Today in History - May 20, 1961

On May 20, 1961 a bus carrying nineteen Freedom Riders arrived in Montgomery, Alabama from Birmingham. Alabama State Troopers had escorted the Freedom Riders traveling by bus through the South to challenge segregation laws from Birmingham, Alabama to Montgomery where the city said they would protect the Riders. At the Montgomery bus station, a large white mob was waiting for the riders, and attached them as they exited the bus with baseball bats and iron pipes.