisions in Morgan v. Virginia [1946] and Boynton v. Virginia [1960] which <br /> 48 ruled that segregation in interstate transportation facilities, including bus terminals, was <br /> 49 unconstitutional; and <br /> 50 <br />