The Fire in Anniston: A Freedom Riders Story is a documentary film which premiered on American television (PBS) in 2021.
Freedom Riders is the name of a civil rights action which was conducted over several months during 1961.
Small groups of African American and white civil rights activists travelled on buses from Washington, DC, to the Southern states in order to challenge and test the system of segregation which existed in these states.
The Freedom Riders believed that segregation was wrong and unconstitutional. The passengers on these buses deliberately visited whites-only facilities whenever they stopped at a bus station on the journey through the South.
The Freedom Riders were not welcome in the Southern states. The Southern authorities told the travellers to stay at home. They said:
“Do not come to the South and try to change the old traditions of our world.”
This film is not about the whole operation which ran for several months. This film focuses on what happened during the first ride in May 1961.
This film focuses on a dangerous and dramatic episode which took place in and near Anniston, Alabama, on 14 May 1961.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Producer: Rebekah Hall Evans
** Writer and director: Christopher O’Connor
** Editor: Joel Evans
** Production: Alabama Public Television
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Run time: 56 minutes
Several persons are interviewed in the film.
Here are the names of the participants
(listed in alphabetical order):
Josephine Ayers (1940-2023) - publisher of the Anniston Star
Dr. Barbara Boyd
Georgia Calhoun
Pete Conroy
Richard Couch
Jack Draper - mayor of Anniston
Philip Howard
Janie Forsyth McKinney
Ernest "Rip" Patton (1940-2021) - Freedom Rider
Charles Person (born 1943) - Freedom Rider
Tom Potts, Jr.
Steven Reed - mayor of Montgomery
Clara Smith
Cotina Houston Stroud
Hank Thomas (born 1941) - Freedom Rider
Edward Wood (born 1927) - Freedom Rider
Randal Woodfin - mayor of Birmingham
Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the talking heads.
Several photos of the shocking events which happened in and around Anniston on that day were taken by Joe Postiglione, who worked as a freelance photographer for the local newspaper, the Anniston Star.
On 14 May 1961, a Greyhound bus with Freedom Riders reached the bus station in Anniston, Alabama. The streets were empty. Police officers had warned local people to stay at home on that day.
As the bus rolled up in front of the bus station, the passengers inside the bus could see a mob of white men who were armed with baseball bats, bicycle chains, and iron pipes.
Many of them were members of the Ku Klux Klan. This was the welcoming committee of Anniston!
When the bus stopped, the mob began attacking the bus. Hitting the metal on the side as well as the windows. The mob also tried to damage the tires of the bus.
Police officers were watching from a distance, but they did not interfere; they did not stop the mob from attacking the bus with their weapons.
After a while, the police officers moved closer and spoke to the mob:
“All right, you guys. You’ve had your fun. Enough!”
The mob backed away, and the bus was allowed to continue. The police officers pretended that they were going to escort the bus and provide safe conduct. But this was not the case. The bus did not get far.
When it reached the edge of the town, it had to stop, because of a flat tire. The mob had damaged the tires while the bus had stopped outside the bus station in town. The tires did not last long.
Police officers were watching from a distance, while a second mob of white men approached the bus with different weapons.
The mob smashed some windows. One of the attackers threw a firebomb into the bus.
The inside of the bus was on fire, but the passengers could not get out, because the front door was blocked by the attackers.
After a while, the fuel tank exploded and the rear end of the bus blew up. Now the passengers had a way to get out. But when they managed to get out, they were not safe. They were immediately attacked by the mob.
At this moment, the police officers moved closer and spoke to the mob in the same way as before:
“All right, you guys. You’ve had your fun. Enough!”
Ambulances began to arrive at the scene. When the ambulance staff saw the victims of the cruel attack and the deadly fire, a new problem arose: the ambulance staff said they were prepared to take the white victims, but they refused to take the black victims.
After some discussion, the ambulance staff backed down and accepted to transport all victims of the mob to a local hospital.
The story of the attack on the bus and the fire in Anniston was reported by the media. Not only the local media, but also the national media. The story was even reported in some foreign countries.
The local government, which was controlled by white politicians and members of the KKK, had decided to give the Freedom Riders a warm welcome.
When they planned a violent response to peaceful and unarmed civilians who were passengers on a bus, they were confident that they would be praised for their action. They wanted to teach these northern busybodies a lesson they would never forget!
But when the story was reported across the USA and in some foreign countries, the most common response was the opposite of what they had hoped.
Many Americans were shocked when they saw the pictures of the burning bus.
Beating unarmed passengers with baseball bats did not make the Southern system of segregation popular.
The Southern rulers had scored a goal for the opposition. The passengers on the bus only wanted to be treated like human beings.
The civil rights activists suffered on that day. But after a while they recovered. The southern system of segregation began to disintegrate on that day. It did not recover.
When the story about a southern mob beating up black and white passengers on a bus was reported by the media, more people all over the US wanted to join the Freedom Riders, and the civil rights movement became more popular than it had been before.
In the twenty-first century, things are different: historical markers have been erected on the spot where the dramatic events took place on 14 May 1961.
The current administration of Anniston does not want to be associated with the cruel attack on a group of unarmed civilians which happened on that fateful day.
What do reviewers say about this film?
This question is not easy to answer
The film is listed on IMDb, but there is no rating.
There are no user reviews.
The film is not available on Amazon.
There are no customer reviews.
Alabama Public Television presents the film with the following words:
“This is a compelling historical account of social injustice, the fight for equal rights, and the reckoning of a small southern town that wanted the cruelty to end.”
The fire in Anniston is an important episode in the history of the civil rights movement. This story deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Film and video
Freedom Riders
A documentary film which premiered on US television PBS in 2011. It is an episode of the long-running program American Experience
An Ordinary Hero
A documentary film which premiered in 2013
This film focuses on one of the Freedom Riders: Joan
Trumpauer Mulholland (born 1941)
# 2. Books
Freedom Riders:
1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice
By Raymond Arsenault
2006
Breach of Peace:
Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders
By Eric Etheridge
2008
*****
The Fire in Anniston.
One of several photos taken by
freelance photographer
Joe Postiglione
on 14 May 1961
*****
Ernest "Rip" Patton
(1940-2021)
Freedom Rider in 1961
This historical marker was erected in 2022
by the Historical Commission of Metropolitan Nashville
and Davidson County (marker # 251)
*****
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