Rescue / Escape

Rescue, also, Escape. . Rescue , Once there, all of the injured were treated at the urging of an FBI agent on the scene. In the meantime, the crowd outside the hospital grew larger and more menacing, with some Klansmen threatening to burn the building to the ground. At that, the superintendent ordered the Riders to leave as soon as possible but there was no one, local police or state troopers, willing to provide transportation. Joe Perkins put in a frantic call to Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth in Birmingham, who recruited deacons to drive eight cars over to Anniston. With the police holding back a jeering crowd outside the hospital, and the deacons openly displaying weapons, the Riders piled into the cars. As evening fell, the convoy sped back to Birmingham with the stunned Riders wondering what had happened to their friends on the Trailways bus. (See Site #2), Escape , Following the two attacks in Anniston (Greyhound and Trailways), the Freedom Riders on each bus were reunited Sunday evening at Rev. Shuttlesworth's Bethel Baptist Church parsonage. They slept there or at the homes of volunteers. When Monday dawned, the Riders voted to complete the Ride and went to the bus station, only to encounter bus drivers who refused to drive them. Following phone calls all day between Shuttlesworth, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and Gov. John Patterson's office, it became clear the Ride could not safely continue because no law enforcement in the state would provide safe passage., The Riders then were forced to leave by air that evening. When they arrived at the airport, they found a mob outside and taunts from police and passengers inside; airport staff refused them food. After several bomb threats delayed their departure, Robert Kennedy's special representative John Siegenthaler arrived from Washington and took control of the situation. The plane carrying the Riders finally lifted off the runway at 10:38 p.m. and landed in New Orleans an hour later., The Ride appeared to be over.