A Greyhound bus after being firebombed
The Freedom Riders were Civil Rights movement activists who rode Greyhound interstate buses into the American South from 4 May to 10 December 1961 to protest Jim Crow travel laws. 436 individuals took part in at least 60 Freedom Rides, many of which were attacked by white segregationists; Birmingham public safety commissioner Bull Connor ensured that the police did not interfere, while some policemen even helped the segregationists in attacking riders. On 14 May 1961, the Ku Klux Klan firebombed a bus near Anniston, Alabama, and the riders were attacked by the Klansmen; the state troopers fired gunshots into the air to prevent the Klansmen from lynching the riders. The Interstate Commerce Commission ordered for the South to desegregate all public transportation and interstate commerce routes.