****I am a African American male bus rider on the freedom rides bus. On Mother's Day, May 14, the Freedom Riders split up into two groups to travel through Alabama. My group was met by a mob of about 200 angry people in Anniston. when I saw them I thought I was going to die. The mob stoned our bus and poped the tires. The bus managed to get away, but when it stopped about six miles out of town to change the tires, it was firebombed. The other group didn't fear any more than our group. It was greeted by a mob in Birmingham, and the Riders were beaten. Birmingham's Public Safety Commissioner, Bull Conner, proclaimed he posted no officers at the bus depot because of the holiday, still, it was later discovered that the FBI knew of the planned attack and that the city police stayed away on purpose. Alabama governor John Patterson didnt even try to apologise, explaining, "When you go somewhere looking for trouble, you usually find it.... You just can't guarantee the safety of a fool and that's what these folks are, just fools." When he said this he ment when you go looking for trouble you will find it but you can't expect to be safe when looking for trouble, and when he says fools he is talking about us, us African Americans, we the bus riders of the freedom rides bus. He is saying we are fools.... what is he talking about...... has he gone crazy..... he is the fool thinking that we are fools. He is the one who knew we were going to be attacked and he didn't do anything just sat back and watched us get attacked by the mob. A warning would of been nice, or a heads up or something. I wonder if they did that because tehy didn't want us to protest, yeah thats it, they didn't say anything hoping the mob would stop us from protesting. To bad, it didn't work, it will take more than a mob to stop us. Even the violence, we the Freedom Riders were determined to continue. The bus company, however, did not want to risk losing another bus to a bombing, and its drivers, who were all white, did not want to risk their lives. After two days of unsuccessful protesting, the Freedom Riders, we were scared of our safety, so we flew to New Orleans. The Freedom Ride was over. At that point, a group of Nashville sit-in students decided to go to Birmingham and continue the Freedom Ride. The Nashville students traveled to Birmingham and asked the bus company to let them use their buses. Attorney general Kennedy, he was determined to pass the Supreme Court's decision that called for investigating the students, and he worried that if the Nashville students remained in Birmingham much longer, violence might occur. On May 17, the Birmingham police arrested the Nashville Freedom Riders and placed them in custody. At 2 AM on Friday, the police drove the Riders back to Tennessee, dumping them by the side of the highway at the state line. After they got a ride back to Nashville, 100 miles away, they went right back to Birmingham to continue there what they had started, and so they can finish it.