John Seigenthaler
Videos
John Lawrence Seigenthaler was an American journalist, writer, and political figure. He was known as a prominent defender of First Amendment rights.
Seigenthaler speaking in Nashville in 2005
Seigenthaler discussing media coverage of the Nashville sit-ins at a 2010 panel discussion
Freedom Riders
Videos
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.
Mugshots of Freedom Riders, as displayed at the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia
The Greyhound bus attack site (center) is south of Anniston on Old Birmingham Highway (right). See Freedom Riders National Monument (2017 photo)
Violence at the Anniston Trailways Terminal, at 901 Noble St., is commemorated with a mural (2012 photo)
A mob of white people beat Freedom Riders in Birmingham, Alabama. This picture was reclaimed by the FBI from a local journalist who also was beaten and whose camera was smashed.